Chaste Yet Ravishing
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Some think of Tel Aviv in relation to Israel as being like New York in America, the deliciously decadent heart of an otherwise puritanical land. Philip Pearlstein’s lithograph of a model seated amidst weathervanes is the suitably chaste yet ravishing Gala Print for the American Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s big New York fundraiser taking place Thursday at the Metropolitan Club. The veteran perceptual realist’s chilled precision gracefully contains a keen observational intensity. Living flesh is rendered in a serene, classical cast while the quirky still-life objects, selected from the artist’s legendary collection of antiques, toys and Americana, are animated presences.
Mr. Cohen, editor of artcritical.com, is art critic of the Sun.