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CURATOR TO SPEAK AT HOUSATONIC MUSEUM GALLERY
ILLUSTRATED TALK DISCUSSES
ROLE OF MAJOR ILLUSTRATORS
CREATING AMERICA: ILLUSTRATION IN CONTEXT
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- Stephanie Haboush Plunkett, deputy director and chief curator at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., will present an illustrated talk on the national influence and contributions of the “Golden Age Illustrators” at the Burt Chernow Gallery at the Housatonic Museum of Art on Thursday, March 27, at 12:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
The talk will focus on the emergence of the publishing industry in the nineteenth century as the chief employer of artists. At this time, books and periodicals were the major sources of entertainment and information. During the "Golden Age," which ran from 1865 to 1920, the work of talented illustrators assumed unprecedented importance.
Currently, television, film, and the Internet have the major impact on public perception unlike the illustrators in the beginning of the 20th Century who reflected the aspirations of the nation and created visions of the American dream.
This illustrated talk will look at the extensive work that had national influence. It will examine the contributions of Golden Age illustrators J.C. Leyendecker, James Montgomery Flagg, Norman Rockwell, Charles Dana Gibson, John Held, Jr., N.C. Wyeth and others in the “great band of illustrators” who, said Norman Rockwell, “showed us to ourselves.”
A focus on Connecticut artists will highlight the art of important mid-twentieth century illustrators. Al Parker, Al Dorne, Harold von Schmidt and others influenced American’s values and aspirations during the post-war era and became founders of The Famous Artists School, an influential correspondence course based in Westport that had celebrated faculty including Norman Rockwell, Stevan Dohanos, Robert Fawcett, Ben Stahl, Austin Briggs, Jon Whitcomb, Peter Helk, Fred Ludekens, John Atherton and others.
The museum is located on the campus of Housatonic Community College, located at 900 Lafayette Blvd, Bridgeport, less than 150 yards of I-95 (Exit 27) and Rte. 8 (Exit 1).
Plunkett Biography
Stephanie Haboush Plunkett is the Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass. The recipient of a Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of Visual Arts Illustration as Visual Essay program, she is the author of two American Library Association Notable children’s books and the curator of many exhibitions for the Norman Rockwell Museum, including Ephemeral Beauty: Al Parker and the American Women's Magazine: 1940-1960, Building Books: The Art of David Macaulay, The Art of The New Yorker: Eighty Years in the Vanguard, and Women in Illustration: Contemporary Visions and Voices, among others. She has also held positions at the Brooklyn Museum and the Brooklyn Children's Museum in Brooklyn, N.Y., and at the Heckscher Museum in Huntington, N.Y.