Patrick "Pat" Nagel was an American artist and illustrator. He created popular illustrations on board, paper, and canvas, most of which emphasize the female form in a distinctive style, descended from Art Deco and Pop art. He is best known for his illustrations for Playboy magazine and the popmusic groupDuran Duran, for whom he designed the cover of the best-selling album Rio.
In 1971, Nagel worked as a graphic designer for ABC Television, producing graphics for promotions and news broadcasts. The following year, he began work as a freelance artist for major corporations and magazines, including Architectural Digest, Harper's Magazine, IBM, ITT Corporation, MGM, Oui, Rolling Stone, United Artists, and Universal Studios. His work graced the album covers of recording artists such as Tommy James, Charlene, Thelma Houston and Cissy Houston. Nagel's 1982 painting for the album cover of rock group Duran Duran's hit album Rio became one of his better known images. He worked for many commercial clients, including Intel, Lucky Strike cigarettes, Ballantine's Whiskey, and Budweiser. Nagel contributed to Playboy magazine between August 1975 until July 1984, regularly contributing with one painting being published per every issue of the magazine, most notably in the Playboy Advisor, Playboy Forum and Playboy After Hours columns. This helped improved his exposure to a wider audience and encouraged the popularity of "the Nagel Woman" image. He created roughly 285 pieces of art work for Playboy during his career. In the beginning of his work with Playboy, he was given very specific illustration instructions, but that stopped sometime between 1977 and 1978, and instead switched working style to Nagel submitting his work for approval before publication. After the artists' death, in 1993 his widow Jennifer Dumas went into litigation with Playboy over the rights of the artwork in Playboy Enterprises, Inc. v. Dumas.
Nagel Woman
In 1977, he made his first poster image for Mirage Editions, with whom he printed many images, his most famous being those of "Nagel women." The "Nagel woman" was developed over time and increased in popularity after Nagel began publishing his work with Playboy in 1975. The women were drawn as "Nagel's ideal woman". His female figures tended to have black hair, and bright white skin. Nagel worked with many models, including Playboy Playmates Cathy St. George, Tracy Vaccaro and Shannon Tweed, and also painted several celebrity portraits, including those of Joan Collins and Joanna Cassidy. There has been much discussion about from where Nagel drew his style, however, since little is known about Nagel's art background, there is no definite answer as to the sources of his stylistic inspiration. Art historians have made the connection that he was influenced by Japanese style art, but there are no significant links connecting Nagel to Japanese artistry. His mapmaking experiences in Vietnam possibly did more to steer him into high contrast imagery than anything else.
Death and legacy
Nagel died February 4, 1984, after participating in a 15-minute celebrity "aerobathon" to raise funds for the American Heart Association in Santa Monica. An autopsy determined his cause of death was a heart attack, and a further autopsy revealed that Nagel had a congenital heart defect that went undetected his entire life. He was survived by his wife, Jennifer Dumas, and his daughter from a previous marriage, Carol Ness. Against his parents' wishes and through no direction attributable to him, Patrick Nagel was cremated and his ashes scattered over the Pacific Ocean. Nagel's manager, Karl Bornstein, president of Mirage Editions Inc. attempted to continue publication of Nagel's works, but succeeded only in exploiting the brand and dramatically lowering its value. None of the Estate Collection, Playboy Collection or associated accumulations of his work featured Patrick Nagel's signature. Some were authenticated by his widow, but none were deemed to have collectible value. In 1991, the FBI discovered and dismantled a counterfeiting ring which flooded the market with forged serigraphs. By 1996, most of Nagel's work had been dismissed as dated and almost worthless, prompting up to 70% to be discarded, damaged or destroyed.
In popular culture
In the Vertigo comics series The Sandman, written by Neil Gaiman, the character Desire of The Endless is generally illustrated to resemble a Nagel print, specifically the portrait used for the Rio album cover.
In the ' episode "World of Hurt, BC", Xavier time travels to February 4, 1984, wherein one man announces that he just purchased a Nagel print. Another man then informs him that the artist had just died.
