Top Ten Favorite Works

1. “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”- Walt Whitman

            Walt Whitman’s poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” was first published in the second edition of Leaves of Grass in 1856. Originally, this poem was titled “Sun-Down Poem.” In 1860, this poem was revised and renamed “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” in order to better reflect the poem’s main focus (Nelson). Written in New York City, this poem was about riding a ferry across the East River between Brooklyn and Manhattan. While the boat may be crossing the river, Whitman does not focus on the starting point or destination of the short voyage. Instead, Whitman writes about the view, the people, the city, and his connection with the audience. The themes in “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” are reflected in Whitman’s life and other works. Whitman describes the river and sky with a sense of wonder and awe. His travels in the American frontier and his admiration of Ralph Waldo Emerson helped him realize his own love for nature (“Walt Whitman”). Additionally, having lived near large rivers his entire life, Whitman viewed them as being beautiful and calming (Nelson). In this poem, Whitman creates ties with the people around him and his unseen audience. He may never see those surrounding him again, nor will he meet future generations, yet he feels close to everyone. Whitman put a great emphasis on friendship and love in his works, often embracing strangers and openly—albeit controversially—discussing sexuality (“Walt Whitman”). Overall, this poem summarizes the major themes of Whitman’s works while creating a warming parallel between the author and New Yorker’s who are reading it today.

2. The Baby’s Playground- Jacob Riis

            Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant, was a man who brought about change for many immigrants and impoverished individuals. Riis arrived in the United States in 1870 (Stamp). As a recent immigrant, he had difficulty finding housing and keeping a steady job (Stamp). For a while, he worked several jobs before becoming a police reporter, the job that came to define his legacy. As Riis worked, he noticed the squalor and crime that infested poor neighborhoods. Disturbed by what he saw, he wanted to bring this dreadful situation to the public eye in order to bring these Americans justice. In the 1890s, employing a camera and a gunpowder flash device, Riis photographed the slums, capturing unsupervised children, hardworking adults, collapsing buildings, and unhygienic conditions (Stamp). One photo that is particularly striking is The Baby’s Playground, a photo captured by Riis around 1890. This photo shows a young toddler surrounded by the dangerous, dilapidated hallway of a tenement building. This toddler stands right beside a detached panel; one she could easily get caught in. As we can see in the photo, she is only a few feet away from a stairway; a hazard for such a young child. The walls and floors around her have all sorts of scratches and chips. We do not know what this child’s life is like, yet her surroundings alone are capable of bringing fear to the viewer, inspiring a desire for change.

3. “Ellis Island”- Mark Helprin

            Published in 1981, “Ellis Island” by Mark Helprin tells the fictional tale of a Jewish Eastern European immigrant who arrives in New York City during the early twentieth century. Helprin, a native New Yorker, wrote this story about the history of his city with many liberties. While some parts of it do reflect the struggles of immigrants, many parts of the story are humorous. Early in the story, our narrator is almost prevented from entering the city because he is suspected of being an anarchist, a title that he gleefully accepts. As funny as his situation may have been, it was a tragic reality for many immigrants who yearned to enter the United States. Once he reaches New York City, he has many strange adventures in a short period of time: he gets swindles, accidentally takes part in an art class, becomes a fire rider, stays with a Hassidic sect, scares a group of Rabbis as he braids challah, becomes a tailor, and falls in love with a seamstress named Hava. This short story is appealing because it takes a lighthearted look at the struggles of the time. As other works about this time period were grim, this story stands out, offering a refreshing relief for the sadness that seemed to hit the city every few decades.

4. The Steerage– Alfred Stieglitz

            Throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s, Alfred Stieglitz captured photographs in New York City of subjects including immigrants, buildings, clouds, and individuals. While Stieglitz took a great interest in modernism and cubism, it was his photograph The Steerage, captured in 1907, that is one of his best known, marking a turning point in his career (“100 Photos”). As the child of two German-Jewish immigrants, Stieglitz understood the struggles faced by the poor and the disparity in wealth within society (“100 Photos”). The Steerage was not a staged photograph, but rather, one that was taken at the right moment, representing the injustice of the times. While standing on the upper deck of a European sailing ship, Stieglitz noted the stark contrast between those on the upper deck and those who stood beneath them (“100 Photos”). On the top deck, people are outfitted with suits, hats, and dresses. Many of these people peer towards the ocean, taking advantage of the view. Below them in multiple ways stand the lower class in steerage. These people are dressed in rags and dull garments, with some even hanging on clothes lines. These people do not look happy, but weary, with several of them slouched over. In one instant, Stieglitz’s camera was able to capture the clear divide between those with money and those who lived in poverty, those who were comfortable and those who suffered.

5. The Bowery– Reginald Marsh

            Reginald Marsh painted many of his most famous pieces during the Great Depression, focusing on poverty, characters, morals, and norms in New York City. Marsh did not paint common, iconic views of New York city, nor did he paint well-loved individuals. Typically, he painted shadier areas of New York such as Coney Island, the Bowery, the subway, and dance halls. His painting often featured bums, dancers and streetwalkers. In spite of this controversial imagery, Marsh had no agenda behind his work. His artwork reflected the fall and broken spirit of the 1930s, yet it did not contain a call to action. Marsh painted his subjects with a nonjudgmental eye, only working to portray the raw lifestyles of those effected by the economic disaster. A striking example of his work is The Bowery, a painting from 1930 depicting bums and impoverished men loitering in the Bowery. The men stand in the shadows, wearing dark and dingy clothing. The only light sources in this painting are the neon signs hanging overhead. This weary crowd is large, not entirely fitting into the painting, extending beyond it boundaries. As downcast as this painting may be, its sullen mood is definitely representative of the era it was painted in. With the help of Marsh’s attention to detail, we get a look into the lives of those who were left to struggle during these dark times.

6. “Strange Fruit”- Billie Holiday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs

            With the struggles she faced, Billie Holiday’s life is as shocking as some of her famously tragic songs. Born into a broken family in 1915, Holiday led a life with little stability. At a young age, she began skipping school and was eventually brought to a home for troubled African American girls (“Billie Holiday”). She was sexually assaulted twice before the age of fifteen. In the late 1920s, she moved with her mother to New York City, working in a Harlem house of prostitution. Holiday found peace in the music of Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong, inspiring her to start singing in clubs during the 1930s (“Billie Holiday”). As an African American, Billie Holiday faced much discrimination from bands and audiences over the color of her skin. At the time, race and segregation was still a point of great conflict in the United States. This is reflected by one of her most haunting songs: “Strange Fruit.” Recorded by Holiday in 1939, the words to the song had been written by Abel Meeropol, a schoolteacher, after two black men were lynched in Indiana (“Billie Holiday”). Holiday’s slow vocals accompanied by deep, loud piano keys give this song a depressing sound, akin to funeral music.  The words of this song describe the mangled corpses of men hanging from a tree, dehumanized by hatred and decay. This song was created as a protest of the discrimination that was so widely overlooked in society while Billie Holiday was still alive. This song still serves as a reminder today that society must remain respectful of all people, regardless of their skin tone or origin.

7. The Harp- Augusta Savage

            Augusta Savage, a sculptor hailing from Florida, pursued her passions in spite of racism, becoming a key figure in New York City’s Harlem Renaissance. Born in 1892, Savage began sculpting as a child. Her father, a minister, did not approve of her hobby, but was unable to completely stop her. In the 1920s, Savage moved to New York City, opening the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts in 1932 and becoming the first black artist to join the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors (“Augusta Savage”). In 1939, Savage was commissioned to create a sculpture for the New York World’s Fair. This sculpture, known as The Harp, featured twelve African American boys in the place of strings of a harp, represented by the hand of god. At the base of the sculpture, there is a kneeling man. This statue is very appealing due to its unique subject manner and meticulous detail. Often times, African Americans were neglected in artwork. This piece not only capture their image, but in a respectful, even angelic, manner. While this sculpture was beautifully crafted and unique in design, it has been lost to time. Due to its large size and a lack of funds to cast the piece in bronze, The Harp was destroyed at the end of the 1939 New York World’s Fair (“Augusta Savage”). Even though this amazing piece of artwork is gone, its legacy lives on through photographs and replicas it has inspired.

8. “4’33””- John Cage

            John Cage was an avant-garde composer who created many experimental and radical pieces of music throughout his career. Cage took an interest in music at an early age, practicing piano as a child. He graduated at the top of his high school class, but dropped out of college in two years, as he did not feel that it was enough of a challenge (“John Cage”). In the 1930s, Cage travelled across Europe, becoming inspired by the art he witnessed, especially the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Igor Stravinsky (“John Cage”). The next decade, he moved to New York, becoming a composer. In the city, Cage faced struggles such as poverty, homelessness, and divorce (“John Cage”). While some of his compositions were met with praise, experimental compositions, such as his controversial piece “4’33”,” were met with criticism. As a result, he lived a fairly unstable life. In spite of this, “4’33”” is a noteworthy piece. This piece is over four minutes of silence, in which cage sat in front of the piano. The true music, according to cage, was the sound he heard in the environment, whether it was gasps, laughs, or sighs. As strange as this piece may have been, it truly made one consider the boundaries of art and its meaning.

9. Green Coca-Cola Bottles- Andy Warhol

            While Andy Warhol was born, raised, and educated in Pennsylvania, his most famous pieces were created while he lived in New York City. Warhol moved into New York at the beginning of the 1950s in hopes of becoming a commercial artist (“Andy Warhol”). At first, his artwork was whimsical, created with blotted lines and rubber stamps. By the late 1950s, Warhol began to focus on painting. In 1961, Warhol first introduced the concept of pop art, artwork that focused on popular items, especially those that were mass produced (“Andy Warhol”). Often, he painted bottles of Coca-Cola, one of the United States’ most famous drinks, accompanied by the company’s logo. Employing an early version of the screen printing technique, Warhol was able to replicate the form of the bottle again and again, creating rows of identical bottles. According to Warhol, each bottle of soda was the same. It would taste the same whether it was being drunk by the president or a homeless man (“Green Coca-Cola Bottles”). Thus, this image is appealing because while it appears to be of a simple sugary beverage, it really contains a hidden message of social justice. According to Warhol, when you put everything into perspective, no one is truly that different.

10. Balloon Dog– Jeff Koons

            Jeff Koons is a contemporary artist who has created pieces in a wide variety of mediums including paint, marble, and steel. Interestingly, while Koons comes up with his own ideas, not all of his are created by his hands. Since the 1980s, Jeff Koons has been producing art in factory-like studios with countless other artists. These artists are assigned a task and given Koons’s exact vision, which they are then expected to bring to life. So, while a painting or sculpture is credited to him, it was most likely crafted by someone else. One of Koons’s best known works is Balloon Dog: a giant ten-foot high mirror-polished stainless steel replica of the twisted balloon critter weighing in at over a ton. Part of his Celebration series, five editions were made of this sculpture in varying colors between 1994 and 2000. At a glance, these sculptures may look simple. However, in order to accurately portray the twists and puckers of a balloon, each sculpture took over sixty pieces. This piece of artwork is appealing because it is fun and upbeat. It makes something simple, a temporary toy from a birthday party, into a luxury and object of beauty. For some, this sculpture may even feel sentimental or nostalgic, bringing one back to their childhood and its small wonders.

Bibliography

“100 Photos.” Time Magazine, 2015, http://100photos.time.com/photos/alfred-stieglitz-steerage#photograph.                         Accessed 19 Dec. 2016.

“Andy Warhol.” Biography, 6 June 2016, http://www.biography.com/people/andy-warhol-9523875. Accessed 19 Dec.             2016.

“Augusta Savage.” Biography, 19 Feb. 2016, http://www.biography.com/people/augusta-savage-40495. Accessed 19             Dec. 2016.

“Billie Holiday.” Biography, 8 July 2014, http://www.biography.com/people/billie-holiday-41902.9341902. Accessed19             Dec. 2016.

“Green Coca-Cola Bottles.” The Whitney Museum of American Art, 2016, http://collection.whitney.org/object/3253.             Accessed 19 Dec. 2016.

“John Cage.” The Art Story, 2016, http://www.theartstory.org/artist-cage-john.htm. Accessed

            19 Dec. 2016.

Nelson, Howard. “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” The Walt Whitman Archive, 1998, http://www.whitmanarchive.org

            /criticism/current/encyclopedia/entry_10.html. Accessed 19 Dec. 2016.

Stamp, Jimmy. “Pioneering Social Reformer Jacob Riis Revealed ‘How the Other Half Lives’ in

            America.” Smithsonian, 27 May 2014, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/pioneering-social-reformer-             jacob-riis-revealed-how-other-half-lives-america-180951546/. Accessed 19 Dec. 2016.