Petty - The Classic Pin-Up Art Of George Petty
(1997 - Gramercy)

(by Reid Stewart Austin) George Petty achieved something very few artists do, Pop-Culture celebrity. But at his period in time, the reflection of his own celebrated life could only be ephemeral - magazine articles, live appearances, and radio & black-&-white television recordings- nothing that would really last in culture's mind (unlike his art itself, being repeatedly reproduced). So this book serves its purpose, re-establishing the story of his life & talent in this somewhat more lasting format. All of this is to say that, while healthy, this is not the gallery book of his art that is still needed. Learning about the man (at least 60 text & photo pages) means that many less pages to display his art. Another pitfall found here is the dependance on double-page-spreads to exhibit his long works (12 of them, taking another 24 pages), more than half of them failing in that presentation, due to the distortion at the center-gutter. So with the half of this 192-page book left, you will find another 81 featured reproductions and then 14 pages of multiple images pulled together. While the pin-ups represent the lion's share of that, there is a diverse display of Petty's commercial art included as well. Most images are captioned with their use or where they originally appeared. (Note that the 1947 True Magazine Petty Girl Calendar is 'well-presented' here in its entirety). Also, as part of the biographic narrative, one page here is a Alberto Vargas* calendar-page'

*** - Note that the 'well-presented' piece here by Vargas can additionally be found so in his own collections on The List.

other Gramercy releases

Pulp Art - Original Cover Paintings for the Great American Pulp Magazines

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