PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

I met Pat in 1980 while working for an art publisher whose warehouse was located across the back alley from Mirage's building in Santa Monica, CA. He was already a rising star in the art community, his work already considered a phenomenon. I would see him drive up to the rear of the building in his shiny Peugeot and even while entering in a hurry, he would always have time to stop and chat with the warehouse employees who were packing and shipping his work.

I approached him about appearing in a modest video series I was hoping to do on the arts. He said sure, why not. And he did. (To date, it remains one of the few pieces of video in which he appeared). He didn't know me from Adam at the time, but that was Nagel. A truly nice man. I used to think of him as the Cary Grant of the art business.

I was working in a gallery in Century City (Galerie Michael, now located on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills) that was showing his work. In 1981, the gallery did a one-man show for Nagel which was so crowded and jammed with Nagel collectors that we sold out three quarters of the paintings on display on the first night. The next afternoon, we sat him down at a table to sign the poster he had created for the gallery and the line snaked out the door for over three hours. Galerie Michael probably sold more Nagel graphics and original works than any other independent gallery at the time. However, the gallery that was later created in Santa Monica by his own publisher Mirage Editions-a funky, upstairs gallery in a lowly, industrial neighborhood-certainly exceeded that, if causing quite a bit of consternation with our gallery, and nearly every other who felt Mirage was stealing customers from them.

It hardly mattered. There was so much opportunity to sell Nagels, there was such a fire storm of enthusiasm for the work and so many collectors that everyone made money. Especially Mirage, who was controlling pricing on the prints, and who enjoyed the escalating secondary market through their own gallery.

Karl Bornstein, the president and the man-behind-the-man at Mirage, was a master at promotion and celebrity tie-ins to promote Nagel's work. The first notable tie-in came with the Joan Collin's portrait in 1982. Had Nagel lived, Bornstein would have gone on to align him with so many Hollywood celebs, it most certainly would have muddied the over-riding concept of Nagel's work -- that he was a brilliant artist and designer. (In my view, it's almost a good thing that never happened).

Then, in early 1984, February (I think it was), Pat went to a PA (personal appearance) opportunity at a local health club, to benefit a local charity. Joined by Wilt Chamberlain, Pat was asked to be photographed taking an aerobics class. Pat didn't like exercise. He smoked and drank a lot of coffee, and was not particularly fit. He left the club, alone, got in his car and his heart stopped. He was found in his car the next morning. (for a look at the document Mirage used to announce Pat's death, go here -- be advised, it's a big file, may take a moment or two to load).

It was literally a nightmare. For everyone. Of course anyone even remotely connected to him was shocked, pained and saddened. But what was worse, the next few weeks and months brought out the absolute most despicable behavior in not a few people associated with Nagel, both dealers and customers. Squabbles and arguments over the work, who would get it, who wouldn't, who had it, who didn't. It was shameful, and I don't mind admitting, I myself got caught up in it.

Prices on the prints and paintings stalled for about a week, then went through the roof. I got a call from a collector the very afternoon of Pat's death, who had had considered purchasing a small painting at the gallery the previous day. When he found we were placing a hold on all pending deals, he threatened me with physical violence if I didn't sell him the painting. There were hundred similar stories. It was not the finest hour.

In the years after his death, with so much money at stake, (sales of posthumous Nagel graphics sold by Mirage generated $21 million in sales revenues from 1984 to 1990, and another $2.5 million in 1991 and 1992.), Mirage went on to reproduce A LOT of Nagel's work as serigraphic prints. In fairness to Mirage, they took great pains to ensure that the prints were faithful to his original intent, that they were carefully created, high quality serigraphs ( the latter work was printed by Samper Silkscreen in Los Angeles, the earlier "lifetime" posters -- see below-- were printed by esteemed fine art printer, Jeff Wasserman, of Wasserman Silkscreen. Wasserman had originally headed up the silk screen department of Gemini G.E.L., now located in NY. Wasserman, to this day, is still one of the most highly regarded fine print ateliers in the Art Community.) These serigraphs, known as the CN series, were printed in huge editions, sometimes as many as five or six thousand of an image, and were vehemently collected. The fact that Mirage tried to maintain the same level of quality and esthetic integrity that Pat would have wanted, speaks volumes. But, they were also counterfeited. A few of those titles were fraudulently reproduced in the tens of thousands (CN2 was a prime target for the counterfeiters).

In addition, Pat's widow, Jennifer Dumas, authorized the legitimate creation of quite a few editions of Pat's work, in various permutations (Jennifer also very kindly allows me to continue to distribute the Artistry interview I did with Pat in 1983, even though she had been in litigation with Mirage, as well as allowing this site to exist. I owe her many thanks for that courtesy)

NAGEL'S HISTORICAL CONNECTION TO ART HISTORY...

Ukiyo-e and NagelNagel was an academician, a student of art history. He was well trained, of course, attending the Chouinard Art Institute and at California State University, Fullerton, where he received a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1969 in painting and graphic design. After graduation, he began teaching at the Art Center College of Design. But moreoever, he was a student of his own work. I'm not sure he was aware of his position as the (then) modern day counterpart to the great 'posterists' who had proceeded him-Lautrec, Mucha, Cassandre, Holwein. But it became evident, even obvious, and admittedly was accentuated by his untimely death.

His work reflected the same influences as those on previous great posterists -- the Japanese, Ukiyo-e woodblock print. (Like those shown at right by Hiroshige and Katsukawa, ca. 1800). Ukiyo-e (the floating world) was to Japanese art history what Impressionism was to Western Art.

A pivotal point to graphic art history was the influence on Paris in the late 19th Century by the Japanese approach to the decrative arts. When the ports of Japan were opened by Commodore Perry in 1854, all of Western Europe was enthralled with the whole notion of 'Japonisme'. In Paris, then the center of the universe in terms of the arts, the artists of the day were delighted by what they saw coming from Japan: cloisonné, fabrics, porcelain, and of course, the tradtional woodblock printmaking motif.

With the development of color lithography in the mid-1800's, all of these new 'styles' were translated into the current rage for prints: large areas of color encompassed by bold line, little gradation in tone, less information, more stylized design. In the work to the upper right, by Jules Cheret -- considered the 'father' of the modern day color poster -- one can see the graceful marriage of typography and image, the lightheartedness and 'joie d'vivre' of the print. At left, the most famous of posters by Toulouse-Lautrec, very Japanese in composition -- very little background, very little emphasis on realism (this poster recently sold at auction for nearly a quarter of a million dollars, by the way).The entire 'less is more' concept was fast becoming the way graphic art was composed. This influence can be seen in the works of all those artists mentioned above, and of course, is perfectly suited to Nagel's style. Patrick brought to it his sense of contemporary color, economic design sense and the gentle treatment of the perennial icon and oft-used motif of fine art: the femme fatale.Nagel's women were not the women we were used to seeing in art history. While lovely and alluring, Nagel's women were contemporary women -- bold, aggressive, stand-offish, independent. The influences of the Japanese is more than typified in Nagels' work throughout his career

CONCLUSION

I truly believe that body of work which Patrick himself must have perceived as his contribution to the genre he loved most -- the illustration and design of great posters -- has immortalized him. His work continued the tradition started by graphic artists as far back as the 18th Century. He put his own, contemporary stamp on it.

The Nagel "look," has never, will never be duplicated.

I apologize for being so long-winded. The fact is, though, that I could write an entire book on Nagel. Someday someone will, much better than I. But for now, I congratulate you for getting this far. It means only one thing: you are a die-hard Nagel enthusiast.

Todd Bingham

TBFA, February, 2000

So, what's the bottom line of the future of these prints?

One thing is certain in my mind: someday, people will want to know bout Patrick Nagel.

Art Historians will wrack their brains attempting to research all this. Because those prints, and the way they stack up to each other, state by state, will be what will dictate value and price. Because some day, all that lifetime material, both signed and unsigned, will be priceless. To further the analogy to those posters by Lautrec and Cheret, bear this in mind: those posters were not only casual advertising media, they were actually meant to deteriorate on the walls and hoardings around Paris. They were never meant to survive. And yet, they have.

At the time of this writing, there is no "catalog raisonné" on the work of Patrick Nagel. (A catalog raisonné is defined as a catalog of the complete body of work, by a certain artist, as of that time. If the artist is deceased, then it would propose to reflect all the work ever created by that artist -- drawings, paintings, prints, etc.) A daunting assignment and not easily compiled. But there will be one for Nagel. Someday, an art historian will take it on. For the moment, we have only the book ("The Art of Patrick Nagel"; Alfred van der Marck Editions, 1985) and the recollection of those who were and are familiar with the work.

As a dealer in Nagel for nearly twenty years, I do qualify in the latter regard. I did some time working with Nagel's publisher, Mirage Editions, although much later (1991) and during that time, I was the interface for the FBI in their investigation of the fraudulent counterfeiting of Nagel serigraphs. And somehow, gratefully, I am the individual whom Playboy refers when people call them about Nagel (at least for the time being). I am very familiar with the work -- the "lifetime" work primarily, although I do have a substantial inventory of "real" commemorative graphics. And we do sell them.

But my interest is and has been primarily in the "lifetime" work.

Here is probably the essence of this entire historical treatise -- if you are interested in the ongoing value of Nagels' body of work insofar as the fine print is concerned, consider this: in his life Nagel did 34 posters. Each of them had on average, two states: a signed and numbered edition of 250 and an unsigned state (signed in the screen when printed). With artist proofs, printers proofs and other miscellaneous pencil-signed iterations, we can estimate there are approximately 8,800 prints with Nagel's pencil signature. In addition, he did 21 signed and numbered, limited editions that were not posters, which had an average edition size of around 100, or approximately 2100 signed, limited editions.

That would mean there are (approximately) 11,000 signed and numbered, limited editions prints with Nagel's personal, pencil signature on them. Forever. Compare that to the number of graphic prints by the average artist and you will understand that it is a VERY SMALL BODY OF WORK WHICH IS SIGNED BY THE ARTIST. Now that the demand for these prints has begun to increase, the value of them will go through the roof.