Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861-2008
Article by Anna Robert
San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park welcomes a highly engaging and thought-provoking exhibit devoted to the history, vision and culture of Coney Island – the famous American resort and national aesthetic symbol.
The exhibit was initially on view at the Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art in Hartford, CT; after San Diego it will take place at the Brooklyn Museum in New York and McNay Art Museum in San Antonio.
Robin Jaffe Frank, the curator of the show, characterized Coney Island as “the iconic place”, “a microcosm of the American experience”, and a “part of American’s collective memory”. For Jaffe Frank, the work on the exhibition started with the inspiration – she saw the Futurist painting by Joseph Stella Battle of Lights, Coney Island, Mardi Gras (1913 – 1914, oil on canvas) that depicts the wild dynamism of the Luna Park, known as the Electric Eden at that time. The curator traced back the resort’s evocative past starting from the moment the Island became one of the America’s earliest seaside resorts – attracting people from all walks of life to establish itself as the most diverse and famous vacation spot in the country and to the urban decline after the last 20th century amusement park Astroland was closed.
Coney Island used to inspire many artists, photographers, movie directors, poets, writers, and musicians. That is why the artwork on display shows a great deal of variety – there are oil paintings, photographs, postcards, wood engravings, lithograph posters, carousel horses, even movies… So, basically, the collection meant to satisfy anyone’s taste. And all of that happened thanks to the fact that more than 30 cultural institutions throughout the country were willing to lend pieces to this show.
The exhibit is divided into several sections displaying different time periods, from 1861 to 2008. The peculiar section titles – “The World’s Greatest Playground”, “The Nickel Empire”, “Requiem for a Dream” – are actually contemporary quotations that give the audience an idea of how popular perceptions were changing.
Walking through the show, plunging oneself into the long gone, frenzied world of Coney Island with its unusual and highly sophisticated Elephant Hotel, 15-acre Steeplechase Park – the example of technological innovation at that time, shooting galleries, theatres, and restaurants, one might feel certain sadness and nostalgia for those times. On the other hand, the presented artworks are so powerful and energetic that they make the audience “hear” the music playing on the background and noises and sounds produced by crowds. After leaving the show, you start thinking – a century from now, would the same fate overtake the places so popular and praised today?
IMAGE: Joseph Stella (born Italy, 1877-1946), Battle of Lights, Coney Island, Mardi Gras, 1913-1914. Oil on canvas, 77 x 84 3/4 in. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
