Williams College Museum of Art receives Terra Foundation Grant
For immediate release: August 4, 2006

Williamstown, MA–The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA), announced today that it has been awarded a $90,000 grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art, to partially support the exhibition Muses of the Avant-Garde: Gerald and Sarah Murphy and their Circle.

Muses of the Avant- Garde, organized by Deborah Rothschild, Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at WCMA, will open on July 7, 2007 at the museum.  The exhibition explores the contributions of Gerald and Sara Murphy to the transatlantic exchange of ideas about modern art in the 1920s and 1930s. The exhibition will convey the Murphy's gift for weaving innovators of diverse backgrounds, nationalities, and talents into the fabric of their everyday life. Over 100 works from their artistic and literary friends will be featured in the show, including that of Pablo Picasso, Natalia Goncharova, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger, and Man Ray.  The seven surviving paintings by Gerald Murphy, including Cocktail from the Whitney Museum of American Art, Wasp and Pear from the Museum of Modern Art (New York), and two large canvases from the Dallas Museum of Art, will also be on view. Original manuscripts, letters, film clips, and collateral material by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy Parker, John Dos Passos, and others will help to bring the Murphys’ world to light.

The Terra Foundation for American Art is dedicated to fostering exploration, understanding, and enjoyment of the visual arts of the United States for national and international audiences. Recognizing the importance of experiencing original works of art, the foundation provides opportunities for interaction and study, beginning with the presentation and growth of its own art collection in Chicago. To further cross-cultural dialogue on American art, the foundation supports and collaborates on innovative exhibitions, research, and educational programs. Implicit in such activities is the belief that art ahs the potential both to distinguish cultures and to unite them.