What Is Vintage Pinup Art?
Pinup art is art depicting physically attractive females. Vintage pinup art commonly refers to photographs, paintings, illustrations and other art forms in this genre created before 1960.
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History
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Pinup art started to become popular at the turn of the twentieth century. Calendars depicting glamorous, beautiful women were the most common forms of this art available, although postcards were also common.
Fun Fact
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The name "pinup" refers to the way many people would use a nail or thumbtack to "pin up" photographs or illustrations of beautiful women to decorate walls.
Famous Ties
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The Gibson Girl, a drawing created by Charles Dana Gibson, is one of the first famous examples of pinup art.
Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe were all pinup models as well as movie stars. Bettie Page is another famous pinup model.
Gil Elvgren, Alberto Vargas, Patrick Negal, Charles Sheldon and Art Frahm are artists whose pinup art pieces are famous and highly revered.
Function
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Pinup art was most often used as advertising. Images of beautiful women were used to sell many things, including cosmetics, clothing, cigarettes, cooking staples, automobiles, magazines and alcohol.
Misconceptions
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Not all pinup art is erotic in nature or depicts nude women. In fact, because the images were used for advertising, most vintage pinup art shows its subject fully clothed.
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