The Art of Pin-Up

by Dian Hanson, Louis K. Meisel (Contributor), Sarahjane Blum (Contributor)

In the 15 years since TASCHEN published The Great American Pin-up, international interest in this distinctly American art form has increased exponentially. Paintings by leading artists such as Alberto Vargas, George Petty, and Gil Elvgren that sold for $ 2000 in 1996 are going for $ 200,000 and more today. Pin-up, defined as drawings or paintings of pretty girls that stop short of frank nudity, was produced between 1920 and 1970, and much of it was discarded by publishers and calendar companies after printing. Today it’s huge, and ripe for an equally huge and truly comprehensive collector’s edition.

Formidably sized, The Art of Pin-up is an impressive book that will be coveted by casual fans as well as hardcore pin-up collectors. The reproduction quality of the paintings, pastels, and preparatory sketches—largely sourced from the original art—invites the viewer to trace the brush strokes in the full-page reproductions. Each chapter contains exquisite period calendars, vintage prints, and original model photos as well, documenting the artists’ creative process. Much of these ephemera were photographed on-site at the historic Brown & Bigelow Company, home to the world’s largest archive of vintage pin-up calendars.

Following the chapters on the 15 featured artists, the book concludes with an "Encyclopedia of Pin-up," featuring thumbnail bios and representative art of 72 additional artists, the most complete compendium of pin-up artists ever compiled. All this adds up to a book unlikely to be equaled on this popular subject.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Erotica, Art and Photography

544 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2013

About the author

Dian Hanson (born November 2, 1951) began her publishing career as an American pornographic magazine editor, historian, and occasional model, helping found the 1970s hardcore journal Puritan, then moving on to Partner, OUI, Adult Cinema Review, Outlaw Biker and Big Butt, among others. She was most famously the editor of Juggs and Leg Show sexual fetish magazines from 1987–2001.

Reviews

[Bill Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't imagine a better book on pin-up art. The only real problem with this typically beautiful Taschen monster is the difficulty in reading it. Massive in size and weight, like other Taschen XL books, this one requires wrestling just to situate it for reading, unless you happen to have a lectern handy. Not a comprehensive history of the art form, this book exists primarily to present the best examples of the most popular artists in enormous, meticulously printed copies that bring the subjects to new life. The text is good with an overview on the history and short biographies/career histories of Petty, Varga, Moran, Mozert, and their peers, but mostly it's about the art, which has rarely looked better.

[Chanel Chapters]

Pin ups are good girls.

[Evelyne · Rating 5 out of 5]

For any pin-up fans or anyone curious to the art of the creation of and the famous creators behind it a must read/have ❤️

[Eline · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book felt very complete and well curated. The featured works were incredibly beautiful, i can't stop thinking about them.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first time I have been able to hold, examine and read one of Taschen's big, XL Format books. In this one, text is in English, German, and French. Images are not duplicated and all captions are in English. The content is in three broad parts: history, significant artists, and miscellaneous artists. In the history, we find pin-up art starting with the calendars of the historic Brown & Bigelow Company, bomber nose-art, and brought home by WWII soldiery. The sections on each artist in this big slice of cheesecake are nicely prefaced with scrap-book like facsimiles of calendar pages, etc. Among the artists getting special treatment are Alberto Vargas, George Petty, Art Frahm and his fetishistic take on failing panty elastic, pin-up artist and model Zoë Mozert, and Gil Elvgren, friend and colleague at B&B to Norman Rockwell..

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The bottom line is that one doesn't read The Art of the Pin for the articles; this is a book that demands our gaze to be focused on the umpteen images of female pulchritude, scantily clad or naked, as depicted by some of the most iconic American commercial artists of the Twentieth Century. Works by the likes of Vargas, Petty, Elvgren, Moran, Driben et al are offered in copious quantity throughout this volume, in almost every case exhibiting to great effect the talents of those who painted the images that adorned calendars, playing cards, magazine covers etc. As a result Dian Hanson has produced a visually compelling book, supported by appropriate and generally engaging text that fleshes out the biographical and historical details of the pin up artworks; this is a worthy book for connoisseurs of vintage erotica and students of popular art. Is it an insightful and perceptive academic study that requires hours of serious contemplation? No. Is it a fascinating, beautifully nostalgic summary of how female beauty was presented in the pin up form, before photography took over? Yes it is.

The book is divided between an introductory section that considers the chronological history, development and impact of the pin up, specifically within the context of American popular culture in the period from roughly 1890 through to 1970, and a series of biographical essays with supporting illustrations, of key artists. This approach works exceedingly well, and the result is that the reader is offered a comprehensive and engaging narrative of the pin up as a cultural phenomenon. The textual materials, such as the exploration of specific companies, trends and businessmen who facilitated the work of artists such as Vargas, Petty and others, is both concise and fulsome. The same goes for the biographies of the creators of the pin up paintings represented in the book; Hanson doesn't waste space and narrative energy on superfluous details or critical analysis.

That's all well and good, but as I said at the beginning of this review, it's the images that have been collated and published in The Art of the Pin that make this such a great read. The variety and richness of the reproductions is amazing, and whilst one might have an issue about the subject, one can't deny the prodigous individual and collective capabilities of the painters of the pin ups seen herein. The combination of sensuality, charm, innocence, suggestiveness and feminine beauty, as filtered through the artistic vision of the painters and the nostalgia of their era, makes these images delightfully winsome. There is almost zero sleaze, zero smut in what Hanson has brought together in this volume. The near or totally naked women who are to focus of almost all the book's illustrations are shown sympatehtically and dare one say without overt exploitative vision.

There are some issues with the format of the book, most notably the use of English, German and French for the book's text. Taschen take a multilingual approach to their books; that's understandable. However, it would have been preferable if the repetition of material in different languages could've been reduced so many of the smaller images could've been shown in greater detail and scale. Also, the biographies and art of the lesser illustrators reads as an addendum, with not enough scope or space given to their art.

The Art of the Pin is a great book for its niche audience, and for those of use who can appreciate both the pop culture history of pin ups, as well as the sensuality of the images produced by those who practised the art, there's plenty to enjoy. There's no doubt that one can pick this book up, marvel at the beautiful paintings reproduced here, and feel rather satisfied with what's offered by author and publisher alike.

[Roland · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the most part, you would buy this for the art, which you get plenty of with some of the most famous work from the most renowned pin-up artist that ever were. As extra, you also get some history about how Pin-up came to be and the backstories of these artists.

[Spiros Kakouris · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent resource, however there is one glaring issue. While it is all in English-German-French the image Legends (which have some great info at places) are only in English. 🙄

[Ietrio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting materials, but the text is full of crap: the detective novels increased in sales because of "the Great Depression", and somewhat nude women drawings were associated. Sure, that is what the a-hole who sponsored the censorship law probably said, but just mindlessly copy and pasting from old texts doesn't make for a good volume, and the text is too much anyway for a picture book.

2024-09-22:
yea, the volume is still crap. ted withers. what is changed because he killed people in ww1? what changes because zoe mozert wrote him love letters? how is relevant to withers that mozert has married more than once?