Nude

Jack Perlmutter was a nationally prominent Washington, D.C. painter and printmaker who called himself an abstract realist. Abstract realism (sometimes called deconstructed realism) walks the line between pure abstraction and representational, nature-based realism. As seen in his painting, Nude (c. 1970s), he typically blends elements of each style to create an expressive yet harmonious composition that emphasizes emotion and psychological content over fidelity to nature. Here, he describes his figure in unnatural colors--pale gray skin, blue-green hair--and orients her with her back to the viewer in an exotic landscape of jewel-like trees and a brilliant yellow sky. Essentially, Perlmutter's eye-catching painting can be interpreted as both an expressive formal design and an idyllic fantasy.