EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 25 © 2019 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

65 Art Frahm Known primarily for his ladies in distress pin- up calendars, this artist h d more than one trump card up his sleeve, as Diego Cordoba reminds us in this feature. Pin-up art was quite popular during the early half of the twentieth century. Images of beautiful women, usually caught in a state of undress or wearing flimsy clothes, was a popular form of illustration aimed primarily at men. During the many wars taking place last century, soldiers were known to pack in their knapsacks at least one pin-up poster. Among the most quirky of all the pin-up artists was Art Frahm, an illustrator who came up with the brilliant idea of showing images with attractive women losing their knickers, usually in public and at the most inconvenient time. While this might seem quite unlikely in our day and age (usually young women now go out without wearing their undergarments), apparently back in the day FACING PAGE: O-ooh! , oil on canvas, 1950. It’s pin- ups like this, nowadays a cause for derision, that made Frahm a household name in the 1950s. BELOW LEFT: Come on over , oil on board. Frahm’s girls always had an inviting smile. Images like this with girls wearing bathing suits were popular pinups during the forties and fifties. BELOW RIGHT: Shakedown , oil on canvas, 1955. The women that went shopping in Frahm’s paintings all had celery brimming from the top of their shopping bags, begging some fans to call them the ‘celery ladies’. All images courtesy of Heritage Auctions