The Beauty of Pinup and Commercial Art

This is a blog about men and women as seen throughout the history of advertising and pinup art. Art has always reflected the distinct diversity and beauty of both sexes respectively. Just as there is a moon, there is a sun, a night and day, cold and hot...male and female. It is the very sustenance of Nature.

Friday, February 02, 2007

After all this time, we just don't get tired...



...of looking at the beauty that is the female body. Above is a great example from of the greatest pinup artists of all time, Alberto Vargas. Vargas, a highly successful illustrator, owes a lot of this success to his wife, Anna Mae Clift, a former Ziegfield Follies dancer. She simply had the business sense Alberto lacked. Frequently she went over most of his contracts and was the cool head behind the business.

The picture above has plenty of dynamic movement and energy showing us a very healthy, flexible body stretching at different directions. It's a tribute to the female body, showing not only it's physical beauty but it's capacity to be flexible. Since it's an empty canvas, a holiday cup painted on her foreground, give us an idea of proportion and size.

She lies flat on her back but twists her body, generously offering us other views to love and admire. She smiling, and with a radiant confidence looks right at us.

The woman above is relaxed, happy and very confident in her beauty. She is naked, but she's far from being obscene. Instead she welcomes us to share in her happiness of feeling great about herself and her femininity. She's more than just a body, she's a work of art, and she wants you to know it.

Alberto Vargas' work can be seen at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas.