Reynolda House presents Pay-What-You-Wish Thursday nights

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (September 12, 2019) —Reynolda House Museum of American Art is offering visitors a chance to enjoy relaxed and fun evening hours on two Thursday nights this fall. Attendees can pay what they would like on Sept. 19 and Oct. 17 and enjoy after hours events inspired by Reynolda’s current exhibition Leyendecker and the Golden Age of American Illustration. These evenings are sponsored by Macy’s and will take place from 4:30–8 p.m. and include a cash bar.

“Macy’s is thrilled to partner with Reynolda House to offer every member of the Triad community the opportunity to see this remarkable exhibit first hand on Pay-What-You-Wish Thursday Nights,” said Charles Davis, Macy’s Triad market store manager. “Macy’s celebrates unity through art, music and fashion, and it’s an honor to share this one-of-a-kind experience that highlights the American experience from multiple perspectives still relevant today.”

On Sept. 19, attendees can dig into fashion nostalgia with detachable collars, flapper dresses, and plus-fours. They can check out the “hotsy-totsy” 3D fashion trends that J.C. Leyendecker popularized in his 2D illustrations on view in the exhibition. On Oct. 17, The Golden Age of Illustration meets the Golden Age of Advertising as attendees will have the chance to explore the convergence of art and consumerism. Guests will enjoy 1920s music provided by the UNCSA Jazz Ensemble as 20th-century ads from Macy’s, Camel Cigarettes, and Arrow Collar rotate on the big screen.

Amber Albert, manager of community and academic learning at Reynolda House explains, “Leyendecker’s work is all about illustration, fashion, and influence. We’ve designed the Pay-What-You-Wish evenings with community partners to highlight those themes with live music and fashion models!”

The Leyendecker exhibition showcases the work of Joseph Christian (J.C.) Leyendecker, one of the most prolific and sought-after artists of the Golden Age of American Illustration and will be on display from Aug. 31 through Dec. 31, 2019 at Reynolda House at 2250 Reynolda Road in Winston-Salem.

Leyendecker (1894–1951) captivated the public with his striking images and fashionable depictions of handsome men and glamorous women. This will be the museum’s first exhibition focused on illustration and its first to explore the work of an openly gay artist. Reynolda is the opening venue for a national planned tour of “Leyendecker and the Golden Age of American Illustration.”

Between 1896 and 1950, Leyendecker illustrated more than 400 magazine covers for the nation’s trade and general interest publications, including The Saturday Evening Post, for which he created 322 cover paintings. With his instantly identifiable style—“The Leyendecker Look”—he helped shape the image of a nation, producing dozens of enduring icons and creating some of the earliest national advertising brands. Leyendecker was talented at self-promotion and quickly established an easily recognizable style. His approach to his own career influenced an entire generation of younger artists, most notably Norman Rockwell, who observed, “There wasn’t an illustrator in the country who could draw better.” In his commercial work, Leyendecker created the famed Arrow Collar Man, who came to define the fashionable American male of the Roaring Twenties. Leyendecker based the Arrow Collar Man on his favorite model and lifelong partner, Charles Beach.

At the turn of the century, illustrators could disseminate original artworks on a national scale for the first time. As publishing technologies advanced to include images, and later colors, the methods of transportation and communication accelerated, allowing publications to be circulated to millions of Americans on a weekly basis. This change revolutionized the way Americans consumed media, from printed text to vibrant representations of the modern world in mastheads, highly illustrated novels and store windows. It was America’s Golden Age of Illustration.

Leyendecker and the Golden Age of American Illustration will be presented in English and Spanish. Tickets are on sale now at reynoldahouse.org/leyendecker.

Reynolda is grateful to lead sponsors for the support of Leyendecker and the Golden Age of American Illustration: Joseph M. Bryan, Jr.; Frank and Gary; Michael Felsen, in honor of the Family Equality Council; The David R. Hayworth Foundation; John Hoemann and Howard Upchurch; Leonard Ryden Burr Real Estate; Wake Forest University; contributing sponsors: Joan and David Cotterill; Cathleen and Ray McKinney Exhibition Fund, in honor of Frank and Gary; and exhibition partners Natalie and Penn Broyhill, in honor of Frank and Gary; Phyllis Dunning, in honor of Frank and Gary; Sue and Doug Henderson in honor of the wedding of Conley and David; and Jeff Lindsay and Terry Robertson.

About Reynolda
Reynolda, in Winston-Salem, N.C., is a rare gem among the nation’s cultural institutions and historic greenspaces. The 50-year-old museum at the center of Reynolda’s 180 acres, Reynolda House Museum of American Art, presents a renowned art collection in a historic and incomparable setting: the original 1917 interiors of the country manor of R. J. Reynolds. Spanning 250 years, the collection is an uncompromisingly selective one, a chronology of American art, with each artist represented by one work of major significance. Highlights are: Albert Bierstadt, Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, Frederic Edwin Church, Stuart Davis, Martin Johnson Heade, Alex Katz, Lee Krasner, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O’Keeffe, John Singer Sargent and Grant Wood. The collection was assembled by the unerring eye of Barbara Babcock Millhouse, granddaughter of R. J. and Katharine Reynolds. The Reynolda experience includes a free app called Reynolda Revealed; touring exhibitions in the museum’s Mary and Charlie Babcock Wing; formal gardens, conservatory and walking trails of Reynolda Gardens; and more than 25 of the estate’s original buildings repurposed as shops and restaurants in Reynolda Village. Reynolda, located at 2250 Reynolda Road, is adjacent to Wake Forest University. For more information, please visit reynolda.org.

Connect at facebook.com/rhmaa and @CurateReynolda on Instagram. Share on social media with #Leyendecker, #ReynoldaArrow and #MacysGives.

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Media Contact
Kaci Baez
336.758.5524 or kaci@reynolda.org