Lured By the Girl of the Lost City 1967

Victor Prezio created this artwork, "Lured By the Girl of the Lost City," at an unknown date with an unknown medium. The image suggests an intersection of pulp adventure and the male gaze. The work evokes a cultural fascination with lost civilizations, a theme prevalent in early to mid-20th-century popular culture. The imagery may be connected to the exploitation of ancient cultures for entertainment. The lost civilization genre had its own institutions, the magazines that commissioned images like this one. The woman's image and costume reflect the male gaze, common in pulp magazines of the time. It can be compared to the art of pin-up artists like Gil Elvgren, and the imagery of Playboy magazine. By studying the history of pulp magazines, the artists who worked for them, and the social attitudes toward women and non-Western cultures in this period, we can understand how this painting reflects the social and institutional forces of its time.