Female Model on African Stool, 1976 (oil on canvas)

By cutting off the upper part of the model’s face, Philip Pearlstein breaks in a special way with the tradition of nude painting and portraiture. By not giving the viewer a counterpart who responds in one way or another to his or her gaze, Pearlstein focuses completely on the naked human body. By contemplating on his model’s body as a phenomenon devoid of any identity other than the attributes of sex and skin color, Pearlstein transforms it into a secluded world of forms, comparable to a natural landscape. The depiction comes across as objective and sober—there is no intimate tension or sexual charge.