Creative Influences: Patrick Nagel

One of the main creative influences on my work is American artist Patrick Nagel (November 25, 1945 – February 4, 1984).  He created popular illustrations in the 1970’s and 1980’s, most of which emphasize the simple grace and beauty of the female form.  He is best known for his illustrations that appeared in Playboy magazine.  

In 1972, he began work as a freelance artist for major corporations and magazines, including Architectural Digest, Harper's Magazine, IBM, ITT Corporation, Intel, Lucky Strike cigarettes, Ballentine Whiskey, Budweiser, MGM, Oui, Rolling Stone, United Artists and Universal Studios.  In 1976, Nagel began to regularly create images for Playboy magazine, which greatly improved his exposure and brought much attention to the highly stylized "Nagel Woman".  In 1978, he made the first of many posters for Mirage Editions.  Nagel's 1982 painting for Duran Duran's album cover "Rio" would become one of his best known images. 

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 lines 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 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 believed were most important.  Nagel's figures generally have black hair, white skin, full lips and the distinctive Nagel eyes, which are often squared off in his later works.  Because of the intense stylization and simplification of the facial features, the figures resemble each other, even though Nagel worked with many models, including Playboy playmates Cathy St. George, Tracy Vaccaro and Shannon Tweed.  Nagel also painted several celebrity portraits including Joan Collins (whose portrait was subsequently released as a limited edition print) and Joanna Cassidy.

Nagel did paint men, but only one was ever released as a fine art print while he was alive.  Nagel continues to have a devoted following of collectors.