Untitled, Playboy 1983

Patrick Nagel made this untitled artwork for Playboy using flat color fields. It’s like he was trying to find the essence of glamour with minimal fuss. I wonder, what was Nagel thinking when he chose that particular shade of blue for her top? It’s almost electric, clashing in a cool way with the grey background and that sunny yellow shape behind her. And those lipstick-pink earrings—it’s like he’s playing with color to create a mood, a vibe. There’s a crispness here, a precision that feels very 80s, very calculated. I imagine Nagel working on this, carefully masking off each area, filling it in with these bold, unapologetic colors. It reminds me a bit of Alex Katz, but with a sharper edge, more like pop art. You get the feeling that he wanted to capture a specific moment, a certain type of woman, without getting bogged down in detail.