About the Event:

On this tour led by the curator of this new exhibition, Donald Albrecht, we will explore the work and influence of J.C. Leyendecker (1874–1951), a preeminent illustrator and commercial artist who helped shape American visual culture in the first three decades of the 20th century. His captivating advertisements include the legendary “Arrow Collar Man” and countless covers for the Saturday Evening Post.

The exhibition showcases the artist’s original oil paintings and related ephemera, and features both Leyendecker’s magazine covers, as well as commercial illustrations that appeared in the pages of popular publications, on roadside billboards, in store windows, and on mass transit.

As a queer artist whose illustrations for a mainstream audience often had unspoken queer undertones, his work is especially revealing for what it says about the cultural attitudes towards homosexuality of the period. Under Cover delves into the early politics of sexual identity and gender while simultaneously examining how Leyendecker helped establish a nationalistic ideal of elite and athletic white male beauty. The exhibition juxtaposes some of Leyendecker’s paintings with artifacts that offer counter-narratives to his works’ exclusionary nature, including depictions of fashionable African American men during the Harlem Renaissance, as well as a selection of contemporaneous advertisements with queer connotations and a digital show of images depicting gay culture in New York during Leyendecker’s time. 

Your ticket includes full-day Museum admission, a voucher for reduced Regular Admission tickets for a future visit, a 10% discount to the Museum Store and access to Museum films We Rise and New York Story.

About the Curator:

Donald Albrecht, a member of ADSNY’s Board of Advisors has curated exhibitions that have ranged from overviews of cultural trends, including World War II and the American Dream and Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture and Design for the

National Building Museum, the National Design Triennial for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and Gay Gotham: Art and Underground Culture in New York for the Museum of the City of New York, to profiles of individual design firms and artists—The Work of Charles and Ray Eames for the Library of Congress and Vitra Design Museum, Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future for the Finnish Cultural Institute, the Museum of Finnish Architecture, and the National Building Museum, and The High Style of Dorothy Draper for the Museum of the City of New York.

For most exhibitions, Mr. Albrecht also develops and edits the catalogs, contributing major essays and working with other writers to provide fresh critical perspectives. His catalogs have garnered numerous awards, including the Society of Architectural Historians’ Best Exhibition Catalogue for the Eero Saarinen and the Eames catalogs. Mr. Albrecht has also contributed essays to a number of books about architecture and design, including The Glass House: Pairings and California Design: The Legacy of West Coast Craft and Style to monographs on Andree Putman, Michael Gabellini, and 1100 Architect, and has written extensively about the relationship between architecture and film, starting with his seminal book, Designing Dreams: Modern Architecture in the Movies.

Mr. Albrecht lectures frequently about architecture and design. He is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome.

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Current Safety Protocols for this Event:

We look forward to having you join us for this in-person event! The health and safety of all attendees is our top priority. ADSNY will continue to monitor and abide by guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), New York State, and New York City.

• VACCINATIONS: Vaccinations are highly recommended. 
• FACE COVERINGS: Face masks are recommended, but not required. 
• SOCIAL DISTANCING: Attendees must be respectful of each other’s personal space and distance themselves where appropriate.
• IF YOU ARE UNWELL: Stay home if you are feeling sick or symptomatic. If you have been in contact with someone with related symptoms, or who has tested positive within the last 14 days, also stay home.
• COVID RISK: Though positivity rates are declining, an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public space where people are present. Those joining ADSNY’S in-person programming do so at their own risk to such exposure.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out at info@artdeco.org.

All ticket sales are final. Sorry, there are no refunds or exchanges. 

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