Let Them Eat Cheesecake (The Art of Olivia, Vol. 1) [Hardcover]

Olivia De Berardinis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 9, 1995

You've seen her art in the pages of Playboy and in dozens of other publications, on calendars, book covers, limited edition prints, greeting cards, and movie posters. Now, for the first time, Olivia's work has been compiled into one deluxe book. Included are over 100 drawings and paintings, many previously unpublished, spanning the past fifteen years.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Olivia De Berardinis was born in California in 1948 but spent most of her childhood on the East Coast. Her father, Sante De Berardinis, was a freelance aeronautical engineer, and his work kept Olivia's family constantly on the move. Being the only child, Olivia lived in an adult world where she spent much of her time drawing. Olivia's playful, flirtatious mother, Connie, served as her favorite model and muse. In 1967 she attended the New York School of Visual Arts. Over the next few years she took odd jobs to pay the rent but continued to paint and began to show her work, primarily minimalist oils on canvas. By 1974 financial pressures induced Olivia to seek out commercial art work, and so she returned to the skills she had gained as a child, painting beautiful women for periodicals and paperback publishers. In a short time Olivia secured regular work painting erotic fantasies for men's magazines. In 1975 Olivia met Joel Beren and they were married four years later. Living on Manhattan's Upper West Side they developed a small publishing business, O Cards, primarily printing Olivia's work as greeting cards. They created another company, Ozone Productions, Ltd. to license Olivia's artwork. In 1984 Olivia met Robert and Tamara Bane and signed her first fine art publishing agreement with Robert Bane Publishing. Over 200 limited editions have since been published. In 1987 the Tamara Bane Gallery in Los Angeles opened its doors with a gala one-woman show of Olivia's artwork. Later that year Olivia and Joel moved to Los Angeles where they reside today. Olivia has had shows throughout the United States and Japan and her work is collected by fans worldwide. Robert Bane Editions remains the exclusive publisher and representative of all of Olivia's original paintings, drawings, studies, gouaches, signed and numbered limited editions, and posters, while eOlivia is the online outlet for books, catalogs, greeting cards, postcards, and collectibles featuring Olivia's art.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 108 pages
• Publisher: Ozone Productions (July 9, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0929643062
• ISBN-13: 978-0929643069
• Product Dimensions: 12.4 x 9.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #409,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prime first collection from the Anais Nin of painting, July 31, 2003

By 

Daniel J. Hamlow (Narita, Japan) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Let Them Eat Cheesecake (The Art of Olivia, Vol. 1) (Hardcover)

Cheesecake, n. Slang. photographs featuring a view of an attractive woman's legs and body.

Cute title, which is a take on the phrase Marie Antoinette plagiarized from a Polish princess. Hugh Hefner's description of artist Olivia de Berardinis as the Anais Nin of contemporary fantasy graphic art, or as being for the 1990's what Alberto Vargas was to the 1940's and 1960's is highly apropos. After all, Nin championed for female rights to fantasy, and the drawings of Olivia have the same aim.

Her drawings, most of them tasteful but erotically-charged nudes, might as well be characters in fantasy novels, such as zebra-women, women with plumed wings, and mermaids. Vanity, yes, the one famous for her liaison with Prince, is drawn with cat years and tail using gouache. The zebra-lady, whose skin has stripes like a zebra and who sports a main running from her forehead all the way down, is also a highlight. Her capture of Bella Schol's unique but subtle sneer in her gouache and pencil drawing "Whiplash" is another.

Olivia's uses oil prepared with gesso (gypsum prepared with glue) and gouache, the latter being opaque watercolours prepared with gum, as well as watercolours, acrylics, and pastels, often using more than one medium per drawing. The way she paints bare skin, be it pale, light brown, with shading that makes it so real is what attracted me to her drawings, as is the glossy finish she uses on some of her acrylics, which in her words, make them come alive.

Included in the intro is a letter Alberto Vargas wrote to Olivia dated 14 June 1979. The appendix is a plethora of useful background information, as it lists each painting, the title, year made, dimensions, and the medium used, the model where applicable, and sometimes, comments by Olivia or her husband Joel Beren. In the case of the cover drawing, it's titled "Devil's Food", dimensions 40"x30", watercolor, gouache on board, with Rhonda Ridley-Scott being the model. Olivia says she was inspired by Milton Greene's photos of Marilyn, "with a nod to the Cheshire cat."

Among the models used are Vanity, Marilyn Monroe-lookalike Rhonda Ridley Scott, Pamela Anderson, and Bella Schol. She also does likenesses of Bettie Page and Josephine Baker, based on photographs. But the real Page probably never had a full-bodied black panther chasing a mouse tattooed down her back (Cat And Mouse).

The commentary by Olivia in the back shows her to be a very creative and self-assured woman who uses her paintings to reflect the mood she's trying to elicit, be it something with a lighter touch or something aggressively splashed. The main thing is that the women of her paintings are those "in control of their own sexuality, who choose their partners, and choose to be dominant or submissive, and not be admonished for their decisions." This goes back to the Anais Nin comparison. I have my friend Erick Vaneckhoutte in Farmington to thank me for introducing me to Olivia.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must have for anyone who appreciates the female form!, December 31, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Let Them Eat Cheesecake (The Art of Olivia, Vol. 1) (Hardcover)

Who else could show women in all of their glory except another woman? Olivia captures all the sides of woman in "Let Them Eat Cheesecake". From the wildly exotic to the innocently sensual, all of our fantasies about women are captured here. The paintings are lush and vibrant, the women beautiful. Though many of the women are nude, they are decorated in ribbons, tattoos, leather and lace. I found reflections of my own fantasies in this book. One might think that this book was only for men, not so! I feel that it was written for women, to be enjoyed by women. For who else can truly appreciate the female form but those who are encased in it. My husband loved the book as much as I did. "Let them eat cheesecake" is a book for the mind. The pictures start the thoughts and before you know it, you're lost in your own fantasies.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly erotic art., August 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Let Them Eat Cheesecake (The Art of Olivia, Vol. 1) (Hardcover)

The pleasant surprises in this collection of Olivia's art are twofold : her commentary on each of the illustrations presented and on her models, and her ability to work in several media (oil, pastel, pencil, etc.) I had the pleasure of meeting the artist herself at a signing in Los Angeles; she is beautiful in that intense Mediterranean style and would be a wonderful subject for a self-portrait.