Pino Dangelico (known professionally by his first name only) died 25 May. He was 70 years old, having been born 8 November 1939 in Bari, Italy.

My 2005 2Blowhards post about him can be found here (at least for a while). In it I note that biographical information about him is sketchy. For example, here is the bio page on his Web site: it doesn't say much.

In a nutshell, Pino was a commercial artist who did lots of romance book covers before evolving into a fine arts painter whose main subject remained beautiful women. His signature style (and most artists who rely on their painting for most or all of their income develop one or a few styles that are instantly recognizable by potential buyers) was smoothly-painted skin contrasted with bold brushwork over the rest of the painting. He tended to inject odd bits of color (often a bright red) even on parts of a face or other flesh, this perhaps to help tie the bold and rendered parts of the painting together better.

Possibly in reaction to criticism that all he painted were pretty women (and sometimes their children), he later added men as subjects -- typically older, life-worn gents.

I happen like Pino's work for the most part because of his virtuosity and skill, things I value highly all else being equal. If I had $30,000 or so to spare and collected art, I'd be tempted to buy a Pino original.

But not a Giclée -- especially not Giclées "enhanced" by the artist whereby thick strokes of oil paint are added here and there to the reproduction surface. The impression I get is that these supplemental strokes aren't as well thought out as those for the original painting; the usual effect of this added impasto is to degrade its integrity.

Moreover, I'd only buy one painting. That's because of the similarity of examples of an artist's work -- it easily becomes too much of the same sort of thing when more and more are added. I suspect that a roomful of Rembrandt portraits would become hard to live with too.

Below are some examples of Pino's paintings.


[Image]Photo of Pino in his studio

[Image]A Momentary Glance
This is a fairly typical Pino painting. He often did face-on views of pretty young women doing mundane household tasks.

[Image]Dressing Table
A very nice study. Note the contrast between the treatment of the figure and the rest of the scene.

[Image]Ditto what I noted regarding "Dressing Table."

[Image]Old Man
Here Pino diverges from the usual pretty girl subject matter. The man shown looks similar to Pino, but without a moustache. For what it's worth, one subject I can't recall him painting is mature or older women.