PATRICK NAGEL SILKSCREEN PRINT

 Beautiful Patrick Nagel art signed with frame. A definite plus to your collection. Not a reprint.   Patrick Nagel ~ 1945-1984

Nagel was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1945, but was raised and spent most of his life in the Los Angeles area. Nagel attended the Chouinard Art Institutein Los Angeles in 1969, and in that same year he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from California State University, Fullerton. After graduation, he began teaching at the Art Center College of Design, while simultaneously establishing himself as a successful freelance designer, illustrator and painter.

In 1976, Nagel began to regularly contribute images to Playboy magazine, which improved his exposure and the popularity of "the Nagel Woman" image to a huge audience. In 1978, he made his first poster image for Mirage Editions, with whom he would print many Nagel women images.

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.

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.

In addition to paintings, Nagel created more than sixty graphic editions, posters, commemorative editions and several commissions for Playboy and Architectural Digest, as well as the 1983 Duran Duran album cover on what became the number one record in the world.

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.