“The ability of men to gaze at each other, which Leyendecker depicts, is very of his time. It’s very emblematic of what Bruce Weber does for Banana Republic, or advertising agencies for Abercromie & Fitch, or Calvin Klein underwear ads. That’s the modern-day interpretation of Leyendecker.”
Curator Donald Albrecht is telling me about the new exhibit at the New-York Historical Society that he guest-curated: Under Cover, which centers around the (not so) subtly homoerotic advertising images created by commercial artist JC Leyendecker. The show collects 19 of the artist’s original oil paintings. Rarely seen and fabulously intriguing, these works are delightful and provocative, a glimpse into both a flourishing, pre-Stonewall gay culture and the manic energy of 1920s high society New York.
