"Pulp-fiction magazines written in the 1930s and 40s...were monthly or biweekly collections of stories printed on the cheapest wood-pulp paper that could be run through a press without ripping. Their ...covers, however, were reproduced in color on more expensive coated stock because the gripping, often steamy artwork sold the magazines...Robert Lesser bought his first original pulp-cover painting in 1972...Over the next 30 years, Lesser tracked down and acquired many more pulp paintings--some 160 in all. Through the end of August 2003, visitors to the Brooklyn Museum of Art New York can see 125 of these works in an entertaining new 2003 exhibition, 'Pulp Art: Vamps, Villains, and Victors from the Robert Lesser Collection.'" (Smithsonian) This overview of the "Pulp Art" exhibition considers "the aesthetic merits of these overwrought, disquieting, sometimes gruesome works of art" and illuminates popular culture of the 1930s and 40s. Notable pulp-cover artists are mentioned.
Moffatt points out that a special highlight of this exhibition is a curated collection of photographs of Rockwell from his time in the Navy during World War I. "The posters . . . demonstrate the ...power of visual images in our world," indicates Stephanie Haboush Plunkett, chief curator at Rockwell. The government promised to repay the bonds with tax-free interest Accompanying the Liberty Loan drives was a massive public relations campaign that utilized posters, public speakers, newspapers, brochures, and motion pictures to urge people to buy bonds.
