Marshall N. Price of the National Academy Museum describes the nude paintings by Philip Pearlstein as "a radical departure from the dominant aesthetic of abstraction . . . reactionary, even retardataire." The Pittsburgh-born painter is known for his modernist realism nudes, referred to by art critic Sidney Tillim as "not as a symbol of beauty and pure form but as a human fact--implicitly imperfect." Pearlstein's works are on display at more than seventy museums and he is the recipient of the National Council of Arts Administrators Visual Artist Award.

The Susquehanna Art Museum is opening its exhibition, Philip Pearlstein: Seventy-Five Years of Painting on Saturday and Pearlstein will join Smart Talk for a special broadcast from the WITF Atrium to discuss his works and the imperfect beauty of the human form.

Also, the Trump Administration is proposing extensive cuts to government spending. White House staffers informed the newspaper The Hill in January that "the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities would be eliminated entirely." Government support of the arts has encouraged artistic education and expression since 1965.

Philip Horn, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts will join Smart Talk to discuss the importance of promoting the arts and why investment in the arts contributes to culture and society.