VISUM ET REPERTUM

This month's featured artist:

OLIVIA DEBERARDINIS (1948 - >>)

: In the history of Pin up art no one has depicted the female form quite as skillfully as Olivia De Berardinis. Born in 1948, Olivia was raised on the eastern seaboard of the United States. She began painting women as a child, using her disarmingly beautiful mother as a model. "I was always amazed at the impact my mother had on men," says the artist. So began her fascination with the feminine mystique. In 1966 Olivia came to New York to attend the School of Visual Arts. Dabbling in minimalism for a short period of time, she quickly returned to her painting of women, and her sense of the erotic often rivals that of her male contemporaries. Her lithographs sell for hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars, and she has been featured in galleries and exhibitions on both sides of the Atlantic. Olivia's work is ever changing, always new yet wonderfully timeless. Her current popularity has created a market for her work worldwide. Her technical virtuosity includes works in pencil, gouache, pastel, acrylic, oils and watercolors. Her work has appeared in several magazines including Heavy Metal. She continues a stylistic tradition popularized by Alberto Vargas, and her paintings feature the real-life images of women including Julie Strain, Pamela Anderson, and notably Betty Page, one of the original pin-up girls of the 1950's.

DARK ANGEL

One of the largest genres in visual arts is that of "Fantasy Art", popularized by diverse talents including Boris Vallejo, Frank Frazetta, and Moebius. On the erotic side, there is Alberto Vargas and Olivia DeBerardinis. Although her art does not exclusively fall into the category of fantasy, Olivia has produced many works like the image at left which take a human figure and metamorphose it into something extraordinary. When dealing with erotic art, it is always interesting to note how the depiction of the "ideal" female physique has changed through the history of the form (compare this image with any of Bourguereau's females), reflecting the sexual sensibilities of the times. Even today, in images which the media targets at the younger generations, there seems to be an increasing emphasis on the "waif" as the de facto model for the female body, to the point that many a grade-school student might look at one of Olivia's ravishingly curvaceous women and consider her anything but beautiful.

CAT AND MOUSE

Olivia DeBerardinis (or simply "Olivia", as she is often referred to by fans) has been referred to more than once as a purveyor of "pin-up art". It would seem only fitting, then, that among the models whose images she chooses as the basis for her images, she would feature one of the more well-known "pin-up girls" of the twentieth century: Betty Page. Page appears frequently in Olivia's works (see "Up Periscope", below) and along with more modern personalities like Pamela Anderson and Julie Strain, creates a familiar face to ground the viewer in what is often a fantastic or otherworldy setting.

UP PERISCOPE

More Betty Page. Quite often in Olivia's art, she will take a nude form and alter it to the point of being non-human, sometimes bestowing on the female figure characteristics of the animal kingdom - the stripes of a zebra, the mane of a lion, or, as in this instance, the tail of the mermaid. One of the memorable things about Olivia's work, however, is that even in these instances, she does not subvert the eroticism inherent in the original image. As anyone who reads magazines like "Heavy Metal" or browses the paperback book covers in the Fantasy section of their local bookstore can attest, this is not always an easy feat. Such combination of elements, in the hands of a lesser artist, can (and do) come off as forced, graceless, or downright cheesy. Not so with Olivia.

JULIE STRAIN

This image (well, a slightly altered version of it) was my first experience of the art of Olivia DeBerardinis, appearing as it did in Heavy Metal magazine (although the actual article was on Julie Strain and not Olivia). Julie is perhaps more well known as one of Olivia's favorite subjects than for her admittedly B-grade movie career, which has consisted primarily of low-budget thrillers and soft-core erotica (and combinations thereof). However, there can be no denying Julie's beauty or presence; even in a painting she cuts an impressive figure. As previously mentioned, this was probably my first encounter with Olivia's works, and it is still one of my favorites...although for some reason I seem to recall Ms. Strain wearing slightly more clothing...

BANSHEE

One of the criticisms I have heard leveled more than once against male fantasy artists is that their portrayals of females - strong yet sensual, beautiful yet often dangerous, with bodies both voluptuous and athletic and faces of almost angelic beauty - embody nothing more than adolescent male fantasy masquerading as art. In this light, it is refreshing to note that Olivia DeBerardinis has established quite a respected name for herself over the years, and some would argue that her works surpass those of her male contemporaries in their grace, their power, and their sheer eroticism. Indeed, she celebrates the sensual female in almost all her works, to a degree that few others in her field have. Perhaps it is the fact that she works quite often from photographs of real women. or perhaps it is simply that Olivia DeBerardinis is herself a woman, and therefore not vulnerable to the same sort of criticism as a male, painting the very same images, might be.

TITLE UNKNOWN

Here's another situation where I'm asking for help with a painting by a famous artist. Although this is one of the more commonly seen works by Olivia (at least on the web), I've had a devil of a time trying to find out what the name of this painting is. So if anyone out there knows, please drop me a line...in the meantime, I'd just like to say that this is definitely one of my favorite works by Olivia, not only for the icy color scheme and the truly otherworldly physiology of the subject, but also for the look on the model's face, a tension which seems to carry over into her body as well. There is a sense of danger here, as if this being wants us to know that she can and will overpower us if we try to get too close to her. In the end, all visual art is about communicating an emotion or an idea; whether through a landscape, a still life, or a wonderfully exotic combination of the natural beauty of the human body with the power of the human imagination.

OTHER ARTISTS:

WIlliam Adolphe Bourguereau

H. R. Giger

Catherine McIntyre

Click below to return to