TV Hunks: Modern Day or Vintage?
Two New Prints from Held Form Studio
How Do You Like Your TV Hunks?
From the studio desk at Held Form Studio
Every once in a while someone writes to ask what inspires the men in my artwork. The answer is simple: men who look like they could step right off a television screen and into the room.
The funny thing is that TV has always given us two very different flavors of masculine charm. There are the modern-day hunks. The guys who bring a little grit, a little swagger, and just enough vulnerability to make you lean forward in your chair.
Take David Harbour, for instance. Most people know him as the gruff but magnetic Chief Jim Hopper on Stranger Things. Before that he popped up in The Newsroom, Black Widow, and Hellboy, usually playing men who look like they’ve lived a little life and could throw you over their shoulder if the situation required it. He’s rugged. Broad. The kind of man who looks like he belongs in flannel and boots… or absolutely nothing at all.
But then there’s the other category. The vintage TV hunk.
Back in the late 1970s and early 80s, television had its own brand of handsome leading men. Tall, confident, perfectly coiffed, and usually driving a sports car while solving problems for a living. One of the great examples is Lee Horsley, who played the wealthy detective Matt Houston. That show had everything: sharp suits, fast cars, glamorous settings, and Horsley’s unmistakable square-jawed confidence. Before that he appeared in Nero Wolfe and later went on to star in Paradise and Bodies of Evidence.
These men belong to a slightly different fantasy. Less brooding. More polished. The kind of guy who might pour you a cocktail before sweeping you into some dangerously stylish adventure.
So now the question comes to you.
When it comes to the men who end up hanging on the walls of Held Form Studio, what makes your pulse quicken?
Do you prefer the modern hunk — rugged, bearded, a little rough around the edges?
Or do you lean toward the vintage television heartthrob — smooth, confident, and dressed like he just stepped out of a 1982 detective series?
I’m curious. Let me know in the comments.