The Museum of the City of New York celebrates 100 years of New York popular culture
Sex and the City glamour, Sesame Street indulgence and Taxi Driver all housed under one roof.
Only in New York!
The Museum of the City of New York, celebrating its centenary, explores the city’s pop culture over the past century in its new exhibition: “This is New York: 100 years of the city in art and pop culture.”
Starting Friday, the comprehensive exhibition will feature more than 400 objects from the fields of television, film, music, theatre, literature and fashion, capturing the creative energy inspired by the Big Apple.
“It feels like pure New York — energetic, fun, challenging and full of contradictions,” Sarah Henry, chief curator and acting director of Robert A. and Elizabeth Rohn Jeffe at MCNY, told The Post.
As diverse as our big city, there is “really something for everyone” to admire: the green lamppost 123 on Sesame Street, the diamond Furby necklace worn by Adam Sandler in “Uncut Gems”, Robert De Niro’s robe from “Raging Bull” and “Taxi Driver” storyboards drawn by Martin Scorsese.
Fashion runs throughout the exhibition, including the white tutu worn by Sarah Jessica Parker in “Sex and the City,” a 1952 photograph from Look magazine depicting a “woman walking past Bergdorf Goodman.” gold lamé dress from the TV series “Pose”. and Berenice Abbott’s 1938 photograph Tempo of the City I, which shows stylish residents going about their business.
New York-based designer Zang Toi’s dramatic hand-embroidered Manhattan skyline cape, which caught the museum’s attention after being featured in the Post last year, sums up how artists show their love for the Big Apple.
A Parsons School of Design graduate who emigrated from Malaysia with a few bucks in his pocket hoping to make his dreams come true, the designer, who has now been successful for more than 30 years, says the cape is a “Homage to my beloved adopted home” is New York City.”
Because, as the legendary Frank Sinatra said, “If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.”
The whistles of Old Blue Eyes are just one of the voices in the Songs of New York section, an interactive exhibit playing famous tunes from the five boroughs, featuring artists from Jennifer Lopez to the Wu-Tang Clan to the Ramones.
One area is a feast for the eyes and ears with 400 film clips – everything from classics like Rear Window, King Kong and Gloria Swanson’s silent film Manhandled to cult films like Paris Is Burning. to contemporary masterpieces like the Oscar-winning “Black Swan” – showcasing the glamor and sophistication of NYC across 16 screens in a panoramic room.
It’s a part of the museum where you might get lost for hours, whether you’re a movie buff or not.
Part of the exhibit is dedicated to the woes and woes of the MTA, while another showcases the many hotspots New Yorkers love, like nightclubs, parks, restaurants, and, yes, iconic places we love to hate, like Times Square .
Another part shows what it’s like to actually be a resident, as told in pop culture from the Eloise books to The Jeffersons.
Even local celebs like Pizza Rat have cameos.
The carefully selected objects “show the incredible, changing diversity of this dynamic city, but also the ways in which certain enduring themes continue to captivate the viewer – be it the constant struggle for a seat on the subway or the charm of an escape over there.” a roof,” said Henry.
When asked what her favorite property is, she said, “It’s like asking what my favorite neighborhood is in New York — the diversity, diversity and contradictions are the key!”
Not an easy task, as it took the museum curators more than five years to conceive, put together and curate the exhibition, which will run until June 2024.
“We believe that everyone will develop a new way of looking at the city – what drives them, what shapes how we feel about them,” said Henry.
This Is New York: 100 Years of the City in Art and Pop Culture runs May 26-June 21, 2024 at the Museum of the City of New York at 1220 Fifth Ave. Admission $20.
