American, 1924 - 2022
Philip Pearlstein was born in Pittsburgh, PA, in 1924. In 1941, his junior year in high school, he received his first recognition when awarded first and third prizes in Scholastic Magazine's 14th National High School Art Exhibition. Upon graduation from high school in 1942, he enrolled in the Carnegie Institute of Technology but the draft limited his attendance to one year. After discharge from the army in 1946, he returned to Carnegie Tech where he studied with Robert Lepper, Balcomb Green and Samuel Rosenberg, and received his BFA in 1949. Upon graduation, he moved to New York City where he pursued work in graphic design. In 1950, Pearlstein married Dorothy Cantor, a 1950 graduate of Carnegie, and in the same year he began graduate studies at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. In 1958, Pearlstein was awarded a Fulbright grant, which supported a year of travel and painting abroad, spent mostly in Italy.
Pearlstein was a frequent contributor to major art journals of analytical articles on contemporary art. He was also a dedicated teacher throughout his career: at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, 1959-63; visiting artist and lecturer at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, summers of 1965 and 1967; and member of the resident faculty, Boston University summer program, Tanglewood, Massachusetts, 1969; and his primary teaching affiliation Brooklyn College which he joined in 1963 as an assistant professor, and was appointed a distinguished professor in 1977, retiring in 1988.
Among Pearlstein's honors are a National Endowment for the Arts grant, 1968; a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, 1969; and election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1982. He served as President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters from 2003 -2006. He received honorary Doctorates at; Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, 1983; Brooklyn College, in 1996; Center for Creative Studies and College of Art & Design, Detroit in 2000; New York Academy of Arts, New York 2001; Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, Old Lyme, CT, 2009.
In 1988 he was elected Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY. In 2010, he was awarded Artist of the Year, American Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, New York. In 2017, he was awarded the Icon Award in the Arts, Bruce Museum, Connecticut.
Pearlstein was a frequent contributor to major art journals of analytical articles on contemporary art. He was also a dedicated teacher throughout his career: at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, 1959-63; visiting artist and lecturer at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, summers of 1965 and 1967; and member of the resident faculty, Boston University summer program, Tanglewood, Massachusetts, 1969; and his primary teaching affiliation Brooklyn College which he joined in 1963 as an assistant professor, and was appointed a distinguished professor in 1977, retiring in 1988.
Among Pearlstein's honors are a National Endowment for the Arts grant, 1968; a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, 1969; and election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1982. He served as President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters from 2003 -2006. He received honorary Doctorates at; Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, 1983; Brooklyn College, in 1996; Center for Creative Studies and College of Art & Design, Detroit in 2000; New York Academy of Arts, New York 2001; Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, Old Lyme, CT, 2009.
In 1988 he was elected Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY. In 2010, he was awarded Artist of the Year, American Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, New York. In 2017, he was awarded the Icon Award in the Arts, Bruce Museum, Connecticut.
