The pin up art of George Petty is a very iconic. His classical pin-up girls are both very recognizable, and delightful. Petty is considered one of the leading pinup artists of the golden era of advertising pin-ups.
Like his contemporaries Vargas and Elvgren, Petty had a very long career as an illustrator and artist. A master of the airbrush technique, he began to create his beautiful women art for a pin-up calendar in 1926. Petty kept painting and creating pin-up girls until 1970.
George Petty’s style of pin-up girl was so recognizable that when he created one of the most iconic pin up girl image of all time, it was called “The Petty Girl.” She first appeared in 1933 and continued showing up in magazines and advertisements until 1956. Petty spent many years working as an illustrator for Esquire magazine, but his work did appear elsewhere.
Do these vintage pinup George Petty Girls work in today’s myriad types of art? I think so. When you study the curvaceous figures, the stylized smiles on women’s faces, the feet wearing ballet slippers, the long legs – this art works for me. These pinup women are executed so technically perfect, the sexual beauty of the images continue to have an impact. I also like his insistence on a white background…
About the author: Stacy Lande is a Los Angeles based artist, and her pin up art is most often placed in the lowbrow category. Her book, THE RED BOX, from Last Gasp press, features introductions from Robert Williams and Frank Kozik. Stacy has had a lifelong obsession with pin up girls, and her erotic paintings explore the more allegorical side of pinups.
Her subjects are femme fatales and devil girls, and her fascination with the succubus has prompted her work to be described as “predatory pinups”.
Stacy’s paintings have been featured in magazine articles, notably Juxtapoz, Detour, and Hot Rod Deluxe; films, notably Gone in 60 Seconds starring Angelina Jolie and Nicholas cage; and art books, such as Weirdo Deluxe, from Chronicle Books, and Vicious, Delicious, and Ambitious, from Schiffer Books.p
| A slideshow of George Petty’s artwork. |
News About Pin-up Art |
|
