Main article: Music of New York City Music The 1913
Armory show in New York City, an exhibition which brought European modernist artists' work to the U.S., both shocked the public and influenced art making in the United States for the remainder of the twentieth century. The exhibition had a twofold effect of communicating to American artists that artmaking was about expression, not only aesthetics or
realism, and at the same time showing that Europe had abandoned its conservative model of ranking artists according to a strict academic hierarchy. This encouraged American artists to find a personal voice, and a modernist movement, responding to
American civilization, emerged in New York.
Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946), photographer,
Charles Demuth (1883–1935) and
Marsden Hartley (1877–1943), both painters, helped establish an American viewpoint in the fine arts. Stieglitz promoted cubists and abstract painters at his 291 Gallery on 5th Avenue. The
Museum of Modern Art, founded in 1929, became a showcase for American and international contemporary art. By the end of World War II, Paris had declined as the world's art center while New York emerged as the center of contemporary fine art in both the United States and the world.
In the years after World War II, a group of young New York artists known as the
New York School formed the first truly original school of painting in America that exerted a major influence on foreign artists:
abstract expressionism. Among the movement's leaders were
Jackson Pollock (1912-1956),
Willem de Kooning (1904-1997), and
Mark Rothko (1903-1970). The abstract expressionists abandoned formal composition and representation of real objects to concentrate on instinctual arrangements of space and color and to demonstrate the effects of the physical action of painting on the canvas.
New York's vibrant visual art scene in the 1950s and 1960s also defined the American
pop art movement. Members of this next artistic generation favored a different form of abstraction: works of mixed media. Among them were
Jasper Johns (1930- ), who used photos, newsprint, and discarded objects in his compositions. Pop artists, such as
Andy Warhol (1930-1987),
Larry Rivers (1923-2002), and
Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997), reproduced, with satiric care, everyday objects and images of American popular culture—Coca-Cola bottles, soup cans, comic strips.
Today New York is a global center for the international art market. The industry is clustered in neighborhoods known for their art galleries, such as
Chelsea and
DUMBO, where dealers representing both established and up-and-coming artists compete for sales with bigger exhibition spaces, better locations, and stronger connections to museums and collectors. Wall Street money and funds from philanthropists flow steadily into the art market, often prompting artists to move from gallery to gallery in pursuit of riches and fame.
Enriching and countering this mainstream commercial movement is the constant flux of underground movements, such as hip-hop art and graffiti, which engendered such artists as
Keith Haring and
Jean-Michel Basquiat, and continue to add visual texture and life to the atmosphere of the city.
See also: New York School Long Island City (LIC) in
Queens is rapidly flourishing art scene in New York City, serving as home to the largest concentration of arts institutions outside of Manhattan. Its abundance of industrial warehouses provide ample studio and exhibition space for many renowned artists, museums and galleries.
See also: SculptureCenter Visual art New York City has a law that requires no less than 1% of the first twenty million dollars of a building project, plus no less than one half of 1% of the amount exceeding twenty million dollars be allocated for art work in any public building that is owned by the city. The maximum allocation for any site is $400,000.
Many major artists have created public works in the city, including
Jeff Koons,
Louise Bourgeois and
Nam June Paik.
Anish Kapoor's
Sky Mirror, a highly reflective stainless steel dish nearly three stories tall, will be on view at Rockefeller Center in September and October 2006.
In 2005
Christo and Jeanne-Claude installed
The Gates, a site-specific art project inspired by traditional Japanese
torii gates. The installation consisted of 7,503 metal "gates" along 23 miles (37 km) of pathways in Central Park. From each gate hung a flag-shaped piece of saffron-colored nylon fabric.
The subway system also hosts several public art projects, including intricate tile mosaics and station signage.
Subversive public art trends have also coursed through New York City. Toward the end of the 1960s the modern American
graffiti subculture began to form in
Philadelphia, 95 miles south of New York. The name originated from a subway tunnel running underneath the
Central Park Zoo that was the haunt of very early "oldschool" graffiti writers like
ALI (Marc André Edmonds), founder of The Soul Artists. The subway tunnel became a scene where crews of Manhattan graffiti artists gathered at night. With greater law enforcement and aggressive cleaning of subway trains in the 1980s and 1990s, the graffiti movement in New York eventually faded from the subway.
See also: The Gates, Public art, and Public Art Fund Public art The early 20th century saw the emergence of
modern dance in New York, a new, distinctively American art form. Perhaps the best known figure in modern dance,
Martha Graham, was a pupil of pioneer
Ruth St. Denis. Many of Graham's most popular works were produced in collaboration with New York's leading composers --
Appalachian Spring with Aaron Copland, for example.
Merce Cunningham, a former ballet student and performer with Martha Graham, presented his first New York solo concert with
John Cage in 1944. Influenced by Cage and embracing
modernist ideology using
postmodern processes, Cunningham introduced
chance procedures and
pure movement to choreography and
Cunningham technique to the cannon of 20th century dance techniques. Cunningham set the seeds for
postmodern dance with his non-linear, non-climactic, non-psychological abstract work. In these works each element is in and of itself expressive, and the observer determines what it communicates.
George Balanchine, one of the 20th century's foremost choreographers and the first pioneer of
contemporary ballet, formed a bridge between classical and modern ballet. Balanchine used flexed hands (and occasionally feet), turned-in legs, off-centered positions and non-classical costumes to distance himself from the classical and romantic ballet traditions. Balanchine also brought modern dancers in to dance with his company, the
New York City Ballet; one such dancer was Paul Taylor, who in 1959 performed in Balanchine's piece
Episodes. Another significant modern choreographer,
Twyla Tharp, choreographed
Push Comes To Shove for the
American Ballet Theatre under
Mikhail Baryshnikov's artistic directorship in 1976; in 1986 she created
In The Upper Room for her own company. Both these pieces were considered innovative for their use of distinctly modern movements melded with the characteristics of contemporary ballet such as the use of pointe shoes and classically-trained dancers.
New York has also historically been a center for African-American modern dance.
Alvin Ailey, a student of
Lester Horton (and later Martha Graham), spent several years working in both concert and theatre dance. In 1930 Ailey and a group of young African-American dancers formed the
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which is now the resident company at
New York City Center. Ailey drew upon his memories of Texas, the blues, spirituals and gospel as inspiration.
Bill T. Jones, winner of a MacArthur "Genius" Award in 1994, choreographed for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, among others. Another significant African-American dancer,
Pearl Primus, made her debut on February 24th, 1943 at the
92nd Street Y as a social-protest dancer. Her concerns and expression fit into the landscape of the ongoing Harlem renaissance and gained much public support, and was immediately graced with attention after her first professional solo debut. Her dances were inspired by revolutionary African-American choreographer
Katharine Dunham. Primus became known for her singular ability to jump very high while dancing. She focused on matters such as oppression, racial prejudice, and violence. New York was the birthplace of other dance forms, as well.
Breakdance became an influential street dance style that emerged as part of the hip hop movement in African-American communities in the
South Bronx in the early 1970s. It is arguably the best known of all hip hop dance styles. Popular speculations of the early 1980s suggest that breakdancing, in its organized fashion seen today, began as a method for rival gangs of the ghetto to mediate and settle territorial disputes. It later was through the highly energetic performances of the late funk legend
James Brown and the rapid growth of dance teams, like the
Rock Steady Crew of the Bronx, that the competitive ritual of gang warfare evolved into a pop-culture phenomenon receiving massive media attention. Parties, disco clubs, talent shows, and other public events became typical locations for breakdancers, including gang members for whom dancing served as a positive diversion from the threats of city life.
See also: American Ballet Theatre Dance New York's film industry is smaller than that of
Hollywood, but its billions of dollars in revenue makes it an important part of the city's economy and places it as the second largest center for the film industry in the United States.
One of the filmmakers most associated with New York is
Woody Allen, whose films include
Annie Hall and
Manhattan. Other New Yorkers in film include the actor
Robert De Niro, who started the
Tribeca Film Festival after the terrorist attacks on
September 11, 2001, and the directors
Martin Scorsese,
Francis Ford Coppola,
Spike Lee, Jim Jarmusch, Joel and Ethan Coen, and many others.
While major studio productions are based in Hollywood, New York has become a capital of independent film. The city is home to a number of important film festivals, including the Tribeca Film Festival, the
New York Film Festival and the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, as well as major independent film companies like
Miramax Films. New York is also home to the
Anthology Film Archives, the earliest surviving collective of avant-garde filmmakers, which preserves and exhibits hundreds of underground works from the entire span of film history.
The oldest
public access channel in the United States is the
Manhattan Neighborhood Network, well known for its eclectic local programming that ranges from a jazz hour to discussion of labor issues to foreign language and religious programming. There are eight other public access channels in New York, including Brooklyn Cable Access Television.
New York City's municipally-owned broadcast television service,
NYCTV, creates original programming that includes Emmy Award-winning shows like
Blue Print New York and
Cool in Your Code, as well as coverage of
New York City government. Other popular programs on NYCTV include music shows;
New York Noise showcases music videos of local, underground, and indie rock musicians as well as coverage of major music-related events in the city like the
WFMU Record Fair, interviews of New York icons (like
The Ramones and
Klaus Nomi), and comedian hosts (like
Eugene Mirman,
Rob Huebel, and
Aziz Ansari).
The Bridge, similarly, chronicles old school hip hop. The channel has won 14 New York Emmys and 14 National Telly awards.
See also: List of films set in New York City Film The
Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the world's largest and most important art museums, and is located on the eastern edge of Central Park. It also comprises a building complex known as "The Cloisters" in Fort Tryon Park at the north end of Manhattan Island overlooking the Hudson River which features medieval art. The
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is often considered a rival to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The
Brooklyn Museum is the second largest art museum in New York and one of the largest in the United States. One of the premier art institutions in the world, its permanent collection includes more than one-and-a-half million objects, from ancient Egyptian masterpieces to contemporary art, and the art of many other cultures.
There are many smaller important galleries and art museums in the city. Among these is the
Frick Collection, one of the preeminent small art museums in the United States, with a very high-quality collection of old master paintings housed in 16 galleries within the former mansion steel magnate
Henry Clay Frick. The collection features some of the best-known paintings by major European artists, as well as numerous works of sculpture and porcelain. It also has furniture, enamel, and carpets.
The
Jewish Museum of New York was first established in 1904, when the Jewish Theological Seminary received a gift a 26 Jewish ceremonial art objects by Judge Mayer Sulzberger. The museum now boasts a collection 28,000 objects including paintings, sculpture, archaeological artifacts, and many other pieces important to the preservation of Jewish history and culture.
Founded in 1969 by a group of Puerto Rican artists, educators, community activists and civic leaders,
El Museo del Barrio is located at the top of Museum Mile in East Harlem, a neighborhood also called 'El Barrio'. Originally, the museum was a creation of the
Nuyorican Movement and Civil Rights Movement, and primarily functioned as a neighborhood institution serving Puerto Ricans. With the increasing size of New York's Latino population, the scope of the museum is expanding.
The
American Museum of Natural History and its
Hayden Planetarium focus on the sciences. There are also many smaller specialty museums, from the
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum to the International Center of Photography and The Museum of Television and Radio. There is even a
Museum of the City of New York. A number of the city's museums are located along the
Museum Mile section of
Fifth Avenue.
In recent years New York has seen a major building boom among its cultural institutions.
Long Island City in Queens is an increasingly thriving location for the arts, home to P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and SculptureCenter for example.
SculptureCenter, New York City's only non-profit exhibition space dedicated to contemporary and innovative sculpture, re-located from Manhattan's Upper East Side to a former trolley repair shop in LIC, renovated by artist/designer Maya Lin in 2002. The museum commissions new work and presents challenging exhibits by emerging and established, national and international artists and hosts a diverse range of public programs including lectures, dialogues, and performances.
In 2006 more than 60 arts institutions spread across the five boroughs, from smaller community organizations like the
Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in Brooklyn to major institutions like the
Morgan Library, were undergoing or recently completed architectural renovations or new construction. In aggregate the projects represented more than $2.8 billion in investment.
See also: List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City Museums The Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), a branch of the
government of New York City, is the largest public funder of the arts in the United States. DCLA's funding budget is larger than the
National Endowment for the Arts, the Federal government's national arts funding mechanism.
See also: Government of New York City 
Cultural diversity New York, with its many ethnic communities and cultural venues, has a large number of major parades and street festivals.
Summerstage in Central Park is one of about 1,200 free concerts, dance, theater, and spoke word events citywide sponsored by the
City Parks Foundation.
The
Village Halloween Parade is an annual holiday parade and street pageant presented the night of every
Halloween (October 31) in Greenwich Village. Stretching more than a mile, this cultural event draws two million spectators, fifty thousand costumed participants, dancers, artists and circus performers, dozens of floats bearing live bands and other musical and performing acts, and a world-wide television audience of one hundred million.
The
Feast of San Gennaro, originally a one-day religious commemoration, is now an 11-day street fair held in mid-September in Manhattan's
Little Italy. Centered on Mulberry Street, which is closed to traffic for the occasion, the festival generally features parades, street vendors, sausages and zeppole, games, and a religious candlelit procession which begins immediately after a celebratory
mass at the Church of the Most Precious Blood. Another festival is held with the same attractions at New York's other Little Italy, in the Fordham/Belmont community in the
Bronx. The streets are closed to traffic and the festivities begin early in the morning and proceed late into the night.
Other major parades include the annual
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, presented by Macy's Department Store and lasting three hours on
Thanksgiving Day, which features enormous inflatable balloons.
A major component of
New Year's Eve celebrations in the United States is the "
ball dropping" on top of
One Times Square that is broadcast live on national television. A 1,070-pound, 6-foot-diameter
Waterford crystal ball, high above
Times Square, is lowered starting at 23:59:00 and reaching the bottom of its tower at the stroke of midnight (00:00:00). The custom derives from the time signal that used to be given at noon to ships in
New York Harbor. From 1982 to 1988, New York City dropped a large apple in recognition of its nickname, "The Big Apple."
Dick Clark has hosted televised coverage of the event since 1972 with his show,
Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. For about four decades, until one year before his death in 1977, Canadian violinist and bandleader
Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians serenaded the United States from the ballroom of the
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue. Their recording of the traditional song
Auld Lang Syne still plays as the first song of the new year in Times Square.
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