Patrick Nagel

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Patrick Nagel (November 25, 1945 - February 4, 1984) was an American artist. He created popular illustrations on board, paper, and canvas, most of which emphasize the simple grace of and beauty of the female form, in a distinctive style descended from Art Deco. Nagel would start with a photograph and work down, always simplifying and removing elements which he felt were unnecessary. The resulting image would look flat, but emphasized those elements which he felt were most important.

Nagel was born in Dayton, Ohio, but was raised and spent most of his life in the Los Angeles area. He attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, and then worked as a graphic designer for ABC Television before beginning work as a freelance artist. He is best known for his illustrations for Playboy magazine, and the pop group Duran Duran, for which he designed the cover of the best selling album Rio. He also worked for many commercial clients, including Intel, Lucky Strike cigarettes, and Budweiser. As his popularity grew he began offering limited edition prints of his work.

According to Elena G. Millie, curator of the poster collection at the Library of Congress:

Like some of the old print masters (Toulouse-Lautrec and Bonnard, for example), Nagel was influenced by the Japanese woodblock print, with figures silhouetted against a neutral background, with strong areas of black and white, and with bold line and unusual angles of view. He handled colors with rare originality and freedom; he forced perspective from flat, two-dimensional images; and he kept simplifying, working to get more across with fewer elements. His simple and precise imagery is also reminiscent of the art-deco style of the 1920s and 1930s- its sharp linear treatment, geometric simplicity, and stylization of form yield images that are formal yet decorative.^[1]

Nagel's figures generally have black hair, bright white skin, full-lipped mouths, and the distinctive Nagel eyes, which are often squared off in the later works. Because of the intense stylization and reduction of facial features into clean lines, generally the figures resemble each other, though Nagel worked with many models, including Playboy Playmates Cathy St. George, Tracy Vaccaro and Shannon Tweed. Nagel also painted several celebrity portraits including those of Joan Collins (whose portrait was subsequently released as a limited edition print) and Joanna Cassidy.

While Nagel's work is mostly represented by aloof, if also seductive women, they are rarely, if ever, presented in a submissive relationship with men.^{[citation needed]} These are highly sexual, but empowered and intelligent women. Nagel also painted men, though only one was ever released as a fine art print while Nagel was alive. He had and continues to have a devoted following of collectors.^{[citation needed]}

In 1984, at the age of 38, the artist participated in a 15-minute celebrity "Aerobathon" to raise funds for the American Heart Association. Afterwards, he was found dead in his car, and doctors determined by autopsy that he had suffered a heart attack.^[2]

[edit] In popular culture

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In the 1991 motion picture "Drop Dead Fred" an original Nagel acrylic on canvas titled "Shannon" can be seen prominently in several scenes.
In the Futurama episode "A Fishful of Dollars", the "authentic 20th century apartment" has what appears to be a Nagel-esque poster of a woman on the wall. The same painting appears again in the later episode "The Cryonic Woman".
In the Vertigo comics series, The Sandman, the character Desire of The Endless is generally illustrated to resemble a Nagel print, specifically the portrait used for the band Duran Duran's Rio album cover. Neil Gaiman, the creator of the series and character, had previously written a biography for the band in 1984.
The packaging and promotional material for the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City similarly exhibits a stylistic debt to Nagel's work.
Nagel's artwork strongly influenced much of the illustration and clip art of the late '80s and illustrations of women strongly resembling those seen in Nagel's art can still be seen on Asian-American nail salons and other beauty-oriented businesses.
A copy of his work can be seen in the background, in the Daria episode #507. "Art Burn". It is on the wall in Gary's Gallery and looks similar to the cover for the Duran Duran album Rio.
Some editions of Cyberpunk 2020 have images inspired by Nagel's work.
Dirty Sanchez referenced Nagel in their popular electroclash single, "Fucking On the Dancefloor" with the lyric, "You're as fake as a beauty shop Nagel", meant to make fun of the many knock-off Nagel-esque posters and prints appearing in many nail and hair salons.