Pulp Art by Robert Mcginnis
I find Pulp Art fascinating always causing my imagination to come alive. Heroic rescues of damsels in distress, battling against overwhelming odds, adventures beyond belief and much more. Apparently I'm not alone in my quest.
One of my favorite artist is Robert McGinnis. I can't really say where illustration crosses the line into formal "Art" but in my opinion McGinnis is as close as you can get. Some of his artwork is truly amazing. I am a painter and have sold many pieces of art. He's always been my inspiration. There is something intimate about his portraiture work of women that I have never quite been able to master.
It's a look in the eyes of his subjects. He understood a woman's view of men and men's visual reaction to women and was able to capture that one moment of spark revealing the agenda of each. His mastery of the skill of drawing and painting allowed him to hold that moment in his mind as he recreated it on paper and canvas. Therein lies the Art.
Robert was born in Cincinnati in 1926 and grew up in rural Wyoming, Ohio. His artistic talent was first encouraged by his dad, "Dutch," who helped his son draw such things as his favorite cartoon character, Popeye. Later, despite Robert's complaint that he would rather play ball with his friends (he was athletically talented and keenly competitive), Robert's mother, Mildred, insisted that he attend a drawing class held on Saturdays at the Cincinnati Art Museum. After high school, McGinnis hitchhiked to California and worked as an apprentice at Walt Disney Studios, drawing Mickey Mouse and other characters and learning about cartoon animation.
Then World War II interrupted production of animated films, so McGinnis returned home and studied fine art at Ohio State University and took night classes at the Central Academy of Commercial Art. He also played the position of left guard on OSU's football team (for more information on this, read the entry directly below this one). In the mid-Fifties he moved to New York City with his wife Ferne, who is also talented, artistically and musically. (They subsequently had three children, and they have lived in Connecticut since 1960.)
McGinnis went to work creating advertising posters at the Fredman-Chaite Studios. One day by chance he was introduced to an agent by a fellow artist. The agent took McGinnis's samples to book publisher Dell. As a result, McGinnis was able to shift his career into high gear, and in the ensuing decades he produced an astounding body of top-quality, highly expressive illustrations and fine art paintings. If you want more BIO here's Robert at Wikipedia CLICK HERE
Here's a few more of my favs from his easel. I include these in this format because of the myspace size limitation on photos in albums. You really need the largest format you can get to study a painting and that would be a strain on the myspace budget, I'm sure.
Click any pic to Enlarge
There are so many fine illustrators out there I couldn't possibly include even a small portion of their work but here are a few I found particularly interesting and was able to get digitized.
HAM FISHER'S "Joe Palooka" and Al Capp's "Lil Abner" appeared in full color of the comics section of the newspaper every weekend along with Milton Coniff's "Terry and the Pirates" their adventures were followed by millions of kids across the U.S.. 
During the 1960's over half of the population of the United States was under 25 years old. As I'm sure you know this "Boomer Generation" has had a huge impact on our culture.I have no idea what they are calling the latest generation but they will grow up with the internet as a part of their daily lives and "...it will just always have been there..." I find this just amazing for an old fart like me that's still just fascinated with all the stuff offered just here on Myspace let alone the gigantic hugeness of the Internet. It will only get more interesting!
Guess I'm having a "senior moment" as my mind wanders off to the ether and I tend to wax poetic and philosophical. Back to Pulp art and Illustration. As an artist myself I've wondered for years where one draws the line between the process of "Fine Art" and "Illustration". I've looked up the definitions but find them confusing and clumsy. Let me know if you have a good one to offer, I would be very interested in someone else's point of view.
Well, here's some more of those "Illustrations" and Pulp Art that I enjoy so much, if you need help to modify any of these to suit your profile just let me know. Some are quite rare and all show a love for the art and craft of Pulp and Iluustration ...
Click any pic to Enlarge
Movie Classics
Click Pic Above for Main Menu
No comments:
Post a Comment