Items Similar to Red Corvette, Hot Car - Playboy Cartoon - Mid-Century
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 12
Ben DenisonRed Corvette, Hot Car - Playboy Cartoon - Mid-Century1961
1961
$16,500
£12,547.52
€14,472.96
CA$23,113.48
A$25,868.55
CHF 13,507.42
MX$315,597.84
NOK 171,458.99
SEK 162,704.03
DKK 108,077.21
Shipping
Retrieving quote...The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation
About the Item
The cop admires the car while the viewer admires the drawing of the car.
The enduring legacy of Ben Denison may not be that he was an early cartoonist for Playboy, but for his style of painting. Reassessing his work a half a century later, it's the art as much as the message. The comic aspect of this work fades, but the visual part endures and blossoms.
Denison's approach was to employ a stripped-down, flat use of bold color, eliminating unnecessary detail, with a high sense of patterning. Along with other Illustration luminaries of his generation, he helped define the look of the late 1950s and early 1960s in magazine illustration. Many of his works are as abstract as they are representational. There may be a reference to Matisse, but Denison has carved out his own simplified narrative style, which is light, airy, and with an underlying sense of joyfulness. He is one of the most significant painters to emerge after World War II. Yet, he is still relatively unknown.
Red Corvette exemplifies this. From a slightly elevated view, we look down on a traffic stop. The hot car, presumably pulled over for a speeding ticket, is depicted as a large, mostly flat area of puchy red. It deliberately occupies about half of the pictorial space of the composition. Denison drives home the point that hot red equals attention-getting drama. The surrounding area complements the car in soothing cool blues and greens. Signed lower right
Frame size 20.73 x 23.13, Elegantly framed with new metal frame and mat under glass
Provenance: The Playboy Collection.
The present work is published on page 173 in the November 1961 issue of Playboy with the caption: "I've Been Thrilled by the Dazzling Breakaway of your Four-Speed, Close-Ratio, Synchromesh, Manual Transmission and the Lusty Surge of Your 315-Horsepower, Fuel-Injection, High-Lift Cam Engine." The work also appears on page 15 of The Playboy Cartoon Album #2 by Hugh Hefner (Playboy Press, 1968)
Condition: Very Good - with fresh looking color, Some surface abrasions, most notably to the upper center, upper right partially on standing figure's arm, and lower left to corvette hood.
The uploaded video on 1stDibs is coming up a bit off color. Refer to the still images for more accurate color
- Creator:Ben Denison (1926, American)
- Creation Year:1961
- Dimensions:Height: 17.5 in (44.45 cm)Width: 14.5 in (36.83 cm)
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:Very Good - with fresh looking color, Some surface abrasions, most notably to the upper center, upper right partially on standing figure's arm, and lower left to corvette hood. Not examined out of frame.
- Gallery Location:Miami, FL
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU385316650282
About the Seller
4.9
Gold Seller
Premium sellers maintaining a 4.3+ rating and 24-hour response times
Established in 2005
1stDibs seller since 2016
115 sales on 1stDibs
Typical response time: 1 hour
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Shipping from: Miami, FL
- Return Policy
Authenticity Guarantee
In the unlikely event there’s an issue with an item’s authenticity, contact us within 1 year for a full refund. DetailsMoney-Back Guarantee
If your item is not as described, is damaged in transit, or does not arrive, contact us within 7 days for a full refund. Details24-Hour Cancellation
You have a 24-hour grace period in which to reconsider your purchase, with no questions asked.Vetted Professional Sellers
Our world-class sellers must adhere to strict standards for service and quality, maintaining the integrity of our listings.Price-Match Guarantee
If you find that a seller listed the same item for a lower price elsewhere, we’ll match it.Trusted Global Delivery
Our best-in-class carrier network provides specialized shipping options worldwide, including custom delivery.More From This Seller
View AllRacing Cars in Bright Red, Sports Illustrated Illustration - Sports Car - Pink
By Bob Peak
Located in Miami, FL
Punchy reds and zestful hot pinks convey a sense of intense motion and engine heat. The art is as much as color-field painting as a narrative work. It was a commissioned illustration for Sports Illustrated...
Category
1970s Color-Field Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Acrylic, Laid Paper
That's a Wrap, Playboy cartoon Illustration ,
By Dink Siegel
Located in Miami, FL
Dink Siegel (American, 1910-2003)
That's a Wrap, Playboy cartoon, August 1973
Mixed media on board
11.25 x 8.5 in.
Signed lower right
Category
1970s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Mixed Media
Pin Up Girl in Red Dress, Mid-Century, Female Artist
By Pearl Frush
Located in Miami, FL
The Pin-Up of ravishing young beauties in mid-century America was a widely popular art form. The assumption that Pin-Up art was the exclusive domain of men is a misnomer. Female illu...
Category
1940s American Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Illustration Board
Film Noir. Pulp Mystery That police officer knows you. Saturday Evening Post
By Paul Rabut
Located in Miami, FL
Film noir crime drama painted in a single frame. In narrative art, telling a story in a single image is harder than doing it in episodes. "'That police officer...
Category
1950s American Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Mixed Media
Motorsport Car Racing with Checkered Flag at Finish Line of a Race Track
By Bob Peak
Located in Miami, FL
This highly innovated Bob Peak Race Track painting is a perfect synthesis of art and commerce. Designed with a radical composition where two-thirds of the picture plane is an alm...
Category
1960s Abstract Impressionist Landscape Paintings
Materials
Mixed Media, Acrylic, Illustration Board, Pencil
Americana "For a horrible instant Carter thought the jet was going to crash
By Peter Helck
Located in Miami, FL
Mid Century Americana "For a horrible instant Carter thought the jet was going to crash in the street." Saturday Evening Post
Work is unframed
Category
1950s Surrealist Landscape Paintings
Materials
India Ink, Gouache
You May Also Like
1959 Corvette, Oil Painting by John McCormick
By John McCormick
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: John McCormick, American
Title: 1959 Corvette
Year: 1983
Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed
Size: 18 in. x 32 in. (45.72 cm x 81.28 cm)
Category
1980s American Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
67 Chevy Playboy
Located in New York, NY
Pop Art. Homage to the 67 Chevy and Playboy. Oil on vintage Playboy Magazines over canvas. The artist is collected worldwide.
Category
2010s Pop Art Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
$13,500
Corvette, Pop Art Lithograph by Mel Ramos
By Mel Ramos
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Mel Ramos, American (1935 - 2018)
Title: Corvette
Year: 2003
Medium: Lithograph, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 149/199
Image Size: 17.75 x 27.5 inches
Size: 23 x 34...
Category
1980s Pop Art Nude Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Riding In Style - Original Classic Pink Car Art: Elegance of Vintage Automotive
By Carl Smith
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Carl Smith explores the area between Pop Art and Surrealism and expresses it in one-of-a-kind original works on canvas, paper or wood. With the use of found images he tells slightly ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Mixed Media
Materials
Canvas, Linen, Mixed Media
$1,320 Sale Price
20% Off
'63 Bel Air, from Four Chevies
By Robert Bechtle
Located in San Francisco, CA
Edition of 60
Robert Bechtle was born in 1932 in San Francisco and raised in Alameda. He studied graphic design and painting at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, earning his BFA in 1954 and MFA in 1958. He began painting seriously in the early 1960s, finding his own voice through a tightly controlled realism that was distinct from the expressionistic paint-handling characteristic of Bay Area Figurative art...
Category
1970s Prints and Multiples
Materials
Lithograph
Price Upon Request
Santa's 1963 Corvette Convertible, Hertz advertisement
By John Philip Falter
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Oil on Masonite
Signature: Signed Center Left
Santa's 1963 Corvette Convertible, Hertz Advertisement.
Category
1960s Figurative Paintings
Materials
Masonite, Oil
