Patrick Nagel's paintings of tall, athletic women with blanched skin became very popular in the '80s. He's one of those rare artists who, during his lifetime, is able to not only penetrate the clubby world of New York art dealers but also crossover into mass culture. You were very likely to find a Nagel right alongside a Lamborghini Countach or Heather Thomas poster in many a teenager's bedroom circa 1983-84.
But what happened to Nagel when he grew out of fashion? He was actually able to eke out a modest income for himself illustrating the storefront windows of hair salons and dry cleaning establishments. In fact, he's still at it right here in San Francisco as you can see from my two photos.
7 comments:
Are you sure he's even eking out a living, or perhaps he is just bartering flashy window paintings for free haircuts and drycleaning?
We'll know he's really sunk low when you start seeing crack dealers toting around signs illustrated by sparkly eyed pale 80s women holding up crack pipes exuding the barest wisp of Nagelian smoke.
I've always wondered what happened to Nagel -- however -- I certainly know that he died in the 80's and could not be responsible for the reprehensible reproduction that you mock...
Still -- I admire your comparison -- given the huge fan of your blog I am...!
I think Nagel was at that garage sale, for reals. I think he may have been the creepy guy by the mannequin. Do you remember? He said, apropos of nothing, really, "It looks like a fucked up boy scout" to a very freaked out N. I'll put up the picture of the boy scount next.
I hold Nagel indirectly responsible for some of the horrendously bad hair that marred the otherwise fantastic films of the '80s. Bueller, anyone?
KT - that's a far out concept with the crack dealers. my dealer actually doesn't use signs. somebody just pointed him out to me at the end-up one night. another good way to find a dealer is to look for shoes up on the telephone wires--have any of you ever seen that? shoes thrown up on a telephone wire? that means there's a dealer nearby. i'm only kidding. some dumb girl told me that once-- she really believed for some reason that that was true.
ANYANKA - i do remember that boy scout comment - hilarious. please do post that photo again. people deserve to see that. I actually have become very enchanted by mannequins and have taken a number of pics of them which i will post shortly. speaking of mannequins, some guy named ccshine (who's a friend of your guyses i gather??) posted a comment in response to my meshach taylor fan club posting! his favorite movie happens to be MANNEQUIN starring meshach taylor -- he's my NEW best friend! who is he?
CSshine is an extremely handsome man who lives very, very, very near me.
awww.. okay - he's nick, right??
We don't have dangling shoes in L.A. We have dangling birds.
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