FIGURES, POSES, AND GLANCES: THE CODED ILLUSTRATIONS OF J.C. LEYENDECKER

Exhibition Dates: February 18 – April 9, 2023
Exhibition Location: MUZEO Museum and Cultural Center

Public Reception: Saturday, February 18, 4:00-6:00 PM

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The Nicholas and Lee Begovich Gallery at CSU Fullerton, in partnership with MUZEO Museum and Cultural Center, presents Figures, Poses, and Glances: The Coded Illustrations of J.C. Leyendecker. It features the work of one of the most prolific artists of the Golden Age of American Illustration. Known for his covers of the Saturday Evening Post, Collier's Magazine, Fortune magazines, and countless advertisements for Arrow Collars and Kuppenheimer clothes, Leyendecker intertwined queer culture and identity throughout his work. Center to his illustrations is Charles Beach, the eminent American advertising mascot of the Arrow Collar shirts and Leyendecker's life partner. His coded images of burly university rowers, gentile sophisticates, and classical models with secret readability were consumed by the mainstream that congruently conveyed homosexual desire. From re-gendering fashion, sidelong gestures, and the use of female decoy figures, the exhibition explores the impetus of inclusive expression and representation while defining the image of the early 20th-century American man.

Figures, Poses, and Glances: The Coded Illustrations of J.C. Leyendecker is organized by CSUF Nicholas + Lee Begovich Gallery and is curated by Clark Silva, MA candidate in Art History ('23). Support for the exhibition is made possible through the Art Alliance, Associated Students, Inc. Instructional Related Activities, the College of the Art, the Department of Visual Arts, the Michael Haile Funny Money Fund, and MUZEO Museum and Cultural Center Board of Directors. Special thanks to the Haggin Museum and the Saturday Evening Post. 

 

RELATED PROGRAMMING

In Conversation , Thursday, March 9, 6:30 PM
Location: MUZEO Museum and Cultural Center, Downtown Anaheim

Led by Clark Silva, Exhibition Curator, and Bryan C. Keene, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Art and Art History, Riverside City College .

Learn More

Exhibition Gallery Guide and Essays: “J.C. Leyendecker: Figures, Poses, and Glances” by Clark Silva, Exhibition Curator and “Fantasies and Realities in J.C. Leyendecker’s Illustrations,” by Bryan C. Keene, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Art and Art History, Riverside City College

 
Image: Re-interpretation of Charles Beach as the Arrow Collar Man (2022) by Dylan Bonner