Né en 1896 au Pérou, Alberto Vargas est le fils d’un photographe renommé, ce qui lui permit (comme Petty) de se familiariser avec la peinture à l’aérographe. Il fit ses études artistiques en Suisse, puis s’installa aux Etats-Unis pour cause de 1er guerre mondiale. Fasciné par les revues de Broadway, il décida de mettre son talent au service de la beauté féminine ! ! ! son travaille portera essentiellement sur la glorification de la beauté de la femme. Il travaillera pendant quelque temps comme illustrateur free-lance pour des programmes de revue, des affiches de cinéma, etc…et rencontrera lafemme de sa vie : Anna Mae Clift, une danseuse de la troupe Ziegfeld Follies.
Fin 1939, il il rencontre l’éditeur d’Esquire pour remplacer George Petty, il signera ses œuvres Varga. Son premier calendrier pour Esquireest publié pour l’année 1941.
Le succès est fulgurant, chaque année Esquire vendra des dizaines de milliers de calendriers signés Varga, parfois deux différents pour une même année. Son contrat d’exclusivité lui permettait de continuer a faire le portrait des plus grandes stars du cinéma. Il prit fin en 1946, ce qui n’empêcha pas Esquire de publier un calendrier pour 1947 et 1948. Pendant quelque temps, il se consacra aux affiches de cinéma et aux portraits, puis, de1960 a 197* le mensuel Playboy propose en page central une pin-up qu’il signe au nom de Vargas, le nom Varga appartenant a Esquire….
Varga utilisait du papier épais, avec un mélange de gouache et d’aérographe. Le modèle était dessiné nu, puis les vêtements étaient ajoutés.
Les calendriers ont bénéficié d’un tirage élevé, ils ne sont donc pas rares, mais comme Vargas et l’artiste le plus renommé, ils sont aussi très recherchés. On peut aussi noter que le papier utilisé pendant la guerre et un peu après, était d’assez mauvaise qualité il est donc normal qu’il soit jauni.
Les œuvres de la période Esquire, en particulier pendant laguerre, sont, pour certains d’entre eux, de véritables splendeurs, a partir du début des années 60, il proposa tous les mois une pin-up dans le magazine Playboy.
Alberto Vargas pin-up artist
1896-1982
From thetime Esquire first introduced America to the Varga Girl in 1940, the nameVargas has been synonymous with pin-up and pin-up art
Vargas waspainting in a store window in May 1919 when he was asked by a representative ofthe Ziegfeld Follies to show his work the next day to Mr Ziegfeld ... he was tobecome the most famous and prolific pin-up artist of all time.
AlbertoVargas pinup artist
Born 9February 1896 in Peru, Alberto Vargas was the son of a renowned photographer,Max Vargas, who had taught him how to use an airbrush by the time he wasthirteen. In 1911, while accompanying Max on a trip to Paris, Alberto came uponthe famous magazine La Vie Parisienne, and its sensuous front covers by RaphaelKirchner made a lasting impression on him. He studied in Zurich and Genevabefore leaving Europe because of the war and arriving on Ellis Island inOctober 1916.
Vargas'first encounter with America happened about noon at Broadway and FourteenthStreet, when he was suddenly surrounded by a lunchtime crowd of smartly dressedoffice workers. Mesmerized by their grace, sophistication, and beauty the youngartist decided he would spend his life glorifying the American Girl.
AlbertoVargas' first job was drawing fashion illustrations (mostly in water colour andpen and ink) for the Adelson Hat Company and Butterick Patterns. Eventuallyturning to freelance commercial illustration, he was painting in a store windowin May 1919 when he was asked by a representative of the Ziegfeld Follies toshow his work the next day to Mr Ziegfeld.
Withintwenty-four hours, Vargas found himself commissioned to paint twelvewatercolour portraits of the leading stars of the 1919 Ziegfeld Follies for thelobby of the New Amsterdam Theatre. Yet, although he was in the company of themost beautiful girls in the world, he knew there was only one woman for him:Anna Mae Clift, a showgirl with the rival Greenwich Village Follies. For thenext twelve years, Vargas painted all the Ziegfeld stars, including names suchas Billy Burke, Nita Naldi, Marilyn Miller, Paulette Goddard, Ruth Etting,Eddie Cantor, and W C Fields. He soon developed a friendship with Ziegfeld, wholet the young artist call him "Ziggy", a name used only by theimpresario's closest friends.
In 1927,Vargas went to work for the Paramount Pictures' art department in New York andwas chosen to create the original artwork for the film Glorifying the AmericanGirl, which was being produced by Ziegfeld. Working in an atmosphere ofextraordinary harmony between artist, producer, and film, Vargas createdadvertising artwork that, aside from general distribution, also appeared inParamount's 20th Anniversary Book, published in 1927 for the company's starsand executives.
Vargasmaintained a full schedule throughout the 1920s, working for a diverse group ofclients in addition to the Follies and Paramount. He painted front covers forTatler and Dance magazines, did hairstyle illustrations for Harper's Bazaar,and even designed some countertop displays for Old Gold cigarettes. Yet hestill found time to paint his favourite Ziegfeld Follies stars for his ownpleasure, including the daring Shirley Vernon, whose 1927 portrait waspreserved in his private collection.
From thetime Esquire first introduced America to the Varga Girl in 1940, the nameVargas has been synonymous with pin-up and pin-up art
Vargasbecame an American citizen in 1939, the same year that he received aninvitation from Esquire magazine to visit with publisher David Smart in Chicagoto discuss the possibility of working together.
Vargas andAnna Mae Ciift were married in 1930 and moved to Hollywood four years later.Twentieth Century Fox soon hired the artist to paint pastel portraits of theirstars, as did Hellman's Mayonnaise, which commissioned a series of full-lengthmovie star portraits for their advertisements. By 1935, Vargas was working forWarner Brothers and, before the decade was over, for MGM.
Vargas'first calendar jobs were two pastel glamour pinups executed for Joseph C.Hoover and Sons between 1937 and 1939. He became an American citizen in 1939,the same year that he received an invitation from Esquire magazine to visitwith publisher David Smart in Chicago to discuss the possibility of workingtogether. Vargas was immediately hired as a replacement for George Petty, whosecontract was to expire in December 1941. Agreeing to drop the "s"from his last name in all his work for the magazine, he had his first paintingpublished in the October 1940 issue. Two months later, Esquire introduced thefirst Varga Girl calendar, which sold better than any other published up tothat time.
Over thenext five years, Vargas became known worldwide, and his work, both in themonthly magazine and the yearly calendar, was eagerly awaited. Although he hada full schedule of work for Esquire during the war years, he often,accommodated special requests from soldiers to paint mascot pin- ups. Esquirealso allowed Vargas to do a series of patriotic pinups for William RandolphHearst's American Weekly magazine, the only other magazine work permitted himduring the Esquire years.
Vargascontinued to paint Hollywood stars while he worked for the magazine. His 1941movie poster of Betty Grable in Moon Over Miami was a great success; among theother leading ladie he painted were such stars as Jane Russell, Ann Sheridan,Ava Gardner Linda Darnell, Marlene Dietrich, Loretta Young, and Marilyn Monroe.
In 1957,Playboy magazine published a pictorial feature on Vargas' nudes, which drew theattention of publisher Hugh Hefner.
When Vargasand Esquire went their separate ways in 1946, the artist immediately embarkedupon a project to publish his own yearly calendar. In the meantime, themagazine published an Esquire Calendar for 1947 that consisted completely ofunsigned Vargas paintings. By the time Vargas' 1948 calendar was published,Esquire had a court order barring the artist from selling or distributing anyproduct bearing the name "Varga", which the magazine had copyrighted.In 1950, a court ruled that Vargas would have to sign all his subsequentpaintings with his full name.
During theearly and mid- 1950s, Vargas took on many commercial assignments, including apin-up of Shelley Winters for the RKO film Behave Yourself, a deck of VargasGirl playing cards called "Vargas Vanities", and a series of pinupsfor the pocket-sized British magazine Men Only. In 1957, Playboy magazinepublished a pictorial feature on Vargas' nudes, which drew the attention ofpublisher Hugh Hefner In August 1958, Vargas and Anna Mae travelled to Lima,Peru, for a highly successful exhibition of his paintings. They were greetedupon their return with a personal invitation from Hefner to have Vargas' workappear monthly in Playboy.
Embarkingon this momentous association in 1960, Vargas was to paint 152 works forPlayboy during this period, adapting to new moral standards and more explicitsexuality. Vargas painted only two front- cover images for Playboy during hislong reign as the magazine's primary artist: a cut-out figure of a girl in abathing suit that was part of a montage created by art director Reid Austin in1961 and the cover for the March 1965 issue.
During theEsquire years, from 1940 to 1946, Vargas usually prepared a total of fourpreliminary studies for each published painting. Three of these were drawn on afine tissue paper, the fourth on a heavy vellum parchment paper. The threetissues showed increasing detail from one state to the next until the parchmentstate which, because of the paper's colour and texture, was almost identical tothe final painting. These studies would often be drawn with the model as anude, Vargas simply adding the clothing to the final painting for publication.At Playboy, Vargas did one tissue and occasionally a few, parchment studies foreach published painting.
WhenVargas' wife passed away in November 1974, the artist lost much of his interestin painting and in life. Towards the end of the 1970s, he worked on anautobiography with Reid Austin, Vargas (Harmony Books). His career was revivedsomewhat when he painted an album cover, Candy-0, for The Cars; he alsodesigned two other record album jackets for singer Bernadette Peters. He diedon 30 December 1982, in Los Angeles.
Alberto Vargas, el peruano que pintó a la mujer moderna
Sigue siendo la más insignereferencia en el arte de la pin-up erótica.
Alberto Vargas, el peruano quepintó a la mujer moderna.
Alberto Vargas, el arequipeño queconquistó los Estados Unidos con sus retratos pin-up de mujeres de fantasía,además de definir el modelo más perdurable de chica sexy y autosuficiente delsiglo XX, gracias a sus ilustraciones para las revistas Esquire y Playboy.
Alberto era hijo del reputado y pudiente fotógrafo arequipeño Max T.Vargas. Tras diversos estudios artísticos realizados en París y Génovadurante los años 10, la Primera Guerra Mundial impelió al joven Vargas aregresar al Perú, vía New York. Pero en su escala allí quedó tan conmovido antela belleza de las mujeres neoyorquinas, desbordantes de modernidad,independencia y autoconfianza, que decidió instalarse en la ciudad que nuncaduerme. "Tantas mujeres bonitas…", repetiría.
Permanecer en New York le costó nocontar nunca más con el apoyo financiero de su padre. Eso no le arredró: en1939 se nacionalizó estadounidense.
UN CANON IRREPETIBLEEn 1919,Vargas logró sustituir a Raphael Kirchner como retratista oficial de lasestrellas de Broadway en las producciones teatrales de The Ziegfeld Follies.Siguieron 12 fructíferos años de colaboraciones. Allí, según confesó, aprendióla diferencia entre "el desnudo y la lujuria".
Torpe y desinteresado en asuntosde dinero, vivió también tiempos duros durante los que perfeccionó sus técnicaspictóricas, especialmente la acuarela y el aerógrafo, logrando finalmenteobtener encargos para pintar a estrellas de Hollywood como Greta Garbo oShirley Temple.
En 1940 sería de nuevo elsustituto ideal de otra leyenda: George Petty, uno de los autores más célebresde ilustraciones pin-up, esto es, dibujos de estereotipos de mujeres que eran"claveteados" en la pared para solaz de millones de personas, y queacabaron formando parte de la cultura pop del siglo XX.
Vargas reemplazó a Petty en larevista Esquire de 1940 a 1947 y sus 'Varga Girls' (la revista le cercenó la's', imponiéndole el apellido artístico) fueron visibles no solamente en loshogares estadounidenses, sino también en los fuselajes de los aviones y tanquesque combatieron en la II Guerra Mundial. Esquire maltrató a Vargas: en 1941,por ejemplo, su calendario vendió por pedidos de correo más de 300,000ejemplares, pero él no vio un centavo de todo ese negocio.
Con Esquire, Vargas consolidó sumodelo de mujer ideal: alegre, elegante y estilizada, poseedora de una sensualidadnatural que cautivó la atención de todo un país y más tarde del mundo entero.La Chica Varga no se avergonzaba de ser sexy y fue la más exitosarepresentación y símbolo de la mujer estadounidense en su encarnación delidílico american way of life.
CHICAS PLAYBOY : En 1960aguardaba una nueva y agradable sorpresa: Hugh Hefner, otro ex empleadoresentido con Esquire, fichó a Vargas para su "revista para hombres",Playboy. Aunque el artista ya contaba con 64 años, se volcó con entusiasmo enlas 152 ilustraciones que pintó para la mítica publicación hasta 1976. Dos añosantes había fallecido su esposa y musa Anna Mae Clift, quien décadas atrás loenamorara con su cabello rojo y llameante… la muerte de Anna lo sumió en unadesgana progresiva ante el oficio de la pintura.
Sus "chicas Playboy"revelaron más de lo que hubiera sido posible en décadas anteriores (aunquenunca le gustó mostrar el vello púbico de sus heroínas) y, además, en suspáginas no solamente dibujó mujeres blancas: deslumbrantes muchachas negrastambién protagonizaron varias de sus obras, contribuyendo a la reivindicaciónde la belleza multirracial.
A partir de los años 70 llegaríala legitimación intelectual del arte de Vargas y su reconocimiento comoinfluencia ineludible en el imaginario colectivo americano, merced a un talentoartístico puesto por entero al servicio de la belleza femenina. Y es que, comodecía él mismo, "¿existe algo más hermoso que una mujer hermosa?".
DATOS
Su esposa Anna Mae no fue solo su primera modelo, su eterna compañera ymayor fuente de inspiración: durante 44 años fue su agente y defensora acérrimade su patrimonio artístico.
En su autobiografía, Vargas explica los abusos contractuales de Esquirey cómo el director de arte Reed Austin logró que lo contratara Playboy,restaurando de paso la 's' de su apellido.
Convencido por su sobrina y a sus 83 años, Vargas ilustró la portada deldisco Candy-O (1979) de The Cars. La idea partió del baterista, David Robinson,coleccionista de pin-ups.
Alberto Vargas
Joaquin Alberto Vargas y Chávez (* 9. Februar 1896 in Arequipa, Peru; †30. Dezember 1982 in Los Angeles) war ein peruanischer Zeichner, der für seinePin-Up-Zeichnungen berühmt geworden ist.
Ab 1940 zeichnete er als Ablösung von George Petty für das amerikanischeEsquire-Magazin über 180 verschiedene Pin-Ups. Um die Rechte an den Bilderndauerhaft zu behalten, setzte Esquire durch, dass das „s“ bei Vargasweggelassen wurde. Als Alberto Vargas Esquire dann später verließ, um 1956 zumPlayboy wechselte, wurde es ihm untersagt, den Namen Varga für zukünftigeZeichnungen zu verwenden. Somit unterzeichnete er zukünftig mit seinemkompletten Namen Vargas. Hugh Hefner war ein großer Fan Vargas, der insgesamtüber 20 Jahre für den Playboy arbeitete.
Mehr als 150 seiner Arbeiten werden heute im Spencer Museum of Art,Mississippi ausgestell
Ghiaroadster hot rod memorabilia militaria nitro nytro magazine magazine esquire risqué fordracer café Normandy race show American cars gentleman racer EisenhowerRoosevelt Arron bible Shakespeare ford 30 ford 32 V8 triumph bsa solexvelosolex terrot royal enfield buick WWII war B-52 geno helmet climax aviatorgoggle motorcycle biker pilot raf retro retromobilia military militaria usa gijeep gafas
Sexy HarleyDavidson picker nash hood ornament smart elegant jingle jangle woo-woo hulahula Dorothy lamour cyd Charisse ava gardner lana turner Chrysler mum’s daybirthday father’s day 40 50 60 70 beauties model modèle fashion mode Washingtonday national day calendarietto Norway norsk chanel perfume V n°5 pinup pin-upsny baruffaldi aviation label calendario halcyon AN-6530 MK
Marilyn Monroebetty boop betty page jeane harlow vivien leigh Rita Hayworth doris day graceKelly Katharine Hepburn dolores del rio Elizabeth taylor marlene dietrich greatgarbo jazz lindy hop cha cha cha Charleston bellezas artisticas notepadcalendar agenda d-day dday stip audrey Hepburn carmen miranda Ingrid bergmanjudy garland lauren bacall Debbie Reynolds veronica lake olivia de havillandjane Mansfield leslie caron gene Kelly fred Astaire Sophia loren rita Hayworthkim novak
Albertovargas varga earl macpherson Thompson George petty Ballantyne knut O munsonbikini rolf amstrong ben-hur baz al moore zoe mozert gilette elvgren gil normanrockwell billy de vorss victor tchetchet fritz willis ed withers chiriaka peruGuatemala Mexico Colombia brazil argentina costa rica nicarragua wicks randallmickael roswell keller Robert paterson
Deck card jeux de carte pub ad 1936 tax stamp vintage oldies carnet note portfolio 1936 christmas federal birthnoel month mois 2021 happy tex avery cartoon kalender norge カレンダー Karendā waac waacs burlesque eddie chan beautiful woman bella donnaguapas mujeres bellas splendide femme betty boop memphis belle rockabilly ditavon teese Bettie page jane Russell betty grable