The East Hampton Historical Society hosted a lively opening reception for their newest exhibition, Living Well Is The Best Revenge: A Jazz Age Fable of Sara and Gerald Murphy, on Friday evening, August 5th, at Clinton Academy Museum, located along East Hampton’s Main Street Historic District.

This new exhibition explores the fascinating lives of the Jazz Age’s most intriguing couple, whose story started and ended in the Hamptons. Gerald and Sara Murphy were, to many of their contemporaries, the most beautiful couple of the 1920s. They influenced many works of art and literature of the period: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ”Tender Is the Night,” Ernest Hemingway’s ”A Moveable Feast,” Philip Barry’s play ”Hotel Universe,” John Dos Passos’s ”Big Money,” and Pablo Picasso’s neo-classical masterpiece ”Woman in White.”

Laura Donnelly, the Murphy’s granddaughter, was a special guest of honor. Her gift to the East Hampton Historical Society of nine antique file boxes full of Wiborg family papers (Sara’s parents) dealing with the running of their East Hampton summer mansion, the Dunes, during eight summers starting in 1912, was the inspiration for the exhibition. Also in attendance: Sherman Donnelly, Robert A.M. Stern, Peggy and Ed Sherrill, Nina Gibson, Joan and Bob Osborne, Patsy LaBranche, Jennifer Borg, Mary Libby, Cassandra and Rich Look, Frank Newbold, Pamela Eldridge, Kendell Cronstrom, Alejandro Saralegui, and Frazer Pennebaker.

Living Well Is The Best Revenge: A Jazz Age Fable of Sara and Gerald Murphy will be on display at Clinton Academy Museum through Columbus Day weekend, October 10, 2016.

Clinton Academy Museum, 151 Main Street, East Hampton, NY
Exhibition dates: August 6 – October 10, 2016
Saturday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. & Sunday, noon – 5 p.m.
No admission charge; donations are appreciated

PHOTOS BY: Richard Lewin Professional Photography at soniboy@aol.com; 917-873-3940