major exhibitions of his work all over the world. Vargas' artistic work, paintings and color drawings, were periodically featured in some issues of Playboy magazine in the 1960s and 1970s. The death of his wife Anna Mae in 1974 left him devastated, and he stopped painting. Anna Mae had been his model and business manager, his muse in every way. The publication of his autobiography in 1978 renewed interest in his work and brought him partially out of his self-imposed retirement to do a few works, such as album covers for The Cars (Candy-O, 1979) and Bernadette Peters (Bernardette Peters, 1980; Now Playing, 1981). He died of a stroke on 30 December 1982, at the age of 86. Many of Vargas' works from his period with Esquire are now held by the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas. It was given those works in 1980 along with a large body of other art from the magazine. At the December 2003 Christie's auction of Playboy archives, the 1967 Vargas painting Trick or Treat sold for $71,600 (). His work was typically a combination of watercolor and airbrush. His mastery of the airbrush is acknowledged by the founding of the Vargas Award, awarded annually by Airbrush Action Magazine, which was named after him. Despite always using figure models, he often portrayed elegantly dressed, semi-nude to nude women of idealized proportions. Vargas' artistic trait would be slender fingers and toes, with nails often painted red. Vargas is widely regarded as one of the finest artists in his genre. He also served as a judge for the Miss Universe beauty contest from 1956 to 1958. Notable women painted by Vargas include Billie Burke, Ruth Etting, Paulette Goddard, Bessie Love, Irish McCalla, Marilyn Miller, Marilyn Monroe, Nita Naldi, Bernadette Peters, Olive Thomas, and Candy Moore from The Cars' Candy-O album. See also List of pin-up artists Olivia De Berardinis San Francisco Art Exchange Notes References External links Alberto Vargas, a history, family photos and gallery. Alberto Vargas Biography Artwork on the American Art Archives web site 1896 births 1982 deaths 20th-century Peruvian painters 20th-century Peruvian male artists Album-cover and concert-poster artists American illustrators Film poster artists Latin American artists of indigenous descent People from Arequipa Peruvian emigrants to the United States Peruvian erotic artists Pin-up artists Playboy illustrators Peruvian male painters