MAC CONNER: A NEW YORK LIFE

The chronicle of one of the original Mad Men captures a stunning career during the heyday of advertising

Mac Conner’s hand-painted illustrations for advertising campaigns in women’s magazines like Redbook and McCall’s helped redefine American style and culture in the post-war period. Celebrating the artist, who at 100 years old worked directly with Studio Joseph on the project, the design embodies Conner’s insistence that the works be shown as part of an archive and not as “works of art.” Therefore, none of the drawings are hung on the gallery walls. Rather, they are shown on a series of panels that pair with graphic texts. The space itself is boldly reimagined as part of 1950s Madison Avenue corporate urbanity with large-scale black and white murals of office fenestration on two of the gallery walls, and the third lined with full-height mirrors. Together with process drawings and photography, the displays act as an archival presentation showing Conner’s methods and relationship to editorial requirements.