Olivia De Berardinis
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Olivia de Berardinis (b. 1948) is an American painter of pin-up art and erotic art.
She attended the New York School of Visual Arts, and became involved in the minimalist art movement while there. She began drawing and painting pin-ups in the mid 1970s, then began painting erotic fantasies for men's magazines.
Olivia De Berardinis was born in California in 1948 but spent most of her childhood on the East Coast. Her father, Sante De Berardinis, was a freelance aeronautical engineer, and his work kept Olivia's family constantly on the move. Being the only child, Olivia lived in an adult world where she spent much of her time drawing. Olivia's playful, flirtatious mother, Connie, served as her favourite model and muse. In 1967 she attended the New York School of Visual Arts. Over the next few years she took odd jobs to pay the rent but continued to paint and began to show her work, primarily minimalist oils on canvas. By 1974 financial pressures induced Olivia to seek out commercial art work, and so she returned to the skills she had gained as a child, painting beautiful women for periodicals and paperback publishers. In a short time Olivia secured regular work painting erotic fantasies for men's magazines.
In 1975 Olivia met Joel Beren and they were married four years later. Living on Manhattan's Upper West Side they developed a small publishing business, O Cards, primarily printing Olivia's work as greeting cards. They created another company, Ozone Productions, Ltd. to license Olivia's artwork. In 1984 Olivia met Robert and Tamara Bane and signed her first fine art publishing agreement with Robert Bane Publishing. Over 200 limited editions have since been published. In 1987 the Tamara Bane Gallery in Los Angeles opened its doors with a gala one-woman show of Olivia's artwork. Later that year Olivia and Joel moved to Los Angeles where they reside today.
Olivia has had shows throughout the United States and Japan and her work is collected by fans worldwide. The exclusive representation and print publishing relationship with Robert Bane Editions came to an end in 2003 and, beginning in 2005, Olivia and Joel took all fine art representation and print publishing "in-house", under the banner of Ozone Productions, Ltd. (www.ozoneproductions.com). eOlivia remains the online outlet for books, catalogues, greeting cards, postcards, and collectables featuring Olivia's art. Olivia has also become a part of a group of artist at C.I.L.M. who provide their works at a cost for PSP fanatics to purchase and use in their Signature work.
[edit] References
- The Great American Pin-Up, by Charles G. Martignette and Louis K. Meisel, ISBN 3-8228-1701-5
