Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861-2008 at Brooklyn Museum, through March 13, 2016

Photographs by Corrado Serra.

“The modern American mass-culture industry was born at Coney Island, and the constant novelty of the resort made it a seductively liberating subject for artists. What these artists saw from 1861 to 2008 at Coney Island, and the varied ways in which they chose to portray it, mirrored the aspirations and disappointments of the era and the country. Taken together, these tableaux of wonder and menace, hope and despair, dreams and nightmares become metaphors for the collective soul of a nation.” — Dr. Robin Jaffee Frank, exhibition curator

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Exhibition entrance

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If you’re feeling lucky, give our wheel of chance a spin and let it guide you on your way into the world of Coney Island…

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Steeplechase Funny Face

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Right: W. F. Mangels Co. Carousel Works, Windmill Shooting Gallery Target and Shooting Gallery Target, ca. 1907-1920

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Leo McKay, Steeplechase Park, 1903-5

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Left: Mae West and Jimmy Durante, ca. 1910. Right: Nieman Studios, Inc., Shackles The Great, sideshow banner, 1940

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Center: Quito, Human Octopus, sideshow banner, 1940

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Left: Lisette Model, Coney Island Bather, New York, ca. 1939 – July 1941

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

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Installation view

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Installation view

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Solomon Stein, Harry Goldstein. Left to right: Armored Horse and Carousel Horse with Raised Head

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Left: Harry Roseland, Coney Island Fair Amusement Palace, Night in Egypt, 1932. Right: Reginald Marsh, Wonderland Circus, Sideshow Coney Island, 1930

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Installation view

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Left: Charles. I. D. Looff, Arabian Camel Stander, ca. 1895

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Frank Stella, Coney Island, 1958 © 2013 Frank Stella/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York