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May 12, 2016 Slideshows » Arts

23 Reasons to Visit the McNay's Coney Island Exhibition

By San Antonio Current Staff

        
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Fitting for the locale that introduced the nation to roller coasters, Coney Island has seen its fair share of ups and downs. Marked by devastating fires, ambitious reinventions and hefty doses of crime and prostitution, the beachfront destination earned a reputation as both “America’s Playground” and “Sodom by the Sea.” Home to the weathered wooden roller coaster the Coney Island Cyclone (opened in 1927), Charles Hermann’s iconic Wonder Wheel (opened in 1920) and the Coney Island History Project Exhibition Center (opened in 2004), the legendary landmark comes to light locally via “Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861-2008,” a touring show making the McNay its sole Southwestern stop. Organized by Connecticut’s Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and on view through September 11, the exhibition explores Coney Island not just as a place but as “an idea” that courses through more than 140 objects — from circus posters and sideshow banners to carousel animals and photographs by the likes of Diane Arbus and Walker Evans.

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Strobridge Lithographing Company, The Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth / The Great Coney Island Water Carnival / Remarkable Head-Foremost Dives from Enormous Heights into Shallow Depths of Water, c. 1898

Steeplechase Funny Face

Marie Roberts, A Congress of Curious Peoples, 2005

Requiem for a Dream, production still, directed by Darren Aronofsky, 2000

Homer Page, Coney Island, July 30, 1949

Arnold Mesches, Anomie 1991: Winged Victory, 1991,

Milton Avery, The Steeplechase, Coney Island, 1929

Reginald Marsh, Wooden Horses, 1936

Reginald Marsh, Pip and Flip, 1932

Henry Koerner, The Barker’s Booth 1948–49

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Edward J. Kelty, Harlem Black Birds, Coney Island, 1930

Joseph Stella, Battle of Lights, Coney Island, Mardi Gras, 1913–14,

Red Grooms, Weegee 1940, 1998–99

Gambling Wheel, 1900–20

Frank Stella, Coney Island, 1958

Joseph Burstyn, Little Fugitive, production still, 1953

Morris Engel, Coney Island Embrace, New York City, 1938

Daze, Coney Island Pier, 1995

Bruce Davidson, Untitled, July 4, 1962

William Merritt Chase, Landscape, near Coney Island, c. 1886

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Samuel S. Carr, Beach Scene, c. 1879

Charles Carmel, Carousel Horse with Raised Head, Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, c. 1914

Frederick Brosen, Fortune Teller, Jones Walk, Coney Island, 2008

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