Solid American pinup by Bill Madcalf
There is hardly any need to explain what pin-up is. It is one of the most recognizable trends in fine art, although the peak of interest in it passed more than half a century ago. Pin-up has its own canons, styles and, of course, classics. One of them is the American Bill Medcalf.
For some reason, it turns out that the brightest mark in pin-up is left by artists for whom it was nothing more than a hobby. This is what happened to Madcalf, who graduated from art school, a specialized institute and got more than a serious job. The young specialist was accepted to the US State Treasury as an engraver.
Bill Madcalf diligently carried out his very responsible job. And in his free time he drew girls, inspired by the works of the luminaries of the pin-up genre, such as Alberto Vargas and Earl Moran.
In 1947, Madcalf decided that he had done enough good for the United States and began looking for another job. He was attracted to working as an illustrator for a small magazine. He believed that this would give him enough time for free creativity.
The artist sent his best illustrations to editors and waited for a response. To his amazement, the first to respond was the most famous US publishing house of the time, Brown & Bigelow. This was a lucky ticket, because the company was looking specifically for a master in the pin-up style.
Is there anything better than a job that completely coincides with a hobby? Bill Madcalf worked in publishing for more than 20 years. He created thousands of illustrations, hundreds of posters and dozens of calendars. He was even commissioned to create an author's calendar. This is an honor that not every artist, even a famous one, gets.
But the highest appreciation of his work was a meeting with the masters of the pin-up style, Gil Elvgren and Norman Rockwell. Madcalf approached them at one of the exhibitions, hoping to get some useful advice. But the great masters themselves bombarded Bill with questions, finding out how he managed to get the deep inner light of the paintings.
Madcalf once said this about his work: