Jack Beal, Alfred Leslie, and Philip Pearlstein and the Emergence of a New Realism

“Jack Beal, Alfred Leslie, Philip Pearlstein and the Emergence of a New Realism” follows up on the gallery’s 2011 summer show, “Circle of Friends,” which focused on the gallery’s long involvement with artists from the San Francisco Bay Area. The current exhibition highlights the gallery’s long association with Realism by focusing on the three East Coast artists who together reinvented the genre by combining formal devices taken from Abstract Expressionism with a thorough appreciation for and knowledge of the history of art.

In 1952, Allan Frumkin opened his gallery in Chicago with an exhibition program that featured both contemporary artists and European “master drawings.” In 1959, he opened a second space in New York at 38 East 57th Street where several artists, some still shown by the gallery today, began their careers. Among those artists were Jack Beal and Philip Pearlstein who abandoned Abstraction in the late 1950s and turned to the figure. Another former Abstract Expressionist who also began to work figuratively in the early 1960s, Alfred Leslie, joined Beal and Pearlstein at the gallery in 1975. With the additions of Jim Valerio and William Beckman to the gallery’s roster in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the gallery was firmly established as the leading venue for Realism in New York.

The earliest works in the exhibition include several abstract collages by Leslie, Beal’s heavily impastoed “Still-life with Anemones,” 1962, and Pearlstein’s sinuous landscape, “Positano #1”, 1960.  The other works in the exhibition map out the three artists’ stylistic development through the 1970s and 1980s, as Beal increasingly focused on the abstracted space (“Self-portrait with Rudbeckias and Day Lilies,” 1988), Leslie on formal portraiture (the large-scale “Bread and Coffee,”1983), and Pearlstein on models in the studio (“Male and Female Models on Bench,” 1975).

The exhibition of works by Beal, Leslie, and Pearlstein are on view through August 10th. Gallery summer hours are Tuesday – Friday 10AM to 5PM. For images and more information on the exhibition, please visit the gallery’s website at www.georgeadamsgallery.com.

Exhibition Checklist

1.
Philip Pearlstein
Positano #1, 1960
oil on canvas
64 x 96 inches
PPp 01

2.
Philip Pearlstein
Two Nudes and Couch, 1965
oil on canvas
59 ¼ x 76 ¾ inches
PPp 03

3.
Philip Pearlstein
Male and Female Model on Bench, 1975
oil on canvas
58 5/8 x 76 ¾ inches
PPp 04

4.
Philip Pearlstein
Nude with Red Model Airplane, 1988
oil on canvas
60 x 48 inches
PPp 02

5.
Alfred Leslie
Self-portrait with ‘Hoboken Oval’, 1983
oil on canvas
84 x 60 inches
ALp 12

6.
Alfred Leslie
Bread and Coffee, 1960
oil on canvas
84 x 60 inches
ALp 02

7.
Jack Beal
The Pump, 1963
oil on canvas
52 x 57 inches
JBp 40

8.
Jack Beal
Interior with Waders, 1964
oil on canvas
60 x 69 inches
JBp 21

9.
Alfred Leslie
Untitled (PM-30-60-DA), 1960
oil, collage on paper
6 x 4 inches
ALd 18

10.
Alfred Leslie
Provincetown (P-60-60-DA), 1960
oil, collage on paper
10 x 11 inches
ALd 15

11.
Alfred Leslie
Untitled (PM-10-60-DA), 1960
acrylic, collage on paper
3 3/4 x 5 inches
ALd 17

12.
Alfred Leslie
Jeannette Leslie (Nennie), 1983
graphite on paper
40 x 30 inches
ALd 07

13.
Jack Beal
Gloves, 1968
oil on canvas
22 x 22 inches
JBp 45

14.
Jack Beal
Still-life with Anemones, 1962
oil on canvas
33 x 39 inches
JBp 19

15.
Jack Beal
Furniture Fragments, 1968
oil on canvas
24 x 24 inches
JBp 04

16.
Alfred Leslie
Anthony Leslie (Tony), 1983
graphite on paper
40 x 30 inches
ALd 11

17.
Alfred Leslie
Alla Leshko, 1976
graphite on paper
40 x 30 inches
ALd 09

18.
Alfred Leslie
Janoslaw Leshko, 1976
graphite on paper
40 x 30 inches
ALd 09

19.
Jack Beal
Still-Life with Girl, 1966
oil on canvas
49x 49 ¼ inches
JBp 51

20.
Jack Beal
Self-portrait with Rudbeckias and Day Lilies, 1988
oil on canvas
30 x 23 ¾ inches
JBp 44

21.
Jack Beal
Charles Demill’s Rose, 1988
oil on canvas
12 x 16 inches
JBp 14

22.
Jack Beal
Pulpmill on the York River at West Point, 1975
pastel on paper
48 x 52 inches
JBd 10