Art Frahm : Fallen Knickers, Women And Celery (1950s)

Art Frahm  (1907–1981) was an American artist best known for his drawing of 1950s pin-ups. Falling panties were his muse and sticks of celery his sunflowers. Frahm’s tableaux feature white women dashing home from the grocery store shocked or non-plussed to find that their silky knickers have fallen down to their ankles. The women have vacuous, dollish faces. The leering men – perhaps blessed with the power of telekenesis – are possessed of all the panache and gallantry of crows scrapping over roadkill. Their greasepaint eyebrows lift in expectation of still more excitement. As James Lileks notes: “Her pants are down and she can’t run. Have at it, boys!”

 

Art Frahm celery women in peril 1950s art

 

Frahm’s celebrations on the lack of decent knicker elastic in post-war America built on his earlier work for Quaker Oats and Coppertone, for whom he created the 3-year-old girl having her bathing suit pulled by a dog. His daughter Diana Armstrong modelled for the image in the early 1940s. Doubtless talented, a posthumous exhibition of his work saw him dubbed “He’s like a Norman Rockwell”.

 

Art Frahm celery women in peril 1950s art

Art Frahm celery women in peril 1950s art Art Frahm celery women in peril 1950s art

Art Frahm celery women in peril 1950s art

Art Frahm celery women in peril 1950s art

Art Frahm celery women in peril 1950s art

Art Frahm celery women in peril 1950s art

Art Frahm celery women in peril 1950s art

Art Frahm celery women in peril 1950s art

Art Frahm celery women in peril 1950s art

 

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