The legendary queen of pin-up, Bunny Yeager, was the original Playboy bunny. The Warhol Museum’s
Bunny Yeager: The Legendary Queen of the Pin-Up exhibition features some of her self-portraits from the 1950s and 1960s. This scantily clad image from 1962 appeared on the pages of the infamous magazine and solidified her as a pictorial favorite.
Images 1-4 are selected from the Warhol Museum’s current exhibition,
Bunny Yeager: The Legendary Queen of the Pin-Up.
In 1954, the iconic Bettie Page began posing for model-turned-photographer Bunny Yeager. The two, pictured here that year during a wild photo shoot, helped send each other to new levels of stardom. Yeager sent some of the images she shot of Page to Hugh Hefner, who immediately welcomed her to the jungle and picked her to be the Playmate of the Month for the January 1955 issue. "I think that she was a remarkable lady, an iconic figure in pop culture who influenced sexuality, taste in fashion, someone who had a tremendous impact on our society," Hefner later told the AP of one of his earliest bunnies.
Bunny Yeager
In yet another image from the iconic Playboy model-turned-photographer, Bunny Yeager took this shot of Bettie Page on the beach in the 1950s, showing off the siren at her sexiest.
Bunny Yeager
"I never intended to become a professional photographer but after I took a course it seemed like it might be a good idea," Yeager told Bizarre Magazine. "Something to pursue after I got too old to model."
Bunny Yeager
Another show at Pittsburgh’s Warhol Museum’s is
Playboy Redux: Contemporary Artists Interpret the Iconic Playboy Bunny, in which several artists re-imagine the iconic symbol. Self-proclaimed "pervasive artist" Gary Baseman presented this cartoon-like take.
Images 5-10 are selected from the Warhol Museum’s current exhibition,
Playboy Redux: Contemporary Artists Interpret the Iconic Playboy Bunny.
Photographer Latoya Ruby Frazier shot this image of one of Hugh Hefner’s bunnies in shadow silhouette form.
Latoya Ruby Frazier
New York-based artist Tara McPherson gave Playboy Bunnies a new face that adheres to the thought-provoking, yet seductive figures she’s known for creating with this contribution to Playboy Redux. She tracked her progress for excited fans via Twitter, revealing this final product of two beautiful Bunnies sharing a cosmopolitan on February 10th.
Tara Mcpherson
Southern California artist Tim Biskup is known for his complex color and design patterns. His piece in the Playboy Redux show, The Gorgon, comes from the Greek mythological term referring to a terrifying female creature like Medusa—and is a pixilated painting of a sharp-looking Bunny.
Tim Biskup
While Playboy is known for showcasing the naked female figure, Italian installation artist Ludovica Gioscia turned the tables, and presented a vintage Playgirl image for his work, which is unexpectedly titled, Anna Nicole. Decorating the old centerfold with a diamante accessory and thread mounted on an archival board, Gioscia shows a new side to the enterprise’s nudity.
Ludovica Gioscia
