“Both series [Pin-Ups and Young Boys] present fantasized images of the sexual body that remains eternally out of reach. The figures reflect this as hazy shapes, fleeting shadows, elusive phantasms. [The series] Wolkenkieker carries it to an extreme. The portraits of such sex idols as Pamela Anderson (Morning Dew, 1997), Cicciolina (Silverplate Staller, 1997) and Mae West (West, 1997) are dissolved in luminous reflective ink pools, sometimes mixed with metallic powder, as intangible as a cloud of perfume. Aren’t love and sex the only glimpse of heaven we mortals ever get?”
—Dominic van den Boogerd
Can pin-ups still survive in a pornographic age?
Somehow just like marriage and prisons they still do.
Origin
The pin-up is of American/English origin. As is the word ‘sexy’. It dates from somewhere around the beginning of the century. In Europe there were more pornographic pictures. These didn’t exist in America. As a very young girl I drew those cheerful clichés, copied from comic strips and cartoons. I often drew them on the backs of cigarette packets of friends who came to visit my parents. I made these sketches very quickly and they turned out differently every time, yet somehow the same. And so everyone was very impressed and assured me that I was destined for the arts.
A classic pin-up is primarily fantasy and never actually intended to be touched or possessed.
I always wanted a sailor.
So I could long for him
while he’s gone.
And be happy when he comes.
Soft-core yet tough.
Pink puff
hot stuff
she’s had enough.
With regret for the fact
that ‘sexy’ also implies something stupid
and the fine arts avoid that
in favour of the ‘erotic’.
I’ve always felt related to those places
where the pin-up feels at home.
And I thank all those nameless artists
who’ve given us the real pin-ups.
The preceding text can be found in Marlene Dumas, Sweet Nothings: Notes and Text, New York, 2015 and online.
