Mara McAfee
Encyclopedia
Mara McAfee was an American
Pop artist and illustrator
best known for her satirical depictions of historical figures, contemporary subjects, and high art traditions. During the 1950s McAfee was also an actress and a dancer who appeared in a number of popular films and television shows.
(now CalArts) in Los Angeles
and the Art Students League in New York
. She credited Frank Mason at the Art Students League for her classical art technique, saying: "It was no easy task to find a teacher who even knew how the great artists of the past painted." She went on to spend two years copying the masters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. "Learning to work in almost any style was the basis for my success as an illustrator."
While others sacrificed to get into the theater and movies, she became an actress and dancer to pay for her art education. "Although I had very little talent and no love of performing, I did have a photogenic face and plenty of nerve." She acted and danced in many small film and television roles. McAfee appeared in Robert Aldrich
’s film noir
classic Kiss Me Deadly
(1955) as well as in My Sister Eileen (1955), Man with a Gun
(1955), Pal Joey
(1957), on The Phil Silvers Show
(c. 1956) as "Corporal Sandberg," and on Groucho Marx
’s You Bet Your Life
.
McAfee began exhibiting her work at New York's Amel Gallery in 1962 to mild critical acclaim. Her early works included references to national heroes (George Washington
, John F. Kennedy
), boxers
, burlesque
dancers, business men, comic book characters, fashion models, and Keane
waifs. Her paintings were included in major early Pop
shows such as Pop Goes the Easel (1963), Mixed Media and Pop Art (1963), and Pop Art USA (1964).
McAfee later became an illustrator for National Lampoon in the 1970s. She produced several parodic illustrations for the humor magazine, many of which were featured on the cover. They often spoofed classic works of Western art, sometimes with a feminist twist. Some examples include:
Her re-interpretation of Edouard Manet
's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, in which the men appear naked and the women are clothed, was published in Titters: The First Collection of Humor by Women (1976).
In 1974 she illustrated an edition of Aldous Huxley
's Brave New World
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Pop artist and illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
best known for her satirical depictions of historical figures, contemporary subjects, and high art traditions. During the 1950s McAfee was also an actress and a dancer who appeared in a number of popular films and television shows.
Biography
McAfee attended Chouinard Art InstituteChouinard Art Institute
The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional art school founded in 1921 in Los Angeles, California, by Nelbert Murphy Chouinard .-Founder:...
(now CalArts) in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and the Art Students League in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. She credited Frank Mason at the Art Students League for her classical art technique, saying: "It was no easy task to find a teacher who even knew how the great artists of the past painted." She went on to spend two years copying the masters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. "Learning to work in almost any style was the basis for my success as an illustrator."
While others sacrificed to get into the theater and movies, she became an actress and dancer to pay for her art education. "Although I had very little talent and no love of performing, I did have a photogenic face and plenty of nerve." She acted and danced in many small film and television roles. McAfee appeared in Robert Aldrich
Robert Aldrich
Robert Aldrich was an American film director, writer and producer, notable for such films as Kiss Me Deadly , The Big Knife , What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? , Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte , The Flight of the Phoenix , The Dirty Dozen , and The Longest Yard .-Biography:Robert...
’s film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
classic Kiss Me Deadly
Kiss Me Deadly
Kiss Me Deadly is a 1955 film noir drama produced and directed by Robert Aldrich starring Ralph Meeker. The screenplay was written by A.I. Bezzerides, based on the Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer mystery novel Kiss Me, Deadly. Kiss Me Deadly is often considered a classic of the noir genre. The film...
(1955) as well as in My Sister Eileen (1955), Man with a Gun
Man with the Gun
Man with the Gun is a 1955 Western film starring Robert Mitchum. The film was released in the United Kingdom as The Trouble Shooter and is also sometimes entitled Deadly Peacemaker. The supporting cast includes Jan Sterling, Henry Hull, Barbara Lawrence, Leo Gordon, and Claude Akins...
(1955), Pal Joey
Pal Joey (film)
Pal Joey is a 1957 film, loosely adapted from the musical play of the same name, and starring Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra, and Kim Novak. Jo Ann Greer sang for Hayworth, as she had done previously in Affair in Trinidad and Miss Sadie Thompson. Kim Novak's singing voice was dubbed by Trudy Erwin...
(1957), on The Phil Silvers Show
The Phil Silvers Show
The Phil Silvers Show is a comedy television series which ran on CBS from 1955 to 1959 for 142 episodes, plus a 1959 special. The series starred Phil Silvers as Master Sergeant Ernest G...
(c. 1956) as "Corporal Sandberg," and on Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
’s You Bet Your Life
You Bet Your Life
You Bet Your Life is an American quiz show that aired on both radio and television. The original and best-known version was hosted by Groucho Marx of the Marx Brothers, with announcer and assistant George Fenneman. The show debuted on ABC Radio in October 1947, then moved to CBS Radio in September...
.
McAfee began exhibiting her work at New York's Amel Gallery in 1962 to mild critical acclaim. Her early works included references to national heroes (George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
, John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
), boxers
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
, burlesque
Burlesque
Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
dancers, business men, comic book characters, fashion models, and Keane
Margaret Keane
Margaret Keane is an American artist. She is an illustrator and painter, and mainly draws women and children in oil or mixed media. Her works are instantly recognizable from the doe-eyed children that are depicted in the drawings.-Biography:Margaret D. H...
waifs. Her paintings were included in major early Pop
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
shows such as Pop Goes the Easel (1963), Mixed Media and Pop Art (1963), and Pop Art USA (1964).
McAfee later became an illustrator for National Lampoon in the 1970s. She produced several parodic illustrations for the humor magazine, many of which were featured on the cover. They often spoofed classic works of Western art, sometimes with a feminist twist. Some examples include:
- Cover Illustration for the October 1973, Vol. 1, No. 43 Issue. Parody of Vincent Van GoghVincent van GoghVincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
's self-portrait series. McAfee's version features the artist with his head bandaged holding his severed ear with a banana in it. The headline reads: "Banana. What? Banana Issue. What? BANANA ISSUE. What?..." - Cover Illustration for the December 1974, Vol. 1, No. 57 Issue. Illustration shows the Virgin Mary and baby JesusJesusJesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
being thrown out of the house by her angry father and a somewhat more sympathetic mother. The headline reads: "The Judeo-Christian Tradition: The Joy of Sects."
Her re-interpretation of Edouard Manet
Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet was a French painter. One of the first 19th-century artists to approach modern-life subjects, he was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism....
's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, in which the men appear naked and the women are clothed, was published in Titters: The First Collection of Humor by Women (1976).
In 1974 she illustrated an edition of Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
's Brave New World
Brave New World
Brave New World is Aldous Huxley's fifth novel, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Set in London of AD 2540 , the novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology and sleep-learning that combine to change society. The future society is an embodiment of the ideals that form the basis of...
.
Selected Exhibitions
- 1962 [Solo exhibition], Amel Gallery, New York NY
- 1963 Pop Goes the Easel, Contemporary Arts Museum, HoustonContemporary Arts Museum HoustonThe Contemporary Arts Museum – Houston is a not-for-profit institution in Houston, Texas, dedicated to presenting the contemporary art of our time to the public....
TX - 1963 Mixed Media and Pop Art, Buffalo Fine Arts Academy and Albright-Knox Art GalleryAlbright-Knox Art GalleryThe Albright-Knox Art Gallery is an art museum located in Delaware Park in Buffalo, New York. The gallery is a major showplace for modern art and contemporary art. It is located directly across the street from Buffalo State College.-History:...
, Buffalo NY - 1963 [Solo exhibition], Amel Gallery, New York NY
- 1964 Pop Art USA, Oakland Museum of CaliforniaOakland Museum of CaliforniaOakland Museum of California or Oakland Museum is a museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California located in Oakland, California....
External Links
- Mara McAfee on AskART
- Mara McAfee, "Banana" (Cover Illustration), National Lampoon, October 1973.
- Mara McAfee, "The Judeo-Christian Tradition" (Cover Illustration), National Lampoon, December 1974.
- Mara McAfee on imdb