text: Coney Island Culture, at the Brooklyn Museum - The New York Times
  Art & Design|Coney Island Culture, at the Brooklyn Museum
  Clockwise from top left: "Fortune Teller, Jones Walk, Coney Island" (2008), by Frederick Brosen; a color lithograph poster from 1898; "The Hug: Closed Eyes and Smile" (1982), by Harvey Stein.CreditCreditClockwise from top left: 2013 Frederick Brosen/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, via Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York; Strobridge Lithographing Company/Cincinnati Art Museum; Harvey Stein
  It is a microcosm of American popular culture in all its ersatz glory, the anti-Disneyland, a realm of tawdry spectacle and mindless distraction catering to the basic instincts of hoi polloi. It is, of course, Coney Island, whose history and culture are chronicled in "Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861-2008," opening Friday, Nov. 20, at the Brooklyn Museum.
  Coney Island has ridden a roller coaster of highs and lows since Civil War times, when it was already a leisure destination. From the late 19th century to World War II, it was the biggest attraction of its kind in the United States, with three major amusement parks: Luna, Dreamland and Steeplechase. Its popularity later declined, but like a Freudian return of the repressed, it has been revitalized in recent years. This exhibition presents works by William Merritt Chase, Joseph Stella and Reginald Marsh; photographs by Walker Evans, Weegee and Diane Arbus; and posters, artifacts, carousel animals, ephemera and film clips. (Through March 13, brooklynmuseum.org.)
  A version of this article appears in print on , on Page AR6 of the New York edition with the headline: Art; Amusement for Everyone. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe