“This Is New York” is a gritty, elegant celebration of the city: NPR

In a city where private space is scarce, this 1953 photo of Michael “Tony” Vaccaro taken for LOOK magazine shows a stylish way to have a view of the city.

Michael “Tony” Vaccaro / Museum of the City of New York

hide caption

toggle caption

Michael “Tony” Vaccaro / Museum of the City of New York

In a city where private space is scarce, this 1953 photo of Michael “Tony” Vaccaro taken for LOOK magazine shows a stylish way to have a view of the city.

Michael “Tony” Vaccaro / Museum of the City of New York

Visiting New York this summer? A fun, family-friendly exhibit celebrating movies, TV shows, music, books, fashion and art inspired by the city is now open at the Museum of the City of New York.

It’s New York is on the occasion of the centenary of the museum. It turns out that the last 100 years have been rich in portraying the city.

“1923 is really the beginning of American mass culture… Radio, cinema, it’s the beginning of a whole cultural explosion,” said Lilly Tuttle, one of the curators. She said the exhibition aimed to capture New York as artists experienced it at that time. It’s not a love letter.

“It’s a crowded, filthy, smelly, gross, cacophonous place. And also glamorous and wonderful and glitzy and fabulous and sleek and cool. And artists across time and across media have captured that,” he said. she declared. “Everything is here, all at once.”

But there are so many a lot to see — in this corner, the boxing gloves of Jake LaMotta from angry bull! In this corner, a video mocking the Pizza Rat meme! – that it can be overwhelming. To help you know where to start, here are our top five picks.

1. Get on a song

Musicians have long been performing songs about New York City – in this installation you can hear over 100 of them.

Brad Farwell/Museum of the City of New York

hide caption

toggle caption

Brad Farwell/Museum of the City of New York

Musicians have long been performing songs about New York City – in this installation you can hear over 100 of them.

Brad Farwell/Museum of the City of New York

Step on an illuminated icon of one of the five boroughs, and a song about New York by musicians from that borough pours from speakers. There are 112 songs in almost every genre – from standards and salsa to punk, rap and reggae.

Walk the Bronx – maybe you’ll hear Jennifer Lopez’s “Jenny from the Block.” Jump into Queens – hey, it’s “Rockaway Beach” from the Ramones. And while many, many songs have been written about Manhattan, you might be lucky enough to hear a famous one, like Frank Sinatra’s version of “New York, New York.”

2. Immerse yourself in the city

Sixteen screens tell you the story of New York City over the past hundred years as seen through visual media.

Brad Farwell/Museum of the City of New York

hide caption

toggle caption

Brad Farwell/Museum of the City of New York

Sixteen screens tell you the story of New York City over the past hundred years as seen through visual media.

Brad Farwell/Museum of the City of New York

Sixteen screens. Four hundred movies, TV shows and documentaries, including scenes you’ll recognize ghost hunters, do the right thing, The Muppets Take Manhattan, A hard worker And In the heights. Thousands of clips scroll by in the dark, illuminating how New York has been portrayed – crowded, dirty and dangerous, sure, but also glamorous, ambitious and liberating. A place to be me…even if that me lives in an apartment with four other people and hundreds of cockroaches.

by Lin-Manuel Miranda In the heights is just one of the 400 films that make up “This Is New York”.

Macall Polay/”In the Heights”, 2021, reproduction courtesy of Warner Bros. entertainment inc.

hide caption

toggle caption

Macall Polay/”In the Heights”, 2021, reproduction courtesy of Warner Bros. entertainment inc.

by Lin-Manuel Miranda In the heights is just one of the 400 films that make up “This Is New York”.

Macall Polay/”In the Heights”, 2021, reproduction courtesy of Warner Bros. entertainment inc.

3. Salivate over the course of the horizon line

Designer Zang Toi’s hand-signed New York cape and mini dress for Versace, Inc. expresses the elegance of old black-and-white films about Manhattan.

Brad Farwell/Museum of the City of New York

hide caption

toggle caption

Brad Farwell/Museum of the City of New York

This long white silk cape is hand beaded with an image of the New York skyline, the beads shimmering like the city lights. The silhouettes of the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building recall the elegance of all 1930s black-and-white films set in Manhattan, with their top hats and late-night supper clubs.

But that’s just one of the articles celebrating the city’s love affair with fashion – and fashion’s love affair with the city. Keen eyes will also see the ballet dress Sarah Jessica Parker wore in the original pilot episode of sex and the city. And next to the stunning cape is a painted denim graffiti jacket by artist PART ONE (Enrique Torres), who pioneered this type of dynamic street writing in the 1970s and 1980s. people side by side, one wearing the cape, the other the jacket, waiting for a taxi.

“It’s the idea of ​​fabulous New York dressing up — or not dressing up,” Tuttle said.

4. Listen to Lea DeLaria and Matthew Broderick read their favorite books

In a long, narrow room is a library of books and DVD cases. Take a book off the shelf, put it on a scanner and listen to Matthew Broderick read John Cheever’s short story The huge radio or Lea DeLaria read an excerpt from the children’s classic Harriet the spy by Louise Fitzhugh. Or try a DVD case instead and watch a clip of The Jeffersons, Seinfeld Or i love lucy. Each work on the shelf depicts a New Yorker’s vision of home, which is often a crowded apartment with a view of the neighbors.

Tuttle said it reminds people that people may view the city as a public place for spectacle and performance, but those who live here often craft private dramas.

“Sometimes you might grab a murderer out the window and other times you might be yelling at yourself,” Tuttle said with a laugh. She’s been a lifelong New Yorker herself. “But it’s basically the idea of ​​cramped quarters, bickering, and spying on your neighbors.”

5. Salsa at Orchard Beach

Salsa Sundays at Orchard Beach2023, created for the exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York.

Cheyenne Julien and Chapter NY, New York

hide caption

toggle caption

Cheyenne Julien and Chapter NY, New York

For about 50 years, Bronx Latinos have been meeting for salsa on Sundays at Orchard Beach in the Bronx. Cheyenne Julien’s painting may not literally take you there, but looking at it you can feel the warmth of the misty sun and hear the beat of the music.

The rest of the art scattered throughout the galleries will also blow you away. It’s like a treasure hunt. There’s a quilt by Faith Ringgold, with a family enjoying a quiet dinner on a rooftop; a lonely look in a movie theater with Edward Hopper; a drawing of a ferocious punch from George Bellows. There’s also joy in a life-size plaster cast of girls playing double Dutch on the street in the Bronx, and a streetlight by sesame street.

All of this captures the popular parade that is daily life in New York.

Tuttle noted that every few years, like in the middle of the pandemic, someone declares the town over.

But art like this proves that’s not the case, she said. “Once you walk away from the hot dogs, pizza, dirty apartments and the subway, it’s like, no, the city is forever reborn, thanks to the creativity we celebrate in this exhibit.”

Faith Ringgold’s Quilt Woman on Bridge #1 of 5: Tar Beach shares a corner with photographs that show how New Yorkers find calm in a bustling city.

Brad Farwell/Museum of the City of New York

hide caption

toggle caption

Brad Farwell/Museum of the City of New York

Faith Ringgold’s Quilt Woman on Bridge #1 of 5: Tar Beach shares a corner with photographs that show how New Yorkers find calm in a bustling city.

Brad Farwell/Museum of the City of New York