Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Leroy Nieman's Femlin

Leroy Nieman (1921-2012) was an American artist who loved glamor and celebrity. He portrayed the worlds of sports and jazz using bright colors and splashy paint strokes and distributed them as serigraphs. 


He also created a popular black-and-white female character for Playboy Magazine called Femlin. 

According to the Franklin Bowles Gallery, "Neiman envisioned her as being 12" tall, so in most of the illustrations she's in that scale. She's depicted as being mischievous, and as her name suggests, she's a female gremlin. Starting in 1957, every issue of Playboy had two black and white Femlins; she was usually on the jokes page behind the centerfold."
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Decoder Ring podcast about Leroy Nieman's career, The Artist Who Was Both Loved and Disdained
 

1 comment:

  1. Growing up in the 50-60’s I remember Femlin, however Vargas was more of an influence on my art. The cars, the girls were hard to resist. Thumbs up to your blog. Though I’ve watched many a you tube of your, I’m embarrassed to say I’m a newbie to this. Stapleton Kerns and I discussed you earlier this year which may have influenced me to visit. I’m not a fan of gmail but I guess that’s what I’m signed in to.

    Best regards
    Bill Fargo

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