New York, New York Exhibition Opens At Nassau County Museum Of Art

Exhibition demonstrates how artists over the past century have been inspired by and portrayed New York City

From its earliest years, New York City was the stage on which the transformation of America played out, reflecting economic and historic upheavals that led to the city’s place as both the financial and art capitals of the world. New York, New York presents the city’s grit and glamour, its excitement and bustle, and the heartbeat of a great metropolis through the work of John Sloan, Reginald Marsh, Childe Hassam, Red Grooms, Robert Henri, Fairfield Porter, Berenice Abbott, Milton Avery, Georgia O’Keeffe, Arthur Leipzig and many others. Guest curated by Director Emerita Constance Schwartz and including more than 140 works of art, New York, New York opens at Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Harbor, New York on Saturday, July 22, and remains on view through Sunday, November 5.

From the extraordinary to the everyday, New York, New York reveals the daily life of the city’s populace at work, in their homes, on the streets, and at leisure, enjoying the parks, the beaches, the clubs and the bars of the city. In oils, works on paper, photography, prints and sculpture, the works on view explore the city from the early years of the last century almost to the present day. The exhibition is organized thematically to focus on areas of New York City life such as transportation, entertainment, work, home, leisure and more.

Everett Shinn’s watercolor shows us patrons of McSorley’s as the famed bar and its customers appeared in 1908, while Francis Luis Mora’s 1914 oil, Evening News, glimpses people reading the paper as they ride home from work on a train, an innovation of the time that revolutionized travel throughout the city. New York’s café society of old is represented in Reginald Marsh’s watercolor, Memories of the Stork Club; Marsh contrasts this image of the city’s elites in his oil, The Bowery, depicting a male-only group of drinkers.

Mora’s work is seen again in the large-scale series entitled Manhattan Cocktail 1626-1938, created in 1938 to be showcased in the 1939 World’s Fair. Harold Roth’s Water Street showing kids dashing through the waters of an open hydrant, and Rebecca Lipkoff’s Street Play Monroe Street portraying youngsters in street games, both photographs depicting city streets during the 1940s, will bring smiles of recognition to anyone who grew up in New York City.

Romare Bearden’s 1972 collage 110th Street Harlem Blues dramatically portrays the city’s most famed African-American community. Red Grooms is represented in New York, New York by several pieces including his massive 1984-85 installation, The Alley, a work certain to engage audiences of all ages.

Other highly diverse art of the 1980s includes Tom Blackwell’s Herald Square, Richard Estes’ Old Police Headquarters, Henry Groskinsky’s Fireworks in NYC from the Empire State Building and Christo and Jean Claude’s The Wrapped Building: Times Square Allied Chemical Tower. The exhibition moves into the 1990s with Andy Warhol’s Abstract Sculpture (Headline series) and Yvette Jacquette’s Herald Square Composite 11. The most recent artwork in New York, New York is Red Grooms’s Lunchtime on Broadway, a huge 2009 charcoal on paper.

The iconic Brooklyn Bridge, a favorite subject for artists since its opening in 1883, is seen in several works and media—a photograph by Harold Roth, an oil by Milton Avery, a work on paper by Georgia O’Keeffe, and a welded steel construction by Red Grooms. Another frequent subject, Washington Square, is depictured in 1910 and 1912 oils by William Glackens and in a 1950 photograph by Rebecca Lepkoff. The many pleasures of Coney Island, New York’s much-loved playground, are seen in paintings by Reginald Marsh and Milton Avery and in photographs by Arthur Leipzig and Harold Roth.

The showing of New York, New York will be amplified with public programming that will enhance viewers’ appreciation of the exhibition. Among them are a 50-minute film, Modern Dreams: Art of America, that screens daily; three lunchtime talks about the exhibition; and a gallery talk by the curator, Constance Schwartz. Free public tours of the exhibition are offered each day at 2 p.m.

Accompanying New York, New York and also on view July 22 through November 5 is Glamour Icons, an exhibition demonstrating fragrance and cosmetic packaging as an art form through the work of the renowned designer Marc Rosen.

Visit nassaumuseum.org/events for details on events and reservations.

• Docent Led Exhibition Tours: Tuesday-Sunday at 2 p.m.
• Docent Led Family Tours: Sundays at 1 p.m.
• Tours are free with museum admission

Nassau County Museum of Art is located at One Museum Drive in Roslyn Harbor, just off Northern Boulevard, Route 25A, two traffic lights west of Glen Cove Road. The museum is open Tuesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-4:45 p.m. Admission is $12 for adults, $8 for seniors (62 and above) and $4 for students and children (4 to 12). Members are admitted free. Docent-led tours of the exhibition are offered at 2 p.m. each day; tours of the mansion are offered each Saturday at 1 p.m.; meet in the lobby, no reservations needed. Tours are free with museum admission. Family art activities and family tours are offered Sundays from 1 pm; free with museum admission. Call 516-484-9338, ext. 12 to inquire about group tours. The Museum Store is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Call 516-484-9338 for current exhibitions, events, days/times and directions or log onto nassaumuseum.org.

Nassau County Museum of Art is chartered and accredited by New York State as a not-for-profit private educational institution and is governed by a privately elected Board of Trustees.