Coney Island Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861–2008 Edited by Robin Jaffee Frank With contributions by Charles Denson, Josh Glick, John F. Kasson and Charles Musser
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.
Exhibition Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 31/1/15 – 31/5/15 San Diego Museum of Art, 11/7/15 – 13/10/15 Brooklyn Museum, 20/11/15 – 13/3/16 McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, 11/5/16 – 11/9/16
228 colour + 77 b/w illus. 304 pp. 279x241mm. HB ISBN 978-0-300-18990-2 March £35.00 $50.00
This dazzling catalogue highlights more than two hundred images from Coney Island’s history, including paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, posters, film stills, architectural artefacts and carousel animals. An extraordinary array of artists is represented, from George Bellows, William Merritt Chase, Reginald Marsh and Joseph Stella to Diane Arbus, JeanMichel Basquiat, Robert Frank, Red Grooms, Weegee and Swoon. Essays by prominent scholars analyse Coney Island through its imagery and ephemera as both a place and an idea – one that reflected the collective soul of the nation. Robin Jaffee Frank is chief curator and Krieble Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Published in association with the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit Mark Rosenthal With contributions by John Dean, Cathy Selvius DeRoo, Linda Downs, Christopher Foster, Salomon Grimberg, Jerry Herron, Juan Rafael Coronel Rivera and Nancy Sojka
From April 1932 through March 1933, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo spent a dramatic and pivotal sojourn in Detroit. Against the backdrop of the Great Depression and amid labour protests in the city, Rivera created his Detroit Industry murals, one of the most important and accomplished works of art made in the United States in the 20th century, for the Detroit Institute of Arts. Kahlo, meanwhile, developed her own artistic identity almost unnoticed, emerging with an oeuvre of extraordinarily expressive work. For this highly anticipated catalogue, Mark Rosenthal and a team of scholars have written essays that examine the artists, the city of Detroit in this period, and the commissioning of the murals by Edsel Ford, the patron, and William Valentiner, then director of the Detroit Institute. Rivera’s cartoons for the murals, which have not been exhibited in decades, are highlighted here along with new archival research conducted by Rivera’s grandson, Juan Rafael Coronel Rivera. Featuring more than 100 colour illustrations of works by both artists, this book presents Detroit as a profoundly important place for the artistic development of Rivera and Kahlo. 125 colour + 48 b/w illus. 248 pp. 254x203mm.
Flexibound ISBN 978-0-300-21160-3 February £30.00 $50.00 48 Art
Exhibition Detroit Institute of Arts, 15/3/15 – 12/7/15
Mark Rosenthal is adjunct curator of contemporary art at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Distributed for the Detroit Institute of Arts Translation rights: Detroit Institute of Arts