Anderson’s eye catching series of paintings, draws inspiration from the classic pulp fiction images that infiltrated post-war culture and captured the gasoline and testosterone fueled imagination of the American male. The word “pulp” comes from the low-grade paper used for trashy magazines that specialized in lurid stories loaded with sex and danger. With their saturated colors and dark-side-of-life imagery, the covers grabbed the reader by the throat and groin, fueling forbidden fantasies of adventure and seduction. A whole new breed of artist/illustrator emerged. These artists created an incredible world of cover art that still has the power to stir our impulses. Ultra sexy femme fatales – either in trouble or looking for it – embraced the threat of violence, which loomed around every shadowy corner. Pulp Art telegraphed its message: life is an adventure, where hard drinking, gun-toting fellas take what they want, and pretty gals – with looks that can seduce or kill – like it that way.
More than just a homage, Anderson playfully recreates the world of pulp Americana. In the classic pin-up style, his big, smiling, busty cowgirls tease and strut in front of their tough guy counterparts in a sexual dance that will no doubt lead to trouble in the night ahead. Each painting is a fusion of iconoclastic memory traces and frontier imagery blended with a new millennium jab. Unrestricted in approach, Anderson places some “real” cowgirls among his comic and pulp babes, as a further celebration of the female figure. Pulp Art is about romance, sex and danger, and mostly, breaking the rules. Using the Wild West as his backdrop, Anderson has created a unique eye grabbing collection of startling images that breathtakingly seduce and excite. So saddle up, make sure your gal’s lips are blood red and her heels are sharp and high, and enter Robert Anderson’s world of the Pulp Western.
