untitled (gatefold)

Alberto Vargas

1896–1982

untitled (gatefold), circa 1946

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: airbrushing; watercolor

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 99.1 x 65.9 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 39 1/2 x 25 15/16 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 45 x 32 in

Credit line: Gift of Esquire, Inc.

Accession number: 1980.0631

Not on display

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Label texts

Exhibition Label: "Alberto Vargas: The Esquire Pinups," Sep-2001, Stephen Goddard, Maria Buszek This is one of the last gatefolds Vargas designed for Esquire. It appeared as an enormous four- page fold-out. Well before the appearance of this work, relations between Vargas and Esquire had become strained, largely because Vargas had signed contracts with Esquire that bound him to an impossible work load. A few months (April 1946) after this image appeared, a series of lawsuits began between Vargas and Esquire, and the last two “Varga Girls” (April and May) bore the new caption “The Esquire Girl.”