Nagel, Patrick (1945-1984)
Nagel, Patrick (1945-1984)
Painter, illustrator, and graphic artist Patrick Nagel came to prominence around 1980 with works influenced by fashion photography, Art Deco poster art of the 1920s and 1930s, and Japanese woodblock prints. Born in Dayton, Ohio, Nagel grew up in the Los Angeles area, where he spent most of his life. He studied art at the Chouinard Art Institute, and in 1969 received his bachelor of fine arts degree from California State University at Fullerton. After first working as a freelance artist he joined ABC-TV in 1971, where he produced television graphics for promotion and news broadcasts. After a year, he returned to freelance assignments, accepting commissions from major corporations and magazines, including IBM, ITT, United Artists, MGM, Universal Studios, Architectural Digest, Rolling Stone, Oui, and Harpers. From 1976 he illustrated the Playboy column "The Playboy Advisor."
Although he produced over sixty different graphic editions during his lifetime, he was best known for the "Nagel women," idealized portraits of fashionable young women who exuded both a sense of style and an alluring mystery. Perhaps inspired by Nagel's wife, the model Jennifer Dumas, these silk-screened limited edition prints quickly won him an international reputation. Often used in advertisements, they marked a decided turn away from the visual trends of the late 1960s and 1970s. Nagel's crisp lines and flat, cool colors were quite unlike that period's busy, neo-Baroque "psychedelic" poster art. Nagel attempted to depict the new, confident woman of the 1980s, one secure with her sexuality, yet simultaneously slightly distanced and aloof. Almost always shown with ghostly white skin, red lipstick, and short black hair, this "Nagel woman" proved a narrow but extremely popular vision. His first solo show of painted works sold out in fifteen minutes. In 1982 the rock band Duran Duran invited Nagel to design the cover for its number-one selling album, Rio.
Many celebrities, including Joan Collins, posed for Nagel's paintings, attracted perhaps by his rare sense of an almost austere glamour. After his untimely death in 1984, Playboy published in its January 1985 issue an homage to Nagel the artist and Nagel the man. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Musée des Arts Decoratifs and the Musée de L'Affiche, in Paris.
—Vance Bell
Further Reading:
"The Art, Life, and Humor of the Late Patrick Nagel." http://www.patricknagel.com. May 1999.
Dumas, J. The Art of Patrick Nagel. New York, Alfred Van Der Marck Editions, 1985.
Nagel, Patrick. Nagel: The Art of Patrick Nagel. New York, Harper Collins Publishers, Incorporated, 1989.