Milton Glaser, the celebrated graphic designer and co-founder of Push Pin Studios, once remarked that “there are three responses to a piece of design — yes, no, and Wow! Wow is the one to aim for.”
That’s where The Church in Sag Harbor is taking aim, with “Yes, No, and WOW: The Push Pin Studios Revolution,” which will open on Sunday and continue through Dec. 30. A reception is set for Saturday evening from 6 to 7:30.
The exhibition features a like-minded group of six graphic artists who came together in the mid-20th century to form a graphic design firm that had a profound and lasting cultural impact. Three of them have deep ties to Sag Harbor, and the show continues The Church’s determination to illuminate the village’s cultural, creative, and artistic history.
Push Pin Studios began in 1954 as a loose collaboration among four Cooper Union graduates, Seymour Chwast, Reynold Ruffins, Ed Sorel, and Glaser. Early on they created two tongue-in-cheek publications to promote their work to art directors in advertising and publishing.
The Push Pin Almanack used antique type and techniques such as woodcut, cross-hatching, and other outdated conventions of graphics for commerce. Along with its successor, the Push Pin Graphic, the studio gained immediate attention.
It expanded to include other artists, two of whom, Paul Davis and James McMullan, are longtime Sag Harbor residents, as is Mr. Ruffins. Each artist created new imagery, full of verve, irreverence, and inventiveness, influencing illustration and design for books and magazines, posters, murals, and films.
This exhibition includes materials from the Push Pin archive ranging from the ‘50s into the present century, among them chapbooks, almanacs, posters, books, vinyl record covers, and objects from the six artists.
Related programs include talks by surviving members of the group. The first will bring Mr. McMullan to The Church on Sunday at 3 p.m. for a conversation with April Gornik, the venue’s co-founder. They will discuss his time with Push Pin Studios, his life in Sag Harbor and the role it played in his work, and the various milestones and obstacles he encountered in his career.
Mr. McMullan has created images for magazine stories, books, record covers, U.S. stamps, murals, and animated films, but he is perhaps best known for the 80-plus posters he designed for Lincoln Center Theater. A highlight of his magazine work is a group of journalistic illustrations of a Brooklyn disco he painted for New York magazine; it became the visual inspiration for the film “Saturday Night Fever.”
Tickets to the conversation are $15, $10 for members.
“Yes, No, WOW” was organized by Ms. Gornik and Myrna Davis, who was the editor of Push Pin Graphic from 1960 to 1965. Ms. Davis is managing partner of Paul Davis Studio and executive director emerita of the Art Directors Club of New York.
