Stroke: From Under the Mattress to Out in the Open

This volume is a historic retrospective of the steamy illustrations published in US magazines from the 1950s to 1990s. Although they were freely available, their often closeted readers put them under their mattresses. Stroke rediscovers these treasures and puts them together with vividly told stories and previously unpublished material. The book was composed by Hunter O'Hanian, director of the Leslie-Lohman Museum, and artist legend Robert W. Richards. It features works of over thirty artists, among other luminaries such as Tom of Finland, Harry Bush, Michael Kirwan, and George Quaintance.

Author: Robert W. Richards, Hunter O´hanian
Publisher: Bruno Gmuender
Published: 07/31/2015
Pages: 144
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.75lbs
Size: 11.40h x 8.70w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9783867878364

About the Author
Richards, Robert W.: - Born in 1941 in a small town in Maine where dreaming was not encouraged, Robert W. Richards soon learned to live a private, interior, solitary life. He immersed himself in drawing an imaginary world of beautiful men and womenGary Cooper, Garbo, Dietrich, and Marilyn. At 16, he wrangled a full scholarship to the prestigious School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Too young to appreciate the academic discipline of the classical curriculum, Richards quit school and started doing advertising artwork. After moving to New York, he plunged into the world of fashion, sketching collections in Paris, Rome, Milan, and Los Angeles for three American newspapers and doing beauty illustrations for L'Oreal, Clairol, and Revlon. After many seasons in this fashion world, fatigue set in, and his long suppressed desire to draw men took over. It was then that a career in male erotica began. Mandate, Honcho, Torso, Stallion, Menall became home to his artwork throughout the 1970s and 1980s.