Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
Mahlon Blaine’s best work walked the razor's edge between the grotesque and beautiful. Though few facts of his life are verifiable, insomuch as anyone can gather, he lived in that no man’s land as well. A childhood accident left the artist – who was born in 1894 - blind in his left eye, an accident that contributes to the flattened perspective that marks his work. Read more about Mahlon Blaine in our Key Artists section or browse his work below.
In the late 1930s, avant garde illustrator Mahlon Blaine, working under the pseudonym G.Christopher Hudson created a series of illustrations which were intended to become murals for the studio or showroom of noted New York City interior designer Paul MacAlister. In this work, the second of the series, a mechanical bird menaces the Medusa-inspired nude goddess who cowers atop a stone robot in a patriotic American apple pie infused red, white and blue color palette.
Artist: Mahlon Blaine
In this work, the first of the series, and the image that was to greet visitors as they entered the room, a nude showgirl dancer does a sad burlesque, her shadow duplicated in silhouette in a Coney Island funhouse style. Both evoking and critiquing the sordid and semi-underground world of Depression-era girlie shows, the artwork lures the viewer into the underbelly of the city that is explored in the nine images that follow.
Artist: Mahlon Blaine
This unhinged and provocatively erotic original illustration by the artist & illustrator Mahlon Blaine dates to the 1940s. It has two functioning doors that when opened reveal the magicians assistant engaged in coitus with a horned satyr. The gouache painting is housed inside an innocuous faux wood, paper, hardcover display folio. Garishly colored and […]
Artist: Mahlon Blaine
This feverish and provocative original illustration by Mahlon Blaine appears to date to the late 1930s, when the artist was mining the myth of Aphrodite for Nova Venus, a series of artworks illustrating a poem written by Blaine that interrogates the relationship between love, lust, and modernism. Characteristically dark, and replete with complicated and even bizarre symbolism, this gouache and ink painting explores fertility, […]
Artist: Mahlon Blaine
An inspired and inventive take on the biblical epic of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Blaine was a unique talent, and counter culture avant-garde artist who worked outside of the confines of the mainstream. A life-long bohemian, his work became increasingly sexual and marginalized from the norm of illustration art, and as time went on he counted the magician Dunninger among his closest friends, and most important patrons. His eerie and erotic style bore witness to his fascination with dark arts.
Artist: Mahlon Blaine
A macabre gouache rendering by Mahlon Blaine for an as of yet undetermined publication. A highly charged noir erotic scene depicting a Vaudeville era Burlesque performer in allegorical temptation scene. The devil, with serpent’s tongue is shown behind a nude dancer representing temptation. The two figures left and right are shown as stand ins for good and evil. Blaine was a unique talent, and counter culture avant-garde artist who worked outside of the confines of the mainstream.
Artist: Mahlon Blaine
A bizarre and macabre artwork by one of our favorite illustrators Mahlon Blaine titled on verso “A Fish Story.” A mermaid Medusa-like nude rendered in a pastel colored palette with an unusual size and configuration that leads us to believe this was created as a left-hand page interior illustration in a pulp magazine such as Weird Tales. When reproduced we imagine text would have been blocked around the right edge of this highly creative image.
Artist: Mahlon Blaine
