Edward Hopper, New York Interior, ca. 1921. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. ©Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of American Art. Photograph by Robert E. Mates
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Paul Strand, Wall Street, New York. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins
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Edward Hopper, Self Portrait, 1925-1930. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of American Art. Photograph by Robert E. Mates
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George Bellows , Dempsey and Firpo, 1924. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins
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Charles Demuth, My Egypt, 1927. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
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Edward Hopper, Seven A. M., 1948. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. © Whitney Museum of American Art. Photograph by Steven Sloman
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Edward Hopper, Soir Bleu, 1914. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. ©Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of American Art. Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins
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His cool paintings, such as Nighthawks, left an indelible mark on the collective memory. Quite rightly, because of all modernist painters, no one has been able to express the loneliness and melancholy of modern big-city life as well as Edward Hopper, who died in 1967. Now, the New York Whitney Museum dedicates an extensive exhibition to him titled Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time. The show, sponsored by Deutsche Bank, shows the artist in the context of other painters and photographers. With around 80 works, it tracks the development of American realism in the first half of the 20th century, highlighting a central theme in the art of these years: the rapid growth of major cities.
A comparison with painters from other realist movements, such as John Sloan of the Ashcan School or the "social realist" Paul Cadmus, yields interesting connections. At the same time, however, the show clarifies why Hopper occupies a truly singular position in American modernism. The museum on Madison Avenue is intimately connected to the artist: in 1920, Hopper had his first one-person show at the Whitney Studio Club; he participated in numerous biennials, and the museum manages his estate. Deutsche Bank has already cooperated with the Whitney Museum, for instance in the context of Pierre Huyghe's project A Journey That Wasn't (2005) and the Gordon Matta-Clark retrospective You Are The Measure (2007). In addition, it has supported the Whitney Biennial since 2006, the most important platform for contemporary American art.
Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time
Whitney Museum, New York
October 28, 2010 - April 10, 2011
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