What can be bad about 902 pin-ups? This is a huge collection of pin ups from the 1890s all the way through to the 1970s. Most of them are from the pin-up golden age of the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s. This is primarily an art book by the well-know Taschen. The colour reproductions are very high quality. Many of the images get a full page. Four images per page is another common layout, but all kinds of lay outs are used to really squeeze the images in. Much less satisfying is the text. After a fine introductory essay on the history of the pin-up (sharing its title with the book) the quality of the writing fades. The other initial essays are forgettable. The great bulk of the book is divided up by artist with each getting a brief biography. Other than the basic information on birth dates and schools attended these biographies all fade together into glowing praise of each man’s (or woman’s) brushwork, colour and luminosity. I’m not sure what I expected out of a book about pin-ups, but except for a few gems of information I was underwhelmed. Avoid it if you are looking for “scholarly” stuff about the place of the pin-up in the American psyche or the history of sex appeal in advertizing. Get it if you like to look at pin-ups.
30 June 2010
A Review: The Great American Pin-Up - Charles G Martignette & Louis K Meisel
4 / 5 Stars
What can be bad about 902 pin-ups? This is a huge collection of pin ups from the 1890s all the way through to the 1970s. Most of them are from the pin-up golden age of the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s. This is primarily an art book by the well-know Taschen. The colour reproductions are very high quality. Many of the images get a full page. Four images per page is another common layout, but all kinds of lay outs are used to really squeeze the images in. Much less satisfying is the text. After a fine introductory essay on the history of the pin-up (sharing its title with the book) the quality of the writing fades. The other initial essays are forgettable. The great bulk of the book is divided up by artist with each getting a brief biography. Other than the basic information on birth dates and schools attended these biographies all fade together into glowing praise of each man’s (or woman’s) brushwork, colour and luminosity. I’m not sure what I expected out of a book about pin-ups, but except for a few gems of information I was underwhelmed. Avoid it if you are looking for “scholarly” stuff about the place of the pin-up in the American psyche or the history of sex appeal in advertizing. Get it if you like to look at pin-ups.
What can be bad about 902 pin-ups? This is a huge collection of pin ups from the 1890s all the way through to the 1970s. Most of them are from the pin-up golden age of the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s. This is primarily an art book by the well-know Taschen. The colour reproductions are very high quality. Many of the images get a full page. Four images per page is another common layout, but all kinds of lay outs are used to really squeeze the images in. Much less satisfying is the text. After a fine introductory essay on the history of the pin-up (sharing its title with the book) the quality of the writing fades. The other initial essays are forgettable. The great bulk of the book is divided up by artist with each getting a brief biography. Other than the basic information on birth dates and schools attended these biographies all fade together into glowing praise of each man’s (or woman’s) brushwork, colour and luminosity. I’m not sure what I expected out of a book about pin-ups, but except for a few gems of information I was underwhelmed. Avoid it if you are looking for “scholarly” stuff about the place of the pin-up in the American psyche or the history of sex appeal in advertizing. Get it if you like to look at pin-ups.
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