"Paris in the 1920s - art, literature, the Lost Generation. The glitterati who inhabited this legendary world - F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Cole Porter, Man Ray, Dorothy Parker, and a host of others - were members of an intimate circle centered around Sara and Gerald Murphy. The Murphys, who endeavored to make art of their own lives, embodied a predominant theme of the 1920s: life as one would like it to be versus life as it is." "Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy is a collection of essays examining through images and text the Murphys' influence on a remarkable constellation of artists. It accompanies an exhibition organized by the Williams College Museum of Art and examines, from multiple points of view, the Murphys' artistically adventurous way of life and their ability to confer distinction on everything, from the inconsequential to the grand. The book also explains how this period of enchantment ended and explores Gerald Murphy's abbreviated career as a painter, his artistic legacy, and the complex nature of his motivation and vision."--Jacket.