Philip Pearlstein was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1924. After serving in the army from 1943 to 1946, including a stint as an army graphic artist, he began an education in art at the Carnegie Institute of Technology on a grant from the GI Bill. There he received his BA in 1949. He then went to New York University, where he received his Masters in art history, in 1955.  He was an instructor at the Pratt Institute (1959 -63) and professor at Brooklyn College (1963 – 87). His work is included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Kemper Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others.  More recently, Pearlstein served as the president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.  He resides in New York City.