In the Line of Fire, Man’s Life cover 1967

Victor Prezio made this lurid painting for the cover of Man’s Life magazine, and it’s a real pulp fiction moment. Prezio lays down the narrative with these broad brushstrokes and high-key colour palette, all action and high drama. Look at the way he handles the paint, especially on the figure of the woman, it’s really loose, almost impressionistic. The way the pink of the robe picks up the light gives it a kind of hyper-real quality. And the way the brushstrokes follow the contours of her body makes her seem almost pliable, vulnerable. The whole thing has a slightly unsettling, dreamlike quality. Prezio was working in a world of illustration dominated by artists like Norman Saunders and Mort Kunstler and there’s a similar sense of heightened reality, the same interest in the drama of everyday life.