Bettie Page and Charles Binger

Now Through November 30th, 2015

BETTIE PAGE SILVER GELATIN PHOTOGRAPHS BY IRVING KLAW

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE!

Bettie Page (April 22, 1923 – December 11, 2008) was the undisputed Queen of Pinups. Her jet-black hair, eye color, and trademark bangs have influenced artists and fashion for generations.

Each is an original 4×5 snapshot from the negative printed while Movie Star News was operating as a mail order business. Founder of Movie Star News and one of the first fetish photographers in American history, Irving Klaw, was considered the Pin-Up King and spawned the career of Baby Lake, Tempest Storm, Blaze Star and his most famous, Bettie Page. Bettie became the first female bondage model.

1957 marked the beginning of the end of Irving Klaw’s mail-order photography business. An investigation tried to link pornography to juvenile delinquency and McCarthy-style hearings branded Klaw as a degenerate pornographer, ushering in a new wave of media censorship. Because of the political, social, and legal pressures he faced, Klaw closed his storefront business and burned many of his negatives. It is estimated that more than 80 percent of the negatives were destroyed.

La Luz de Jesus Gallery recently acquired this collection of 42 photographs struck from the original source photos, and following our very successful Black Friday sale, there are only one or two of each left!

We will be offering them for $50 each until the New Year, when they’ll either be completely Sold Out or go back in the vault. Call or email our gallery director to make your purchase today: (323)666-7667 info@laluzdejesus.com

 

Each photograph comes with a certificate of authenticity. There are no watermarks on the actual photographs.

 

 

CHARLES BINGER

 

Charles Ashford Binger (1907 – 1974) was a British-born painter who found great success in Hollywood and on Madison Avenue. His commercial art included film posters, pulp novels and celebrity portraiture in a career that spanned the 1920s – 1970’s. Binger’s hallmark style utilized impeccable composition, rendered in a painterly style over roughened textures. His gift at capturing in oils, beautiful, vulnerable women and rugged, earthy men made him a highly sought portraitist among the crowned heads of Europe, and a valuable commodity in the emerging post-war pulp market. His science-fiction paperback covers include masterpieces The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury & Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. As Marilyn Monroe’s favorite illustrator, he created three of her most memorable film posters, including Niagara and River of No Return. Located in the discovery phase of our sophomore exhibition were key art paintings for Ben Hur and A Streetcar Named Desire.

His estate has recently discovered several paintings that have never before been offered for sale, and we discovered the provenance of several previously unattributed works, like the cover to an Erle Stanley Gardner Perry Mason paperback. The majority of these paintings were created in the 1950s and all come directly from the painter’s family.

 

Contact Gallery Director Matthew Gardocki for purchase info:
info@laluzdejesus.com  (323)666-7667

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