Olivia De Berardinis paints pinup art
Since 2004, her portraits have been a Playboy magazine staple, carrying on from the late Alberto Vargas.
HOW Olivia De Berardinis found her creative calling is a classic feminist success story -- with one possible catch. Can a painter who is at the pinnacle of pinup art be a symbol of female empowerment?
Since 2004, De Berardinis' portraits have filled the monthly niche in Playboy magazine carved by Alberto Vargas, the most famous American pinup artist. They depict women too beautiful to be real in states of come-hither nudity or dishabille, above naughty captions penned by Hugh Hefner himself.
De Berardinis, 59, admits she felt conflicted during the 1970s, when she was creating more blatant erotica for less classy men's magazines.
"I had the boxing gloves on for years," she says, putting her fists up to illustrate how defensive she used to feel about creating work that "is not considered blue-chip art" -- and that risked being interpreted as reducing women to sex objects. But those misgivings faded, she says, replaced by an obsession for capturing feminine allure as artfully as she could. In fact, Olivia -- her nom de brush -- and her husband, Joel Beren, say they've never heard any criticism about how they make their living (he photographs her models, because she prefers working from pictures to having them pose while she paints). The living is a good one: Their home and work studios occupy 6,000 square feet above the ocean in Malibu. And judging from the response at her art shows and her MySpace site, Olivia says, women are a big part of her fan base.
She can't remember a time when she did not draw women. Girlhood inspiration came from the Playboys her father, an aeronautical engineer, would leave around the house, and from her mother, whose larger-than-life personality, yen for fantasy and lack of inhibition included a fondness for trying to impersonate Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn. Her mother also had a penchant for prancing through the house undressed if no visitors were around.
Olivia says the extroversion genes apparently bypassed her. One reason she paints fabulously sexy women is to vicariously inhabit their bodies and their attitudes. "I just never found my way to be that free. I can fantasize on paper about running around in a sheer outfit, which I can't do myself."
