It’s movie poster mania at The Pinup Blog!

Movie posters are one of the most diversified genre there is. From photography, to realistic illustration, to the expressive and dramatic- Show biz has got it all! Of course, I’m a sucker for it’s pinups- the classic and the contemporary. Some are old-school, some I’m seeing for the first time, some will became classic in twenty year’s time. So let’s zoom into this modern art- the movie poster.

Art Nouveau Does Hollywod

Before movies were in color, or had sound, or camera movement, the posters were just as low tech. This doesn’t mean that they were inferior- on the contrary. Movie posters in the 20’s and before were designed by the most respected fine artists, such as Alfons Mucha, Eugène Grasset and Paul Colin. Always very expressionistic, focusing on colors, shapes and rhythms. All this sophistication, however, leaves enough room for a lot of sex-appeal, and as the years progressed, the cleavage regressed.


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Tags: Vintage Movie Poster, Rita Hayworth, Bad Girls, Marlene Dietrich, Natalie Portman, actresses, Quentin Tarantino, Grindhouse, Lolita, Austin Powers, Angelina Jolie, uma Thurman, neo pinups, Pinup Girls, Tragic Sirens, Bond Girls, horror genre, B movie, screaming cheesecake, scary monster, Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, 1950’s, photography, modern art, femme fatal, show Biz History, 1940’s, Paul Colin, glamor girls, Alfons Mucha, Eugène Grasset, Art Nouveau, Hollywod, realistic illustration

Take a tour in the high end of pinup art.

It’s true that mostly, pinup girls are considered a low art, at times completely thought of as porn. Today we talk a little about pinups in Pop Art- a highly respected art movement.

Before we take a look at some Pop Art pinup girls, here’s a short explanation of the movement:

Pop art is a visual art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s... [it’s] one of the major art movements of the twentieth century. Characterized by themes and techniques drawn from popular mass culture, such as advertising and comic books, pop art is widely interpreted as either a reaction to the then-dominant ideas of abstract expressionism or an expansion upon them. Pop art, like pop music, aimed to employ images of popular as opposed to elitist culture in art, emphasizing the banal or kitschy elements of any given culture.

~ Wikipedia ~

In essence, anyone making ads or comic book art is creating popular culture. The difference is that Pop Artists are usually trying to react to pop-culture with their creations and not just be part of the creation mass. (Kind of like the difference between Britney Spears and Madonna)

Mel Ramos

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Tags: pop art, Pinup Girls, popular media, print, comic book, Mel Ramos, Andy Warhol, Pop Artist, painter in the age of mechanical reproduction, Roy Lichtenstein, Low art, Allen Jones, pop-culture, art movement, 1950's, Allan d'Arcangelo, Marilyn Monroe

How do I love pinups and let me count the ways...

Yes, I sat myself down and asked myself why it is I blog about pinups. It’s so trivial, it’s so silly and so horny! So why then? Here are 10 fine reasons!

#10 The Detail

I’m a sucker for good craftsmanship. Most people are. As an art student you learn to appreciate abstract art and god knows I love it, but there is always a special place in my heart for that artist that can really draw convincing fingernails and get deep into the garter-clasp details.


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Tags: pinup lovers, Nostalgia, garter-clasp details, king of pinups, Marilyn Monroe, Betty Page, straightforward sexuality, sexually explicit, pinup artists, Olivia De Bernardinis, retro style, Classic Sweetness, garter belts, Women, Voluptuous, Gil Elvgren, modern Venuses, Garters and Stockings, beauty and mystic, natural beauty, Low art, pornographic, Diversity, neo-pinups

Is the contemporary pinup pornography?

Last week, I posted a whimsical little anthology about pinups in sports. I had a few interesting remarks, on and off-site, inquiring as to “Where are the real women?” I didn’t completely understand the nature of the question, but a thought came to my head: Unlike Playboy, some readers read this blog for the pictures. Am I a Porn Blog? Some, I suppose, think so.

All this train of thought brings us to today’s issue: Is the contemporary pinup pornography?
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Tags: Contemporary Pinup, classic pinups, Erotica, pornography, Shakira, sexuality, eroticism and fantasy, BDSM culture, misogynistic, Lorenzo Di Mauro, Hagime Soroyama, George Petty , olivia de Berardinis, Frank Frazzeta, Christina Aguilera, Billy De Vorss, Alberto Vargas, Enoch Bolles, Britney Spears

OK, there are possibly tons of vintage images at flickr and this is just one. I was mesmerized by a series of promotional photos of Jane Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe, for "Gentlemen Prefer Blonds". If you love old photos of yesterday's stars, you'll love Lucky Star's photo stream at Flickr.

Tags: Vintage images, Jane Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, Gentlemen Prefer Blonds, yesterday's stars

After writing last week’s cheesecake article, I was challenged at Digg, to find the beefcake twins. Knowing how hard it is to find beefcake at all, I rose to the challenge.

Where’s the beefcake?!

Apparently there just isn’t as much demand for male twins as female twins. This sailor image is the only vintage image I could find and it’s quite uninspired. I mean, this photo is so asexual could have been taken by their mother!

Fear not, my beefcake twin hungry mongrels! I’ve managed to hunt down a few modern day beefcake. It seems that twins have more fun than regular male models. Maybe it’s in the already playful nature of a twin photo shoot? Who knows.


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Tags: Beefcake Twins, Male model twins, sailor twins, The Stoltzfus Twins, Bruce Weber, Aaron and Shawn Ashmore, Keith and Derek Brewer, Jason and Joseph Barbera, Jason and Jeremy London, Twin actors, 1980's, Latino twins, Lane and Kyle Carlson, Portugal, Pedro and Ricardo Guedes, Pedro and Ricardo Guedes, Brazil, Flávio and Gustavo Mendonça

You’re not seeing double. This list compiles pinup twins from around the world and across history.

Like the bunny and the exotic dancer, the fantasy of twins has always been out there. Twins photograph incredibly, and automatically call to mind additional meaning to an image. Smart photographers and painters utilized their rarity in order to create a stunning image. I’m leaving the sexual stuff out of this list, as alluring as it may appear it’s incest and I’m just not that kind of blogger.

The Vintage Twins that Launched a Thousand Words

Not much is known about Edward D'Ancona, who very possibly had a severe book fetish. This pinup isn’t dated, and all we can assume is that it was painted between the mid 1930-1960, the years he was known to be an active calendar artist. That’s a big gap, and the painting doesn’t clue us in to much. Seeing as these glamor girls are naked, the only thing I could go by is the hair, which looks right about the right length and styling to be between the 1940-1950. But again, I don’t know for sure, so feel free to enlighten us with an email or comment, if you know better.

This is the pinup that inspired this article, because...
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Tags: Double Happiness, Retro Pinup Twins, Vintage twins, Greg Hildebrandt, Edward D'Ancona, Dahm Triplets, 1940, Allison Evans and Jessica Henry, Forniphilia, Playboy Twins, The Bentley sisters, Patrick Nagel, 1980's, 1950, objectification, 1960, Beauty Calender, Losing innocence, chinese pinup girls, 1970, Vespa Twins

Visual artists can’t hide behind their work, at some point, some one will notice, a fetish, a habit a quirk. Missing belly buttons, fake breasts, detached heads- This is a list of the 10 most fucked up pinups in classic cheesecake history.

No disrespect to these wonderful artists- as an artist myself- I know how much it sucks to be told “you missed a spot”. These details, however, are part of pinup history, and quite an idiosyncratic part, at that. I hope you enjoy this quirky look at fine pinup art.

#10 Alberto Vargas’ Pointed Nails

Alberto Vargas’ work is practically flawless. It’s skillfully executed and unfathomably beautiful. Vargas has many fetishes, but this tiny detail is so idiosyncratic and mysterious, and it repeats every single time! Pointed nails are in every Vargas image, without exception! What can this mean? Is it a catwoman thing? Is it an esthetic preference? Is Vargas flirting with danger? What do you think?


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Tags: Visual artists, pinup history, Carlos Diez, Damsels in Distress, Alberto Vargas, White Haired Goddesses, George Petty, Gravity Defying Breasts, Peter Driben, Big Breasts, Frank Frazetta, Nipples, Gil Elvgren, Big Butts, Hubert De Lartigue, Lorenzo Di Mauro, Puckered Lips, Greg Hildebrandt, Pointed Nails, Elizabeth Austin

Sexy astronauts, alluring aliens, and sassy space warriors are a mainstay in pinup culture. Taking erotic fantasy out of this world.

Jules Verne's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon captured many people’s imagination, all around the world. But it wasn’t until a hundred years later, that the Apollo 11 would land on the moon and really fuel pop culture. It’s easy to find fantastic images of sexy aliens, today. TV and the cinema have made it popular with movies and shows such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Total Recall and many more.



I’d like to take a more chronological-as-possible look at the pinup space fantasy, because I think, all you pinup lovers will be pleasantly surprised.

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Tags: Erotic fantasy art, space pinups, Luis Royo, sexy aliens, High tech Fetish, Barbarella, Bill Randall, Andrew Bawidamann, cartoon cheesecake, Marcus Gray, Hubert De Lartigue, erotic sci/fi, Frank Frazetta, 1950's, Hajime Sorayama, 1980's, olivia de Berardinis

Last time I saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show I was too young to understand all the delicate nuances of this film. But one thing was for sure: I adore Tim Curry! His opening song had every bit of influence on me, as Jessica Rabbit's. This is not just for my GLBT readers (though I did think of you ). Curry has the voice, body and poise to create a mesmerizingly sexy burlesque performance. See for yourself, the sweetest transvestite bombshell to ever grace the silver screen.

Tags: Tim Curry, Just a Sweet Transvestite, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, GLBT, Beefcake pinups