During World War II, the illustrations of Pin-Up girls-women with little clothes and mischief-were so popular that even the American bombers carried one in the front of the fuselage.In swimsuits or military clothing, with shirts tied to the waist or cool to the wind, and even in underwear, these sensual and naive images also adorned the car workshops and the tents.
"It was a time when women had more and showed less," says Dian Hanson, editor of the sexy arts collection of Tasken, in The Art of Pin-Up, a book that she compiled and that the publisher has just launched with aHistorical count and chapters dedicated to the ten most prominent authors of the genre, including Gil Elvgren, George Petty and Peruvian Alberto Vargas.Although the term Pin-Up-”set with studs”-was coined in 1941, the first creations of this type appeared around 1886 in French magazines, by Jules Chéret-known as the father of the modern poster-and in1895, in the United States.Then, Charles Dana, a cartoonist from Life magazine, created the Gibson Girl, a female developed that embodied the spirit of the new woman who was born.Dana delineated her playing tennis or walking on horseback or bike.
They were the golden years of illustration.The bicycle had been the great female conquest - a woman no longer needed a man to go from one place to another - and the struggle for female suffrage in the USA.UU.It was underway.The dresses and corsets were replaced by more comfortable and also more revealing clothes, which marked, for example, the legs, before hidden under layers of cloth. “Al intentar ganarse un lugar en un mundo de hombres, las mujeres los liberaron para que estos las miraran y las apreciaran de una forma más apasionante”, escribe Hanson.
Paradoxically, the Pin-ups, sexual symbols created from the male point of view-without pornographic connotation: their sex-appeal is natural and its lingerie usually is exposed by accident-they are a representation of feminism, having encouraged women to free themselvesof the rules imposed.Currently, according to academics such as Maria Elena Buszek, from the University of Colorado, they are considered "a claim of female sexuality".
The image of these girls - which appeared in domestic situations, although always with a certain impudence - was used to recruit soldiers in World War I, when the concept of propaganda, to exalt patriotism or attack the enemy, had been established."Caramba.I wish it was a man, I would join the Navy, ”said a pin-up dressed as a sailor."Be a man and do it," he concluded.Postters in style were nailed to the walls.
Over time, Pin-ups have had different purposes.In the Second War they raised the moral of the troops.“They reminded the men of what I expected at home, the women for whom they were fighting, and that stimulated them to fight more strongly. Pero, de forma encubierta, se proporcionaban como estímulo sexual, ya que durante la Primera Guerra se perdieron más combatientes por enfermedades venéreas que por las balas”, le dice Hanson a LA NACION revista."A pin-up could inspire masturbation, instead of one night in a brothel, and therefore, serve to keep the war department to healthy men," he adds.
Although, many models were anonymous, stars such as Ava Gardner, Betty Gold, Hedy Lamar, Rita Hayworth and Jane Russell posed for this type of illustrations, also known as Glamor Art, Good Girl Art and Pretty Girl Art ".To get an idea of the impact: Hollywood studies sent three million copies to their soldiers, abroad, of the typical gross poster in swimsuit, back and with the chin resting on a shoulder, while looking back. Y compañías como Brown & Bigelow hicieron lo propio con calendarios que Rolf Armstrong, Gil Elvgren –considerado el mejor dibujante de pin-ups que ha existido–, Earl Moran y Zoë Mozert diseñaban.The Pin-ups adorned the locutors of the recruits, and the walls and ceilings of the cabins, the ships and the military submarines.
In Hanson's opinion, the "most durable" effect of drawings that stamped, in addition to posters and calendars, postcards and magazines, was to introduce the concept that "sex sells".“The propaganda division of the United States department, called the War Advertising Council, had learned that a pretty girl could sell a product, both to men and women, and when it was renamed as a advertising advice, laterOf the war, he continued using beautiful and light clothes to earn money, ”he emphasizes.
In the 50s, Marilyn Monroe and Bettie Page-the Queen of the Pin-UPs-marked the traffic of the illustration to photography.Hugh Hefner, the legendary creator of Playboy magazine, who was a fan of the Pin-ups and had worked as a cartoonist in Esquire, launched his famous magazine, in 1953. Esta incluía la foto de Marilyn desnuda con un fondo de terciopelo rojo.The success was such that 52 thousand copies of a pull were sold.Two years later, Monroe starrigor of the wind and they even ended with the bombs on the floor.
With its distinctive bangs, explosive portaligas and 15-centimeter heels, Page was the first “Bondage” model and the most photographed pin-up."No star of this genre existed before her.Monroe had predecessors (in the cinema), Bettie, no, ”said Olivia de Berardinis, one of Playboy's renowned female cartoonists and Page portraitist, to which he has dedicated different series, including a deck of cards.
Local production
The first contact with the Pin-up universe of Horacio Altuna, creator of El Loco Chávez and the Nene Montanaro, and author of Voyeur, erotic cartoons for Playboy, was "probably" through photos of Bettie Page, of the early 50s.What challenges do Pin-Up illustrations do?“I like to draw human figures...Drawing attractive women has some challenge to find a kind of beauty that even pleases other women.It is essential that these drawings correspond to the canon that is had about what a beautiful woman is, ”he replies.And declares Gil Elvgren admirer."Classic and very good taste, their jobs are not provocative, they have a naive picaresque point," says.
For Marcelo Sosa, Marvel Comics and SQP INC., American editorial published by Pin-ups, “the charm of the Pin-Up girls lies not only in sensuality and seduction, but in the strength and security that emanate and, by the way, it is an image that dazzles on its own.‘What do I wear, how I behave, how I move, how I choose what I want, it is summarized in freedom of choice, in the attitude that, in this case, showed us the calendar girls.Bettie Page, Betty Boop, Jessica Rabbit, the photos and posters of our Coca Sarli are Pin-ups ".
After a decline, in the 60s, because sexual liberation introduced naked naked, the Pin-Up genus, with its wasp waists, red lips and voluptuous curves, has been rescued in comics, fashion, movies and tattoos.At present, aesthetic cult of this style includes women like Dita von Teese and Kate Perry.
While Altuna believes that the PIN-UP format is out of use and is something for nostalgic, especially because of the erotic variety that the Internet offers, instead, it states that the validity of the PIN-UPS “was always, perhaps aLittle more limited to certain sectors and groups in its origins ”.And that today, “when the woman occupies the place that corresponds to her in society, the PIN-UP attitude and style is somewhat more common: the carelessness, the freedom of choice of aesthetics, the positions, which began to glimpse inThe beginnings of the genre are culturally incorporated ”.
According to editor Hanson, Pin-Up illustrations were seen before as something "frivolous"-because they sought to entertain men-and not as art, "even when many originals were paintings that had a value in themselves".Apparently, it is something that has changed.“Because they belong to the artist art category, job at order, they are not the artist's deep inspiration, but in the last 25 years they have lost their stigma and value, money and appreciation, it has increased.Now we can recognize the talent behind the high quality illustration and call it art ”.
It is something that is also noticeable in the edition of books such as The Art of Pin-Up-”whose beautiful production definitely increases respect for this art form and stimulates people to buy it and exhibit it without feeling like Philistines”-and in thedifferent exhibitions that have been set up in the 21st century.
The auctions are also part of a revaluation of the genre. “Heritage Auctions, de Dallas (Texas), ha vendido casi 15 mil piezas de arte pin-up y ha conseguido los precios más altos, con un óleo de Gil Elvgren que alcanzó los US$ 286.800. Sus subastas continuas son el mejor lugar para los aficionados”, detalla Hanson, que es seguidora de Enoch Bolles, uno de los primeros ilustradores pin-up.“He preceded what was called Mayonnaise School (mayonnaise school), where artists used thick paintings and rapid strokes.His women seem molded in bright porcelain, with perfectly smooth skin.They had faces of dolls, but they were like mocking, safe and independent.They were dressed in bright fabrics difficult to identify, often with metallic brightness and shoes made with great detail.Bolles suffered from a mental illness and his illness advanced as his women became more burlesque, reflecting his internal demons.He was a fascinating artist ".
Sosa, in addition to the three greats of the American pin-up-Elvgren, Petty and Vargas-and Altun.And before the term was coined, "Alfons much painted incredible pin-ups".
As he says, the female figure is “a source of beautiful and inexhaustible inspiration, I love drawing women!Everything can inspire you when creating and designing, but the woman, and particularly the pin-ups, have a plus: they allow you to count from design, gestures and expression ”.
Meanwhile, to the public, immersed in the era of screens and hypersexualization, Pin-ups-provocative, but not graphic-remind them that suggesting is also an art.
