Coney Island by Joseph Stella in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, March 2008

Joseph Stella. American, born Italy, 1877-1946.
Coney Island
1914
Oil on canvas

Accession # 63.69

Stella based a series of abstract paintings on the dazzling electric lights and energetic crowds of Brooklyn's Coney Island amusement park and boardwalk. This one is unusual for its circular format. Following a trip to his native Italy and to France in 1910-11, Stella became strongly influenced by Italian Futurism, which celebrated the speed and dynamism of modern life. Another painting from this series, "Battle of Lights: Mardi Gras, Coney Island" (Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven), was exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show in New York.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.