Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties Opens at the Cleveland Museum of Art

CLEVELAND (June, 2012) – The Cleveland Museum of Art presents Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties, a wide-ranging exhibition which brings together for the first time the work of more than sixty painters, sculptors, and photographers who explored a new approach to realism in the years between World War I and the Great Depression. Youth and Beauty is complemented by an extensive program schedule, including 1920s Cleveland architectural tours, lectures and gallery talks, and a silent film and musical performance program. Organized and presented by the Brooklyn Museum, Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties will be on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art from July 1 through September 16, 2012. Cleveland is the final venue to present Youth and Beauty, which has traveled previously to the Brooklyn Museum and the Dallas Museum of Art.

About Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties 
The 1920s were a time when American artists responded to their rapidly changing world by creating works that conversely evoked clarity, order, and stillness. Confronted with situations and environments altered fundamentally by mechanization and urbanization, as well as shifts in attitudes toward the human body and behavior, artists adopted a distilled realism in order to discover organization amid turmoil. Some looked to Old Master art for inspiration, while others took cues from recent avant-garde developments, like motion pictures and advertisements. Most Jazz Age artists were united in their drive to idealize modern existence, and the art in this exhibition highlights human and natural beauty, and captures the youthful potency of America's emerging industrial landscape. Youth and Beauty will present more than 130 works by artists including Ansel Adams, George Bellows, Thomas Hart Benton, Stuart Davis, Aaron Douglas, Walker Evans, Edward Hopper, Isamu Noguchi, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Grant Wood.

Adult tickets for Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties are $15, seniors and college students $13, children ages 6–17 $7.50, children 5 and under free. The exhibition is free for museum members. Youth and Beauty will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, co-published by the Brooklyn Museum and Skira Rizzoli, featuring an essay by the exhibition's organizing curator, Teresa A. Carbone, the Andrew W. Mellon Curator of American Art and Managing Curator, Arts of the Americas and Europe at the Brooklyn Museum, along with additional essays by notable America art scholars.

Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties is organized by the Brooklyn Museum. Major support for this exhibition and the accompanying catalogue was also provided by the Henry Luce Foundation, the Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Exhibition Fund, The Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Programming Highlights 
Programming for individuals, families, and students of all ages will complement the exhibition throughout its Cleveland Museum of Art run. Following is a list of key exhibition programs:

LECTURES
Youth and Beauty: Regarding the Real Twenties, Sunday, July 29, 2:00 p.m., Recital Hall. Free. 
Teresa Carbone, Curator of American Art at the Brooklyn Museum and organizer of the Youth and Beauty exhibition. Few moments in American cultural history are as readily recognized as the "roaring" twenties—their mere mention conjures dynamic images of flappers, Fords, and skyscraper cities. And yet, American artists responded to this dizzying new modern world with art that evoked clarity, perfection, and order. This lecture will consider how painters, sculptors, and photographers of the 1920s responded to the cultural upheaval that characterized the decade.

Hot! Hot! Hot! Gloria Swanson and 1920s Photography, Wednesday, August 8, 6:30 p.m., Recital Hall. Free. 
Barbara Tannenbaum, Curator of Photography at the Cleveland Museum of Art. In the 1920s, as women gained unprecedented social, economic, and sexual freedom, they turned to a new art form, the movies, for self-aware, liberated role models. One of the most famous and most often photographed women of the era was movie star Gloria Swanson. Nickolas Murray, Karl Struss and Edward Steichen were among the artists who photographed Swanson and helped create her image as sultry beauty, clothes horse, vamp, and fiercely independent woman.

ARCHITECTURAL TOURS
1920s Architectural Tour of Cleveland Landmarks 
Sunday, August 5, 2:00–4:00 p.m. Tour will be repeated Sunday, September 9, 2:00–4:00 p.m. 
Just as the exhibition Youth and Beauty celebrates the spirit of the 1920s in visual art, we explore Cleveland's 1920s boom in architecture. Join the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Restoration Society for a look at public and private structures, as well as diverse architectural statements from revival styles to Deco. We'll be touring aboard Lolly the Trolley with architectural historian Dr. Theodore Sande, while savoring the treasures of our built environment.

Register through the ticket center at (216) 421-7350 or 1-888-CMA-0333. Space limited to 35 participants on either date. Please register by July 29 for the August 5 tour or September 2 for the September 9 tour. Cost: $30, museum members $25.

EVENT 
Celebrate! Friday, July 20, 5:00–9:00 p.m. 
Mingle with friends as you enjoy a special member's happy hour, speakeasy style. Don your favorite fashion from the 1920s. Listen to tunes spun by a DJ while sipping on a cocktail. Drinks and exhibition-inspired food will be available for purchase throughout the night. Museum members have free entry to exhibition. 
Advance registration strongly suggested
Call 216-421-7350 or 1-888-CMA-0033

GALLERY TALKS 
An Insider Look at Youth and Beauty, Friday, July 13, 6:30 p.m. Free with exhibition ticket. Meet in the first exhibition gallery. 
Cleveland Museum of Art's American Art Curator, Mark Cole, will tour Youth and Beauty and reveal the behind-the-scenes preparations that went into presenting the exhibition at the museum.

Silence and Solitude in City and Country, Friday, July 27, 6:30 p.m. Free with exhibition ticket. Meet in the first exhibition gallery. 
Explore the dynamic ways that artists expressed feelings of peacefulness and stillness during the Roaring Twenties on a guided tour of Youth and Beauty. Led by guest lecturer Stephanie Foster.

A Musical Romp Through the 1920s, Friday, August 17, 6:30 p.m. Free with exhibition ticket. Meet in the first exhibition gallery. 
Cleveland Museum of Art's Associate Director of Music Tom Welsh will discuss his inspirations for a playlist to accompany Youth and Beauty, with sounds that are as exciting today as they were back then.

EXHIBITION TOURS 
Exhibition tours will begin on Tuesday, July 3 and take place Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2:30, Wednesdays at 7:00, and Saturdays and Sundays at 1:30 and 2:30. Exhibition ticket required.

SILENT FILM AND MUSIC 
Laurel and Hardy, with live original music by Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra, Sunday, July 1, 2:00 p.m, Gartner Auditorium. Free.
Sugar Daddies (1927), Double Whoopee (1929), Wrong Again (1929) 
Trumpeter Steven Bernstein brings his charismatic sass and good humor to original scores for these hysterical Laurel and Hardy shorts. His nine piece big band, the Millennial Territory Orchestra, formed in 1999, swings like mad—1920s style—in this family friendly celebration of the opening of our summer exhibition.

Youth and Beauty in 1920s American Movies 
Classic silent films complement our Youth and Beauty exhibition of 1920s American art. Most films $9; museum members, seniors 65 & over, students $7; or one museum Film Series voucher. Tickets are available through the museum's online box office at www.clevelandart.org or by phone at 216 421-7350 or 888-CMA-0033.

Joseph Rubin accompanies Show People, Friday, July 6, 7:00 p.m. 
Show People offers a behind-the-scenes look at silent cinema and features cameos by numerous industry luminaries. Joseph Rubin, founder of the Lillian and Dorothy Gish Film Festival, will provide live organ accompaniment.

Our Dancing Daughters, Wednesday, July 18, 7:00 p.m. 
The quintessential Jazz Age movie tells of two "flapper" friends—one flamboyant but virtuous, the other thoroughly amoral—who fall for the same rich young man.

Bruce Posner presents I'll Take Manhatta: Strand, Sheeler, and Steiner, Wednesday, July 25, 7:00 p.m. 
Independent film historian, archivist, and curator Bruce Posner will screen and discuss Manhatta as part of a special illustrated talk addressing modernist art, photography, and silent movies.

Sadie Thompson, Wednesday, August 1, 7:00 p.m. 
In this silent film version of W. Somerset Maugham's story "Rain," a San Francisco prostitute moves to Pago Pago and locks horns with a self-righteous reformer.

The Gold Rush, Friday, August 10, 7:00 p.m. 
Chaplin's greatest silent era comedy finds his "little tramp" character a gold prospector in the frozen Yukon during the late 19th century. Shown in a glorious recent restoration that features a newly recorded orchestral score of Chaplin's own music.

The Mark of Zorro, Wednesday, August 15, 7:00 p.m. 
The granddaddy of all move swashbucklers stars Douglas Fairbanks as the legendary masked avenger in old Spanish California. It's a delightful mix of comedy, romance, and athletic ability.

David Drazin accompanies Safety Last, Friday, August 24, 7:00 p.m. 
Harold Lloyd's celebrated thrill comedy tells of an ambitious store clerk who finds himself climbing a 12-story building when a publicity stunt he proposes goes wrong. Live piano accompaniment by David Drazin, regular silent film musician at the Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago.

Sherlock, Jr. preceded by Man Ray Shorts, Wednesday, August 29, 7:00 p.m. 
In one of his funniest, most inventive, and amazing silent comedies, Buster Keaton plays a dozing film projectionist who dreams himself into the movie he is showing, where he becomes a dapper, daring detective.

Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties is organized by the Brooklyn Museum. Major support for this exhibition and the accompanying catalogue was also provided by the Henry Luce Foundation, the Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Exhibition Fund, The Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Presenting Sponsors:

Baker Hostetler • National Endowment for the Arts

The accompanying catalogue is supported by the Henry Luce Foundation and by a Brooklyn Museum publications endowment established by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.