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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 8, 2006

PRESS CONTACT:   
Andrea Potochniak
607 254-4563
arp37@cornell.edu

The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art Presents
American Art from the Great Gatsby Era

Ithaca, NY—The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University presents American Art from the Great Gatsby Era, on view from August 18 to September 5, 2006.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 classic The Great Gatsby was selected as the sixth annual New Student Reading Project for Cornell University. The novel will be required reading for more than 3,000 incoming freshman and transfer students this fall, and events will be held on campus and in Ithaca. For more information, visit http://reading.cornell.edu/.

“Gatsby, with its central contrast between the glamour of Long Island socialites and the dark secret of Jay Gatsby’s humble beginnings, speaks to the economic paradox of American society in the Roaring Twenties,” said Andrew C. Weislogel, assistant curator and master teacher at the Johnson Museum. “In the same way, American art of the time shows the divide between urban wealth and rural poverty and the plight of the American worker.”

This exhibition of prints and photographs from the Johnson’s permanent collection offers a varied picture of America during the twenties and the Depression years. Works included range from Martin Lewis’s New York prints of charming young women in twenties fashions, to the riveting works of great WPA-era printmakers and photographers like Thomas Hart Benton, Arthur Rothstein, and Dorothea Lange who documented the effects of hard times on impoverished Americans and celebrated their determination. These works provide an eloquent commentary on the thin veneer of prosperity seen in The Great Gatsby, and reinforce the relevance of the novel in our own time, resonating with the ever-widening gap between American rich and poor.

The Johnson Museum has a permanent collection of over 30,000 works of art from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. The museum building was designed by I. M. Pei. Funds for the building were donated by Cornell alumnus Herbert F. Johnson, late president and chairman of S C Johnson. The building opened in 1973.

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The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, located on the campus of Cornell University, is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is free. The Museum is completely accessible for mobility-impaired visitors, and a wheelchair is available in the lobby. Metered parking is available in the lot next to the Museum. For more information, please call 607 255-6464. Visit the Museum’s website at  www.museum.cornell.edu. The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art is a proud member of Ithaca’s Discovery Trail: www.DiscoveryTrail.com.

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