User talk:Howard C. Berkowitz/Pin

Hi Howard, I started to get inot your articles Photorealism and Pinup. I will try to input accurate facts into the gaps I see from a professional in the industry who happens to be abreast of the subjects. Louis did speak to Sorayama's agent about a year or more ago in general interest about the status of the law case; he knows the TBG artists and issues to some extent and was interested when Sorayama would be free to go to other galleries. The answer came when Opera Gallery (much larger than TBG) picked up the Sorayama arts in 2008 and they only sell originals unlike the other situation.

Regarding your need for images (tubing lo res) of Olivia:  You can economically order here for website usage  (follow terms of usage) http://www.cilm.com/sigtag/tou.shtml   You can tell Anthony (CILM) that Sorayama offices in NYC (www.artspacegallery.com) sent you BUT I would simply order and use. Many of these interests are highly commercial and they will distract you from neutral potentially if you engage in too much communication.

PinUp--with your permission I will edit it for chronological clarity as it was Bob Guccione (a technically talented oil artist himself) and Sorayama's prerequisite in early 1994 that restarted the mags of Penthouse and much later Playboy to get back into pinup with the artists at TBG. To my knowledge Mr. Hefner (and you may contact his firm to confirm) is not an actual painter (hobbyist artist) like Mr. Guccione. Nor were they actively involved with TBG / Olivia until Bettie Page contracts with TBG came about to some solid footing about early 2006. You can research the actual Penthouse and Playboy mags from the past 15 years to confirm this. To make it short, from about 1994 to about 2004 Bane et al (at Sorayama's requested conditions to join the ranks at TBG gallery in USA)was that they (Bane / TBG) coordinate a regular art page featuring in either of the two magazines described above.

This turned out to be great marketing business exposure for Sorayama and Bane/TBG. So much so that it caused some possible tensions in TBG as another artist asked for a 1 page ad of their work to also appear in some issues alongside Sorayama's regular monthly. Unlike Sorayama's I recall the TBG other artist had to pay a fee as an ad (not a feature that paid artist). To give credit where credit is due, it was not Sorayama nor TBG nor Mr. Hefner but more so Mr. Bob Guccione's vision and talent as an artist that chose to undertake these TBG related Sorayama pinup projects at these competing magazines. To fill the vacum when the Soryama V TBG dispute arose was the other artist and TBG (with their newly acquired Bettie Page ) rights that went into Playboy (I think you can confirm that easily---the period for this regular Playboy monthly is much later and much shorter of tenure about 2006 to present whereas Penthouse started with TBG in this vein for an earlier and much longer tenure). It is great to see Olivia there.

It is of concern to see that possibly remnants of TBG ( I do not want to get into details) have maybe glumed onto Mr. Hefner as his firm experiences the business problems like beset Penthouse a few years ago. I think (my guess) Playboy staff (under other financial stresses now in the news) is trying to vet the artists who try to attach themselves but Mr. Hefner's daughter is no longer actively involved to help vet. I do not know who is the guardian of the important Hefner legacy and I guess Playboy staff know of TBG. Mr. Hefner is certainly no "muse" of Olivia nor any artist as portraying works except to the extent of commercial (money) purpose and maybe some art direction (which may not be inspiration so much as commercial related as Mr/ Hefner knows what he wants done). I would opine that is very fortunate that Mr. Hefner and Playboy helped Bettie Page with legal etc as TBG had already started making promo inroads somehow with the Page estate. My guess is that Playboy communicated to Bettie Page to deal directly with Olivia who from what I know does devoted work of Bettie Page more so than other artists except for Bettie's original photographers of the 1950s. (Those photographers are of much more importance of the Bettie Page legacy than the current ones.

I do not know what Sorayama nor Olivia nor Mr. Hefner think but one would hope that they correctly clue Mr. Hefner's professionals in about the TBG affair and other artists/contacts of TBG surrounding this icon of Playboy (Mr. Hefner) whenever a photo op is possible to promote themselves.

Notable is that Sorayama is not at all an airbrush artist as for some reason is mistaken in the West. Others you mention use airbrush more extensively. Sorayama uses his own designed brush and does some smoothing of highlight areas with airbrush.....I will edit it for your review.