Gil Elvgren: Pin-Ups Diary Calendars - 2003, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2013 & 2014
                                             (2002/2004/2007/2009/2012/2013 - Taschen)  


     You would not normally think of desk calendars as good candidates for art books, but some are worth looking at. Until Taschen put out THE LITTLE BOOK OF PIN-UP:ELVGREN in 2015, there weren't any really *good* gatherings of his art and it looked like these calendars were going to be the only consistently clean displays of his art.  In the last several years Taschen has produced what they have been calling 'Deluxe' diary calendars which are smallish clothbound books with unmarked spines. Otherwise, we are in the world of 7-by-9-inch spiral-bounds which are automatically disqualified from our idiosyncratic List.


     2013 Small Deluxe Diary   While small, 5-by-7-inches, these Taschen Deluxe Diaries are solid art presentations - instead of every facing page being blank, they instead have a calendar week laid out (so, 56 full-page paintings displayed here).  These reproductions are framed in white with a caption at the bottom detailing title, first usage year, medium, size and copyright holder.  Slightly more than half of the paintings would be duplicated again in the following 2014 calendar-book below.  As an impromptu Elvgren artbook, it gets ranked below Taschen's THE LITTLE BOOK OF PIN-UP:ELVGREN, the two Artist Archives collections, ALL HIS GLAMOROUS AMERICAN PIN-UPS , HIS LIFE & ART and THE WARTIME PIN-UPS but if you have all six of those, you will still find 21 paintings here that are not found 'well-presented' in them.


     2014 Small Deluxe Diary   While small, 5-by-7-inches, this is another solid art presentation (another 56 full-page paintings).  These reproductions are framed in white with a caption at the bottom detailing title, first usage year, medium, size and copyright holder.  Slightly more than half of the paintings are duplicates from the 2013 calendar-book above.  As an impromptu Elvgren artbook, it gets ranked below Taschen's THE LITTLE BOOK OF PIN-UP:ELVGREN, the two Artist Archives collections, ALL HIS GLAMOROUS AMERICAN PIN-UPS , HIS LIFE & ART and THE WARTIME PIN-UPS but if you have all six of those, you will still find 18 paintings here that are not found 'well-presented' in them (though nine of those paintings are also in the 2013 calendar-book).


     2010 Small Deluxe Diary   While small, 5-by-7-inches, this is another solid art presentation (another 56 full-page paintings).  These reproductions are framed in white with a caption at the bottom detailing title, first usage year, medium, size and copyright holder.  There's a diverse mix to differintiate it from the 2013 & 2014 books above, but there's still significant duplication when holding all three.  As an impromptu Elvgren artbook, it gets ranked below Taschen's THE LITTLE BOOK OF PIN-UP:ELVGREN, the two Artist Archives collections, ALL HIS GLAMOROUS AMERICAN PIN-UPS , HIS LIFE & ART and THE WARTIME PIN-UPS but if you have all six of those, you will still find 16 paintings here that are not found 'well-presented' in them (though nine of those paintings can be also be found in one or the other of the 2013 or 2014 calendar-books).


     The rest of the calendars here are [-BELOW THE LINE-] as they are spiral bound.  Despite the lack of a true spine, some of these callendars are great 7-by-9-inch full-bleed displays of his art on heavier glossy card-stock. They are usually presented as double-sided pages, so if you've a mind to, a pair of scissors can snip out the calendar pages, leaving mostly art. In fact, as these books are bit deconstructable, you can put pages from different years together in the same spiral-binder.  We found two years that were nearly identical to each other and the only other example we've looked at had about a third of its paintings being repeats from them.


     2003   [-BELOW THE LINE-]   If you are interested, three of the art-pieces haven't gotten a featured full-page treatment in any of the Elvgren collections.  They are full-bleed here.  There's about a quarter, or a third, repetition from the 2005/2008 calendars (which are nearly-identical to each other)


     2005   [-BELOW THE LINE-]   Only one of the art pieces here haven't gotten a featured full-page treatment in any of the Elvgren collections.  Note that all these full-bleed images can be found in the 2008 calendar, each with a white border.


     2008   [-BELOW THE LINE-]   With one exception, all the images here also appear in the 2005 calendar.  However, their appearance here is with a white border around the art (and captioned at the bottom) while they are full-bleed in the 2005 version (with captions on one page at the back).  The same art piece as in the 2005 calendar hasn't gotten a featured full-page treatment in any of the Elvgren collections.


Related Books

  The Little Book Of Pin-Up:  Elvgren

  Elvgren Girls I & II   (Artist Archives)

  Gil Elvgren - All His Glamorous American Pin-ups  (Martignette)

  Elvgren - His Life And Art

  Gil Elvgren - The Wartime Pin-Ups

  Pin-Up Poster Book - The Gil Elvgren Collection  [BELOW THE LINE]



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