Two Models from the Other Side of the Easel

In Two Models from the Other Side of the Easel, Philip Pearlstein makes no attempt to romanticize his otherwise traditional subject: the nude figure. The cropped bodies are treated as objectively as the chair, easel and fabrics depicted in the painting. The models' blank expressions and closed eyes lessen any psychological response we might have to them. Pearlstein deliberately frustrates our subjective response to the painting so that we will concentrate on its formal aspects-proportion, pattern, form and color. The volumetric shapes of the figures are contrasted with flat areas of pattern in the kimono, blanket and floor tiles. Diagonals set up by the models' legs, the easel and the tiled floor further complicate the painting. While Two Models from the Other Side of the Easel is seemingly realistic, Pearlstein has rigorously manipulated the composition.