Elvgren: His Life & Art

I'd highly recommend this book to anyone interested in classic pin-up art, American Illustration and advertising art, or the methods artists use. I might have liked more information on his actual process, beyond how he used and at times deviated from photo reference, but that's a minor issue, since he worked in the same mediums as most of his contemporaries. There are numerous examples of his work and, like a similar recent book on Norman Rockwell, the photo reference used to create it.

While this style of art was popular and mimicked by many artists of their day, Elvgren, in my opinion, was King of the hill! Love this book, filled with his work and his life.

This book is well done with tons of photos and a detailed bio of Elvgren! A must for any collector.

The book is a wonderful presentation of Gil Elvgren pin up paintings with some photos of the original models posing. This is a delightful reminiscence on one of the masters of the female form. Elvgren's eye is to be envied.

Cannot get enough of Elvgren? This is it. Insights into the artist's creative mind, his work and his world. Fabulous.

This is a really beautiful book, with nice photos of Elvgren's work and some of his model shots. I was impressed at the layout and the see through tissue paper like illustration designs on some of the chapter headings. But I was very disappointed about a number of things in this book. Though there are many great pictures of models and many names are listed in the text, the models are not identified in their photos.Worse than this, it seems that this book, co-written by Elvgren's son, Drake Elvgren, has a religious right spin to it which is strange for a number of reasons. There are many references to Elvgren's "Shame" at his pinup art. Drake (and Collins?) write "If Janet (Elvgren's wife) was bothered by her husband's mildly sinful way of making a living, it created few if any ripples in their Rockwellesque family life." The book also talks about how Elvgren expressed "regret at not doing fine art". The book also makes a point at talking about how Elvgren became converted at the end of his life to Christianity and this surely seems to have influenced him in his pinup art and life, or so Drake would have us believe. The overall emphasis is that Elvgren was never alone with his models (being so would have been a sin), that he was a perfect father (except for his "lapses" when he didn't attend some of his kids schooling events), only drank a little (even though he was irritated that when his wife became a Christian she would only drink iced teas at parties or that he seems to have had a reputation as being a "man's man" and a good drinker), and was highly conservative (even though he painted pinup). The duo also seem to buy into the whole lowbrow/highbrow hierchy that "The Great American Pin-Up" Book (the bible on the genre) tries so hard to dispel. The duo write aboutthe distinction between Elvgren's paintings and Art Frahm's series of pinup paintings which feature women losing their underpants in a series of embarrassing circumstances and how Elvgren would never have "sunk so low" to do such "caricature like paintings". I am sure Elvgren was a classy and decent man, and a man of his era (so he is excused to a degree for a number of the now non-PC-like paintings he did) but how is it not a caricature when Elvgren typically painted woman in lingerie and high heels doing things that they would be idiotic doing in such clothes. For example, why would a woman be bent over a flaming grill with hardly nothing on? Or why would a obviously grown women in heels and lingerie again, who is crouching on a chair, be scared of a wind-up crocodile toy?? Are women so stupid that when they paint the floor, they paint themselves into a corner? Well, if you are an Elvgren painting, it seems so. But that is what pin-up artists of their day did. They did caricatures. Women were seen as child-like (needing men to take care of them, "of course") and the pinup genre in general is for men to look at them in all their (my) glorious male gaze. The fact is that caricatures of women are the basis of pin-ups. Shameful? Why yes. Of course, but that was another time and place. The problem with this book is that the authors try to put Elvgren apart from the rest of the pack (maybe because of Drake's christian bent?) even goes on to say how Elvgren would often change the models to by saying he would not "pu himself" so lowly as to do caricatures like artists like Frahm. However, the book also discusses how Elvgren himself elongated his models torsos, shrank their noses, and put 15 year old faces on adult women bodies. Why set apart Elvgren from Frahm by saying one did caricatures and one did not. Why not just say Elvgren was the best at these caricatures and did them classier? I love Elvgren art. He was a wonderful artist and the best pinup artist of his time. I wish the book would have been more about the art itself and based in more facts of Elvgren's life instead of an obviously skewed retelling by a born again son. I respect Collins truly hope in his next book he won't allow his common sense to fail him again when co-authoring a book with a family member of the subject. I wonder how different this book would have been if he had done this alone? Drake's personal memories of his father could have been kept in without Drake's obvious biases working to "save' his father from what I am sure Drake must see as some sort of minor sin by hios father (thankfully saved by Elvgren's getting reborn 6 months before dying-as the book makes sure to point out!). Drake's characterization of his father is almost nauseating.

It is great.

This is a great book for the Elvgren enthusiast as well as a person discovering Elvgren's work for the first time. The only way I could see to make it better would be to include more of his work. I thought the use of overlays was particularly effective in illustrating how Mr. Elvgren used models for his work. If someone has even a casual interest in Pin-Up art check this book out.