Above is another mid-century 12” x 16.5 Technicolor lithograph. This one, which is titled “Sheer Beauty,” stars magazine model Jackie Johnsen in a sheer top and rather thick looking opaque bottom, reflecting the elemental and eternal changability of woman and the reality that her mind is never really made up. Well, in our house they’re never made up. We can’t speak for all women. Actually we can’t even speak for ours. Actually, they aren’t ours—they just agree to live with us. Actually, they let us live with them and there’s no suggestion of a power dynamic that favors us. Doh! It’s so hard navigating language in 2024.
Anyway, this litho was made from a photo that originally appeared in 1964 in the men’s magazine Campus Dolls. However, Johnsen seems to have made her way into show business a bit earlier. She appeared in the 1963 nudie cutie flick Intimate Diary of Artists’ Models. Since print modeling nearly always came before movies, the timeline suggests to us that Johnsen modeled at least as early as 1963. There are probably obscure magazine photos of her out there somewhere that haven’t appeared online yet. With luck maybe they’ll will turn up. Below, she’s finally decided on see-through, but changed her mind about the best environment for wearing it.
