Norman Rockwell Museum Presents “Phoning It In: Staying Connected in a Pre-Digital Age”

Illustration for “Extortion” in “This Week Magazine,” April 24, 1955. Ink and acetate on illustration board. ©Mac Conner. Courtesy of the artist.

Stockbridge, MA, May 26, 2016—In conjunction with its current exhibition, Mac Conner: A New York Life, Norman Rockwell Museum will present “Phoning It In: Staying Connected in a Pre-Digital Age” on Saturday, June 4, starting at 5 p.m. Paul Violette, founder and curator of The New Hampshire Telephone Museum, will explore the history of the telephone, which made its way into the art of many mid-century illustrations. The evening program is included with regular Museum admission; members free. To RSVP, please contact the Museum at 413.931.2221.

Mac Conner: A New York Life
On view through June 5, 2016

Fifty years later, the influence of the mid-1950s to 1960s endures, with current fashion, film, music, and commercial art continuing to be informed by the art, design, and culture from the time period. One of illustration’s original “Mad Men,” Mac Conner was one of the artists whose work helped shape the popular image of postwar America.

Organized by the Museum of the City of New York, Mac Conner: A New York Life is the first exhibition of more than 70 original works by the New York City-based artist whose advertising and editorial illustrations graced the pages of such leading publications as Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and The Saturday Evening Post. Presented as part of Norman Rockwell Museum’s Distinguished Illustrator Series, the exhibition is co-sponsored by The Modern Graphic History Library at Washington University in St. Louis and the Museum’s Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies.