January 10 - April 13, 2006

Philip Pearlstein (American, 1924- ) Two Nudes, 1964 Oil on canvas Gift of Peter Bocour, Charles Hirsch, Paul Hirsch

The Morris Museum is thrilled to present works of fine art in the upcoming exhibition Fine Art from the Collection of the Morris Museum. This exhibition will highlight the museum’s growing fine art collection and will feature works by prolific artists such Roy Crosse, Anni Albers, Alexander Calder, Willie Cole, Claes Oldenburg and Kay Walkingstick among others. Prints, paintings and sculpture will be on view in the museum’s Bush/Compton and Bickford Galleries.

Featured in the exhibition will be three characteristic works by Philip Pearlstein, best know for his stark, realistic nude paintings. Pearlstein’s nudes are carefully arranged compositions where his figures are often cropped at an angle in a dense space. There is usually a psychological mood captured in his work with no emphasis on the emotion of his subject. Works by Pearlstein are represented in major museum collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston).

Street Scene, an acrylic painting by New Jersey artist Mel Leipzig, will also be on view at the Morris Museum. Leipzig has had 35 solo exhibitions, including a retrospective at the New Jersey State Museum. Throughout his long career, Leipzig has received numerous awards, including a Fulbright Grant to Paris, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, and four grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Leipzig’s mastery of the realist style makes the smallest details in his work remarkable and interesting to the viewer.