Vintage Pulp | Jul 28 2014 |
Panties go down, skirt goes up, and physics go out the window.
This Art Frahm pin-up painting, entitled “A Sudden Letdown,” lacks Frahm’s trademark bag of groceries with protruding celery stalk, but the infamous fallen panties are there, presumably shaken loose by the same gust of wind that lifted the woman’s skirt. But was the same breeze responsible for pushing the car off the jack? We know the car was elevated because its owner got two lug nuts off the wheel at some point, but that would be quite a gust, wouldn’t it? And why would the jack still be falling? If a gust pushed the car off its jack, wouldn’t the jack hit the pavement the same time as the car? Maybe the car fell spontaneously and created a gust that lifted the skirt and knocked down the panties. But if that’s the case, again, why is the jack still falling? Maybe it isn’t falling. Maybe it’s bouncing. Maybe it hit a particularly springy patch of asphalt, a substance known for its elastic properties—at least in Frahm’s world. Well, he was a painter not a physicist, so let’s just give him credit where it’s due—he originated an entire genre of fallen panty art that was imitated by many other artists and beloved by the public at large.
Vintage Pulp | Apr 14 2014 |
Art Frahm illustrates the basic principles of gravity.
When we began posting Technicolor lithographs we mentioned that they were designed to replicate pin-up paintings. Today we thought we’d show you several of those traditional prints. These are by Art Frahm circa 1950 to 1955, and are entitled Fare Loser, No Time To Lose, Spare, Shakedown, and Hold Everything. You notice Frahm had a thing about fallen panties—indeed, he made them a trademark of his work. But in four of these you also see another peculiar preoccupation of his, namely celery. The women carrying groceries all have stalks of celery protruding from their bags. And sometimes Frahm’s models also became encumbered with small dogs, which you see in the last two pieces. There are other quirky characteristics of his work as well, and when you add it all up it’s a cocktail of Freudian weirdness, but one that made Frahm a top pin-up artist through the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, and keeps his work highly collectible today. We will have more from him a bit later.