Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy

published Apr 21, 2008
Making It New The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy
Sara and Gerald Murphy are best remembered as the captivating American expatriates who inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night.

This exhibition is the first to explore the couple's relationships with some of the pivotal figures in avant-garde circles in Paris in the 1920s.

Their legendary style-modern in its apparent simplicity and freedom from stifling social regimentation-was a touchstone for many artists, writers, and musicians of the period-among them their friends Fitzgerald, Fernand Leger, Pablo Picasso, Cole Porter, Ernest Hemingway, Serge Diaghilev, and Jean Cocteau.

Gerald Murphy himself was a brilliant and inventive painter, recognized by contemporary French critics for his American audacity.

Although he produced just a small body of work, many of his images anticipate Pop Art.

His seven surviving canvases are brought together here for the first time with paintings, watercolors, drawings, and photographs by artists within his circle-Picasso, Leger, Juan Gris, and Amedee Ozenfant.

Also included are a series of watercolors dedicated to Gerald and Sara by Leger; and photographs of the Murphy family and its circle by Man Ray.

Personal photographs, home movies, letters, and other memorabilia reveal the warmth, charm, and charisma of the family, and further bring this dynamic era to life.