The Artist who Loved Women The Incredible Life & Work of Patrick Nagel, the Most Successful & Anonymous American Artist of the 1980s

The brilliant career of Patrick Nagel, one of America's most significant contemporary artists, ended in February 1984 with his death at the age of 38, but a rich legacy of paintings, drawings, graphics, and sculpture remains. This volume - with over 100 full-color plates, 25 black-and-white drawings, 2 full-color foldouts, and a full-color catalogue raisonné of Nagel's poster graphics - preserves and surveys that legacy. Ever since 1974, when his work first achieved prominence in Playboy magazine, the art of Patrick Nagel has been widely admired, exhibited, and collected. With over 80 thousand people owning at least one of Nagel's limited-edition works, his best-selling lithographs are the graphic touchstones of an era. In these pages, those who knew Nagel well - among them, Joan Collins and Hugh Hefner - recall an "original": a man who loved the pre-Raphaelites and women, who worked 18 hours a day but programmed his appointments around his favorite TV shows, and who from childhood wanted only to be an artist. Nagel's use of silhouette, bold line, and unusual angles of vision recalls the Japanese woodblock print. His process was one of simplification, a stripping away in order to achieve a stronger impact with fewer elements. His images are formal yet decorative. His women are the quintessential women of the '80s. A so-called popular artist, he became a creator of fine art. – from back cover.