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Grapefruit Moon Gallery

Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration

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Paperback & Pulp Art

A Strange Kind Of Love

Artist:Rudy Nappi
Date:1959
Medium:Oil on Illustration Board
Dimensions:Sight Size 11" x 17" Framed 20 1/4 " x 26 1/4"
Condition:Excellent
Original Use:Paperback Cover Art
Detail of oil on board cover painting
Detail of oil on board cover painting
The artist's signature lower left
The artist’s signature lower left
The artwork as it appeared as the cover of A Strange Kind Of Love
The artwork as it appeared as the cover of A Strange Kind Of Love

A lustful, original cover painting by Rudy Nappi for the 1959 Tower paperback cover titled A Strange Kind of Love, by Lawrence Block, written under his early pseudonym Sheldon Lord. Billed as a “daring tale of the love life of a writer and his most unusual mistress,” Block has described the story as that of his own life imagined into a bleak, yet erotic, future.

Verso text and story line
Verso text and story line

Pictured in a modernist clinch pose are Dan Larkin, a self professed Hollywood big-shot writer, and Alison, the beautiful yet withholding lover, who almost makes him throw it all away. Classic noir paperback pulp imagery at work. This original oil on board comes beautifully framed and double matted behind glass with a clean bright copy of the published paperback included in the sale.

full view before framing
full view before framing
detail
detail
Framed and matted behind glass
Framed and matted behind glass
Frame profile corner view
Frame profile corner view
verso view of oil on board painting
verso view of oil on board painting

A Strange Kind Of Love

Artist: Rudy Nappi

Filed Under: Paperback & Pulp Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1950s, american, erotic, Lawrence Block, lurid, noir, original cover art, paperback, pulp, Rudy Nappi, sleaze
Added to Gallery: August 16, 2013

 

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