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Edward Hopper
September 16 - January 21, 2008
The exhibition Edward
Hopper marks the first time in more than 25 years -- in the case of
Boston and Washington, more than 50 -- that a comprehensive exhibition of
this great artist's work has been seen in American museums outside New York.
This comprehensive survey will focus on the period of the artist's great
achievements -- from about 1925 to mid-century -- when he produced such
iconic paintings as Automat (1927), Drug Store (1927), Early
Sunday Morning (1930), New York Movie (1939), and Nighthawks
(1942).
Edward Hopper is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, where it debuts May 6 through August 19, 2007; the National Gallery
of Art, Washington, where it will be on view September 16, 2007 through
January 21, 2008; and The Art Institute of Chicago, where it will be seen
February 16 through May 11, 2008.
"The National Gallery is pleased to present this new
exploration of a very fertile period in Edward Hopper's career when he produced
some of the outstanding masterpieces of modern American art," said
Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. "We are pleased
to join the Museum of Fine Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago in investigating
how his images were seen in his own time. We welcome the sponsorship of
Booz Allen Hamilton, who helped bring this important show to our nation's
capital."
The Artist and the Exhibition
The classic works of Edward Hopper (1882-1967) capture
the realities of urban and rural American life with a poignancy and beauty
that have placed them among the most enduring and popular images of the
20th century. This exhibition of about 50 oil paintings, 25 watercolors,
and 12 prints, arranged chronologically and thematically, reveals Hopper
as a creator of compelling images who produced remarkably subtle and painterly
effects in both oil and watercolor. It will also examine how his images
were seen by his contemporaries in the middle decades of the century.
From the late 1920s, Hopper was recognized as one of the
most profound American artists, praised for his mastery at painting light,
for his direct, eloquent realism, and for his unique sensitivity to modern
American life. He excelled as a painter in oils, as a watercolorist, and
as a printmaker, and this exhibition presents his greatest work in all three
media. The assembled art includes some of Hopper's best-loved images as
well as seldom seen works of extraordinary quality and power.
A group of paintings and prints from the late 1910s and
early 1920s introduces his signature subjects, and reveals his beginnings
as an artist influenced by both the American Ashcan school and a fin-de-siècle
sensibility to which he was exposed during student years in Paris. The core
of the exhibition is dedicated to the mature, highly original images for
which he is justly famous: majestic Maine lighthouses; Manhattan apartments,
restaurants, and theaters; and the old-fashioned houses of Gloucester and
Cape Cod. Hopper's career spanned six decades, and in his epic late paintings,
created during the ascendancy of abstract expressionism, he remained a staunch
realist, his style marked by increasing simplicity and austerity.
Documentary Film
The iconic paintings and artistic impact
of Edward Hopper (1882-1967) are the topics for a 30-minute 2007 documentary
DVD accompanying the exhibition Edward Hopper on its national
tour, and will be aired on PBS-TV stations nationwide. Narrated by the award-winning
actor, writer, and Hopper art collector Steve Martin and produced by the
National Gallery of Art, the film will accompany the exhibition in all three
venues: the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (May 6 through August 19, 2007);
the National Gallery of Art, Washington (September 16 through January 21,
2008); and The Art Institute of Chicago (February 16 through May 11, 2008).
At the National Gallery, the film will be shown in its entirety in the East
Building auditoriums, dates to be announced. A 15-minute version of the
film will be shown continuously in a theater inside the exhibition. The
documentary includes archival footage of Hopper, new footage of places that
inspired him in New York and New England, including his boyhood home in
Nyack and his studio on Washington Square, where he lived and worked for
more than 50 years. From their New York studios, artists Red Grooms and
Eric Fischl discuss Hopper's influence on their careers. Co-curators of
the exhibition -- Carol Troyen, John Moors Cabot Curator of American Paintings,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Judith Barter, The Field-McCormick Chair
of American Art at The Art Institute of Chicago -- as well as independent
scholar Avis Berman, author of Hopper's New York, discuss recent
and diverse perspectives on Hopper's art. Hopper's passion for the movies,
particularly film noir classics from the 1930s such as The Public Enemy
, is revealed in the film, which also shows the influence of Hopper's
work on the set designs of filmmakers who came after him, including Alfred
Hitchcock and Wim Wenders.
Curators, Catalogue, and Related Activities
A fully illustrated catalogue will be published by the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and will be available in both softcover and
hardcover editions. The catalogue will include essays by the co-curators
of the exhibition -- Carol Troyen, John Moors Cabot Curator of American
Paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Judith Barter, The Field-McCormick
Chair of American Art at The Art Institute of Chicago -- and others and
will be available for sale by the National Gallery of Art Shops in May,
2007. The catalogue will be approximately 288 pages with 170 color and 15
black-and-white illustrations.
A full program of lectures, music, and other events will
be announced by the Gallery at a later date.
Resource Library readers may
also enjoy
on the Web:
- Edward
Hopper resources on the NGA website
Edward
Hopper Press Event Opening Remarks (20:27 minutes)
and this video:
Edward Hopper: The Silent Witness. Great American realist painter Edward Hopper emerges In this thoughtful
43 minute docudrama. It traces his steps along the Eastern seaboard using
his works, from museums like the Whitney, the Art Institute of Chicago and
MOMA, as clues to his Itinerary. "Dramatizes the life of American painter
Edward Hopper (1882--1967) in his Cape Cod studio. Shows locations that
may have inspired the subjects of his paintings including empty cityscapes
and countrysides, the stark light of Cape Cod, silent hills and houses,
and themes of alienation and loneliness." Edward Hopper: The Silent
Witness is available through the Sullivan
Video Library at The Speed Art Museum which holds a sizable collection
of art-related videos available to educators at no charge.
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