Philip Pearlstein (b. 1924, Pittsburgh; d. 2022, New York) was a realist painter active for 7 decades in New York City until his recent passing. He has often been cited as the preeminent figurative painter in the U.S., first receiving notoriety in the 1960s when figuration and realism were largely dismissed within contemporary art circles. Pearlstein has been the subject of major exhibitions at institutions such as the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Springfield Art Museum, Missouri; Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh; The American Academy in Rome, Italy; Frye Art Museum, Seattle; Brooklyn Museum, New York; and the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Pearlstein’s work has been collected by over 70 institutions. His museum collections include MoMA, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Dallas Museum of Art; The Whitney Museum, New York; Tate Britain, London; Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; The MFA Houston; The MFA Boston; the Art Institute of Chicago; Denver Art Museum; the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C. and many more.