Post-depression America was in desperate need of a defining iconography that would lift it out of the black and white doldrums, and it came in the form of Gil Elvgren's Technicolor fantasies of the American dream. His technique - which earned him a reputation as "The Norman Rockwell of cheesecake" - involved photographing models and then painting them into gorgeous hyper-reality, with longer legs, more flamboyant hair and gravity-defying busts, and in the process making them the perfect moral-boosting eye-candy for every homesick private.

Author Biography

Louis K. Meisel is owner and manager of one of the oldest contemporary art galleries in Soho, New York. He has published monographs on Charles Bell and Richard Estes, as well as the books Photorealism and Photorealism Since 1980. Charles G. Martignette is an art dealer, art historian, journalist, and writer. Pictures from his collection have been exhibited in the Smithsonian Institution as well as many other American and European museums.