Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861-2008

by Robin Jaffee Frank, Charles Denson (Contributor), Josh Glick (Contributor)

Called “America’s playground,” Coney Island is a world-famous resort and national cultural symbol that has inspired music, literature, and films. This groundbreaking book is the first to look at the site’s enduring status as inspiration for artists throughout the ages, from its inception as an elite seaside resort in the mid-19th century, to its evolution into an entertainment mecca for the masses, with the eventual closing of its iconic amusement park, Astroland, in 2008 after decades of urban decline. How artists chose to portray Coney Island between 1861 and 2008—in tableaux of wonder and menace, hope and despair, dreams and nightmares—mirrored the aspirations and disappointments of the era.
 
This dazzling catalogue highlights more than 200 images from Coney Island’s history, including paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, posters, film stills, architectural artifacts, and carousel animals. An extraordinary array of artists is represented, from George Bellows, William Merritt Chase, Reginald Marsh, and Joseph Stella to Diane Arbus, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Robert Frank, Red Grooms, Weegee, and Swoon. Essays by prominent scholars analyze Coney Island through its imagery and ephemera as both a place and an idea—one that reflected the collective soul of the nation. 

Genres: History, New York

304 pages, Hardcover

First published February 24, 2015

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book filled with incredible paintings and photographs. A definitive history of Coney Island and a metaphor for how Americans enjoyed themselves for 150 years. The book ends, sadly, with the boardwalk being turned into a cement walk and the last remaining park, Astroland, closing so million dollar condos can be built. It tells how, for many years, Coney Island was a place where the rich and poor could mingle, where the gorgeous towers of Dreamland once towered, with gleaming electric lights, and where anyone might meet someone else and fall in love. The book states Coney Island will no doubt change again. And the Cyclone and the Wonder Wheel still stand as living monuments to a time past when people went to Coney Island by the millions to relax, cool off from the heat of Manhattan, board wondrous rides, and have a Nathan's hot dog (which, fortunately, you can still do). Terrific historical book.

[Chris Mullen]

One of the best exhibition catalogues I have ever encountered. A careful balance of actuality and visualisation. Exhaustive research for images of the tawdry and the garish and ending with a golden glow of understanding. Given the tendency in American Society for the popular acceptance of the Snake Oil Salesman (Huey Long, Donald Trump), Coney Island has all my fears and hopes in microcosm.

[Rosie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really excellent monograph that covers a complete history of Coney Island through artist depictions, starting from the 1860s when the area was just a stretch of sand dunes on the outskirts of a new metropolis to its decline in the late 2000s. It is very thorough and has a wealth of rich images - paintings, photography, ephemera, film, and sideshow art (my favorite). It tracks the development of the amusement park and how Coney Island, as part of the American imagination, mirrored shifting social and cultural values towards class, leisure and race. I kept wanting to skim over parts but was drawn into the details of the paintings and photographs especially, and the artist backgrounds. This book provides a fascinating lens from which to view 20th century American cultural and art history and is exceedingly fun to look at as it captures the nostalgia and intrigue of Coney Island in all of its lightness and darkness.

[H.P. Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw the exhibit on which this book is based, which is terrific. The book is well-produced and beautiful to behold.