Philip Pearlstein papers, circa 1940-2008

This series consists of appointment books; several awards including American Artist magazine award for achievement in watercolor and the Pittsburgh 250 History Makers Award from the Senator John Heinz History Center; annotated calendars; a catalogue raisonné working list; a sound recording titled "Julia's Marionette Play"; identification card; membership files containing correspondence, meeting and exhibition material, and other organizational records for the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Fulbright Alumni Association, The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation, and various committees; and resumes for Pearlstein and Dorothy Cantor.

Correspondence is with friends and family, galleries and museums, students, colleagues, artists, and arts organizations. Notable correspondents are Will Barnet, Chuck Close, Rackstraw Downes, Jane Frielicher (Hazan), Emily Genauer, Richard Haas, Jack Levine, Eleanor Munro, Robert Storr, Edith Schloss, John Updike, Leland Wallin, and Jerome Witkin. Correspondence is both personal and professional in nature; and much of the professional correspondence deals with sales of artwork, exhibitions, residencies, speaking engagements, teaching, and charities. Outgoing drafts by Pearlstein include letters to editor, responses to critics, and letters to friends and colleagues. Illustrated letters and artwork enclosures are found from Earl Staley, Rosaire Appel, Jerilyn Jurinek, George Ortman, and Clare and John Romano. The series includes one digital recording.

Drafts of outgoing letters are filed with incoming correspondence when possible; additional outgoing drafts are filed under Pearlstein. Correspondence on letterhead is typically filed under the corporate name, and correspondence with governmental offices are filed by the name of the location.

The series includes five sound recordings and transcripts of interviews with Pearlstein that include "The Artist's Involvement with Nature," "Humans as Still-lifes: An Interview with Philip Pearlstein" by Vivian Tsao, as well as, interviews with Pearlstein by Michael Blaine, Sanford Sivitz Shaman, David McCarthy, and stations WRFM and WBAI. In the interviews, Pearlstein discusses painting styles and techniques, art history, and personal history. A transcript of Charles Garabedian interviewed by Anne Ayers is also included.

The series is arranged chronologically.

Writing projects and lectures by Pearlstein consist of student work, numerous articles and essays, lectures and speeches, letters, memorials, miscellaneous manuscripts and notes, and a U.S. and U.S.S.R. Workshop Exchange project proposal.

Student work includes term papers and research material on Francis Picabia along with drafts and a bound version of Pearlstein's thesis on Picabia. Published and unpublished articles and essays by Pearlstein include drafts, notes, correspondence, and frequently the published version for "The Symbolic Language of Francis Picabia," "A Conceptualization of Realism," "Critics and Artists," "When Painting Were Made in Heaven," "Censorship on Stylistic Grounds," and others. Drafts and annotated manuscripts of Pearlstein's lectures and speeches are mostly regarding his career and painting techniques, but are also on topics such as art criticism and teaching methods. The majority of the 38 sound and video recordings found in this series are of lectures and speeches. Some of the lectures are in digital format.

Writings by others about Pearlstein are by W.J. Kelly, Alexander Dückers, Richard Field, John Ward, Jerome Viola, Robert Storr, David Yezzi.

The series is arranged by type, then chronologically thereafter.

This series contains agreements with Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated for a book about Pearlstein by John Perrault and other projects; consignment and loan documents; donations; financial material including model payments, sales receipts, and invoices for purchases of art by Pearlstein; insurance and inventories; recommendations written by Pearlstein for Will Barnet's College Art Association Lifetime Achievement Award, Jamie Lustberg, Carol Wax, former students, and colleagues; reproduction permissions; and teaching files for various institutions. Exhibition files consist of correspondence, loan agreements, and travel arrangements for several exhibitions of Pearlstein's work including the Georgia Museum of Art's traveling exhibition, Philip Pearlstein, American Master (2006), 182nd Annual: An Exhibition of Contemporary American Art (2007) at the National Academy Museum, Philip Pearlstein, The Dispassionate Body (2007) and other recent exhibitions. The series includes digital material in the artists' file and for an exhibition at the Art Students League of New York.