Alberto Vargas is one of the most well-known and well-respected pin-up artists. His art endures today, and has been the subject of several major exhibitions, including one at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas.
Although he painted prodigiously for almost 60 years, his most influential work was done during the 1940s for work published in Esquire Magazine.These works, known as “Varga Girls,” a name adapted to make it sound even more exotic than the Peruvian-born artist’s actual name, became favorites among GIs during World War II.
Vargas’ work replaced that of artist George Petty, whose “Petty Girl” had previously become a feature of the magazine. Although similar in poses and basic design principles, Varga Girls represented significant improvements artistically over the Petty Girl. The Petty Girl is naturally well-proportioned, with a tucked tummy, accentuated by a slightly bent posture, with long legs made to seem longer by the use of Pointe shoes. The girls are brightly lit from many angles, minimizing shadow, and they are generally smiling.
In contrast, the Varga Girls have much more depth, both physically and in their implied character. Unlike Petty’s paintings, which show women in largely planar poses, Vargas’ paintings show women whose bodies move forward and backward as well as side-to-side in the field of the image. Vargas’ paintings are full of shadow, allowing his women to conceal as much as they reveal, and their expressions are often more complex, from happy and playful to mischievous or even brooding. Unlike the Petty Girl, some of Vargas’ women are shown with actual folds in their stomach as they bend, giving them realism that augments, not diminishes, their beauty. Vargas treats his women with respect, allowing their individual characters to show through, a significant difference between the Varga Girls, who are allowed to be separate individuals, and the Petty Girl, who essentially embodies the idea that all women are equivalent.
If you are looking to have cosmetic surgery done, contact a skilled plastic surgeon in your area. We can help you find one whose body contouring artistry is most like that of Alberto Vargas and will let your character show, rather than one like Petty, who simply wants to make you into a flat image of idealized femininity. And certainly, you do not want to use a cartoonist like Jack Cole, whose women are breast-augmented caricatures, shallow, materialistic, and vain.
All images in this post are courtesy of the Pin-Up files, where you will find representative work from these and many other artists on display and for sale.
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