The Great American Pin-Up
(1996 - Taschen)

(by Charles G. Martignette & Louis K. Meisel) The feel & heft of this book reminds me of nothing so much as an elementary school textbook (though in high-school, I could have only have wished for such a textbook . . .). At 448 pages it's a bit big, but then again, it has a lot of pin-up art. After some initial essays (in this later edition, all English text is repeated in German & French), it looks at 70 artists, giving a 'chapter' to each. Some of the work is presented in the form of reproductions of the original magazine covers, but far and away the lion's share has been pulled from the original paintings. 127 works are given a full-page treatment, followed by 182 pages with multiple images and then another 47 primarily text pages with art on them as well. Almost none of the images' titles are given with none of the other usual information provided either. As you might imagine, a portion of the art pieces are female nudes. Anyway, the artists getting a full-page reproduction are: Rolf Armstrong (7), Joyce Ballantyne (3), Ben-Hur Baz, Enoch Bolles, Al Buell (6), Ernest Chiriacka (5), Howard Chandler Christy, Bradshaw Crandell (2), Edward D'Acona, Raphael DeSoto*, Billy DeVorss (6), William Dolwick, Peter Driben (8)***, Edward M. Eggleston (2), Harry Ekman (3), Freeman Elliott, Gil Elvgren (11)*, Virgil Finlay, Harrison Fisher, James Montgomery Flagg, Art Frahm (2), Pearl Frush (4), Charles Dana Gibson (2), George Gross, Cardwell S. Higgins (2), Hy Hintermeister, Earl MacPherson (2), Bill Medcalf (6), Al Moore (2), Earl Moran (10), Zoë Mozert (3), K. O. Munson, Rudy Nappi (2), George Petty (11)***, Cole Phillips, Gene Pressler, George Quintana, Paul Rader, Bill Randall, William Reusswig, Edward Runci (3), Arthur Sarnoff (2), Charles Showalter, J. Frederick Smith, William Fulton Soare, T. N. Thompson, Alberto Vargas (10)***, Hugh J. Ward**, Fritz Willis (11), Ted Withers (3), and UNKNOWN.

* - Note that the 'well-presented pieces here by DeSoto, and Elvgren, can all additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.

** - Note that the 'well-presented piece here by Ward cannot additionally be found so in his own collection on The List.

*** - Note that in regard to the 'well-presented' pieces here by Driben, Petty, & Vargas, some, but not all, can be found so in their own collections on The List.

Other Classic Pin-up collections

Classic Pin-Ups - Art Fantastix Präsentiert series