A visit to the Norman Rockwell Museum (Going "MAD" for the day.)

 

I didn't know this, but Mad Magazine once offered Norman Rockwell a commission to update the image of Alfred E. Newman.  Sadly, he declined the offer, based on the "Good Advice" from his wife.  However, years after his death, the Norman Rockwell Museum decided to have an exhibition of the Art of Mad Magazine. 

Both RQS and I realized that this would be a rare chance to see Mad's art treated as something more than disposable, especially since the current publishers of the magazine helped with the exhibition.  Our only issue would be the distance to get there.  We skipped going there the day before because of the length of the drive and the time it would take to reach the museum.  Since we didn't know when we'd have the chance to drive there on a weekend day, we bit the bullet and left the house around 10:00 am.

The drive up the Taconic parkway was dull and boring (as expected), but we made it to the museum by 12:30 pm (including stops for breakfast and bio-breaks).  Given the warm weather, it was the perfect day for both of us to be wearing linen dresses.  So we were comfortable on the short walk from the parking lot to the museum, as well as inside where it was properly air conditioned.

 

Some of Mad's "Usual Gang of Idiots"

I've been a fan of Mad Magazine since I was a child, and I have to say that this exhibition does Mad's Usual Gang of Idiots" justice, as it covers art from the EC Comics day, through the Golden Age of Mad, to the Current Day.

Of course, no exhibition of Mad Mad Magazine artifacts would be complete without a reference to my favorite sport 43 Man Squamish.  Although the unplayable sport described in Mad is a joke, it has rules always tend to make me smile when I read them. One could go on and on about this visit.  But it was nice to see the work of Al Jaffee, Dave Berg, Don Martin and Sergio Aragones again, being given the respect it deserves. 

We both spent too much at the museum's gift shop, and left the place around 3:00 pm.  It took us 2 1/2 hours to get home, including a stop in Dover Plains for ice cream.  It was a long day for us, but a day well spent....

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