Maybe the most remarkable early piece is an image of a bulgingly muscular Superman painted in a roiling Expressionist style. Part of a series of canvases from 1949 to 1952 that were based on cartoon characters, it is a curious anticipation of Pop Art, a road not taken for Mr. Pearlstein.

Russell Connor makes paintings based on artistically significant paintings, both within copyright and without. He juxtaposes Goya and Manet, Renoir and Gaugin (“By joining the two worlds, my painting represents the familiar phenomenon of older, or less “civilized,” cultures seeking to survive by displaying their picturesqueness to the tourists.”), Rubens and Picasso, and so on.