Jeepers Peepers!: A Gallery of American Pin-up Art (Graphic Art) | 
|  | | | Title: | Jeepers Peepers!: A Gallery of American Pin-up Art (Graphic Art) | | Author: | Louis K. Meisel (Introduction) | | Publisher: | Collectors Press | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 21 April, 2006 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 1933112158 / 9781933112152 | | List Price: | $14.95 | | Amazon Price: | $21.95 (via Amazon marketplace seller) | | | |
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Product Description
Careful planning, camaraderie, reliable weapons — these were the WWII GI’s necessities. Pinups provided a different kind of support, mentally transporting American soldiers from the perilous front lines into the accommodating arms of gorgeous, nude, or barely clothed women. Featuring art by such legendary pinup masters as Gil Elvgren, Billy DeVorss, Rolf Armstrong, and Zoe Mozert, this colorful collection commemorates the strange blend of innocence and erotica that characterized the 1940s pinup. Louis K. Meisel has gathered over 300 of the era’s most striking images, arranged into six different themes from Nudes to Swimsuit and Seaside to Indian Maidens, Pirates, and Gypsies. Meisel’s introduction expertly examines the idealized settings and dreamy drawings of a uniquely American icon.
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Customer Reviews:
• A Solid Diversity 24 September, 2006
JEEPERS PEEPERS! A GALLERY OF AMERICAN PIN-UP ART receives a fine introduction by New York gallery owner Louis K. Meisel, whose gallery specializes in pinup artwork by top artists from the 1930s through the 60s, as it provides a gorgeous set of color pinup illustrations by a wide range of artists. These don't just come from calendars, but are from commercial art, wartime posters, and more, going beyond the usual pinup collection focus to display a solid diversity of models and approaches to the pinup.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
- Reviewed by customer ID: A14OJS0VWMOSWO
• A Good Overview Of Pin Up 31 January, 2007
I enjoyed this book. I only wish that it would be bigger and longer. A great bathroom book
- Reviewed by customer ID: A235R3OZ067K8H
• Good Stuff 27 May, 2008
Losts of pictures from different artisits. Very cool little book with a great written introduction.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1NK4QEO7IDZK5
• Thanks To Brown & Bigelow 17 July, 2006
I think it's only worth buying if you want an inexpensive introduction to the art of the pin-up. There are about two hundred and sixty paintings included but unfortunately they are crammed into a 6.5 inch by 5 page size with many three to a page (sort of large thumbnails) and this is the problem with all of the Collector Press mini books, they are too small to really get the best out of the subject. Other books in series reprint consumer ads in this small size!
Another slight annoyance with this book is that it concentrates on artists from the twenties to the forties with a few from the fifties, so no Al Moore, Bill Medcalf, Freeman Elliot and no giants of the genre, Vargas or Petty! In fact the artists that are included seem to be mostly the ones that Collector Press have already published books about.
Where would pin-up art be today without the foresight of calendar printer Brown & Bigelow to more or less create the concept and print millions and millions of girlie pictures that could even be used to tell the day and date especially in garages and light industrial units across America. Dozens of pictures in the book are from their calendars. Well done B&B!
Much better I think to search out author Louis Meisel's definitive book 'The Great American Pin-Up'. You even have two to choose from: the chunky coffee table version The Great American Pin-Up (Jumbo Series) and the less costly reduced size The Great American Pin-Up (Midi) both are well designed and printed with over nine hundred pictures by every American artist up to the seventies.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1ZH52JAC70RIR
• A Celebratory Look At A Classic And Risqué American Art Form 10 January, 2007
When someone else mentioned this book was small, they weren't kidding...to give you a frame of reference, the dimensions are slightly less than that of a standard DVD case. I suppose I can't be too critical about this point as Amazon does have the dimensions posted on their site, and I just neglected to notice this when purchasing.
Published by a company called Collectors Press, Jeepers Peepers! A Gallery of American Pin-Up Art is about 175 pages long, and about 160 of those pages feature pin-up art from the 1930s through the 1960s, presenting roughly over 300 tantalizing images divided into seven different categories (the editorial review states six, but I counted seven). The categories included are as follows (in order);
1. Nudes
2. Playful & Sporty
3. Swimsuit & Seaside
4. Exotic
5. Indian maidens, Pirates (yarrgh) & Gypsies
6. Sheer Beauties (lingerie)
7. Glamour
Up front there's a six-page introduction written by Louis K. Meisel, who's apparently `owner and director of one of the largest and oldest contemporary art galleries in the world'. The introduction is very informative as Mr. Meisel certainly seems to know his stuff (unlike me). My favorite quote from this section is as follows;
"There was no problem with political correctness; feminism was decades in the future. The pin-up girl was how girls and women wanted to look and how men and boys wanted them to look."
As far as the images, they're presented cleanly and in a very professional manner. The paper stock is decent and glossy, allowing the images to shine. As I mentioned earlier there's over 300 images crammed into about 160 pages, so sometimes you'll have one, two, or even three prints on a single page. There's also a concerted effort to identify the particular artist, the date, and title of the work (when possible), which is about the only other text in the book beside the aforementioned intro.
A few things I noticed while perusing through the book...
Apparently it wasn't uncommon for alluring women to get their skirts caught on everyday objects, resulting in said garment riding up to reveal that which we're normally not meant to see. One example would be the act of using a ladder to put something (i.e. books) on a shelf. Ladies beware, as not to catch your hem on one of the rungs when you're coming back down (ladders seemed particularly fiendish devices to operate)!
Another interesting phenomena...back in the day, when an attractive woman was walking her dog while her arms burdened with groceries or some such thing, there was the extreme possibility of having the naughty, mischievous pooch tangling its leash about its owners legs, thereby causing the woman's undergarment to fall about her ankles, followed by a gust of wind coming along (perhaps from a passing bus) and popping the poor woman's skirt up just enough to reveal a healthy pair of gams (and perhaps then some).
A variant on this would be a similar woman, arms burdened with whatnot, trying to exit a telephone booth, only to have her skirt get caught in the door! Oh my!
Then, of course, we have the poor woman at the bowling alley...just as she's chucking her ball down the lane her underpants fall down about her ankles, right at the same time her skirt is blown slightly upward by, I suppose, the air pressurized hand dryer located by the ball return. How many pins did she end up knocking down? Who cares?
My favorite section of the book is the Playful & Sporty portion, as it presents various situations as the ones listed above, most with a similar tone, that being of the `oops, look what happened to me!' variety. As if those kinds of things ever happen in real life (maybe they do, but sadly, never in my presence).
I should probably mention this was sort of my introduction into the world of pin-up art, as while I've been aware of its existence, this is the first book I've purchased exclusively devoted to the subject. That being said I'm sure there's better books out there in relation to the material, but in terms of a general and economical introduction I think this worked out well as it covered a number of different themes along with presenting works by a decent number of artists over a healthy period of time. The flipside? The prints presented are often on the `smallish' side, especially those where two or three appear on the same page. All in all the positives outweighed the negatives, and even given that which I know now (with regards to the size), I'd still have bought the book.
Cookieman108
- Reviewed by customer ID: A25ZVI6RH1KA5L
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