Hopper has long been associated with compelling images of urban buildings and the dwellings within them. The artist lived in Washington Square, in New York’s Greenwich Village, for more than fifty years, and New York City was his favorite backdrop. Rather than focusing on the skyscrapers that symbolized the ambition of the Jazz Age, Hopper lovingly depicted the city’s crumbling brownstones, dusty storefronts, and undistinguished bridges. Paintings like Drug Store (1927, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), From Williamsburg Bridge (1928, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), and Early Sunday Morning are Hopper’s tribute to quieter, less dramatic, but nonetheless eloquent parts of the city. Other New York scenes provide fascinating glimpses—often through windows and from passing trains—into the lives of strangers. Such well-known paintings as Chop Suey (1929, Barney A. Ebsworth Collection), Room in New York (1932, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska-Lincoln), and Office at Night (1940, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis) intrigue because they suggest stories but leave unresolved the motivations of the figures within them. A section of the exhibition will be dedicated to Hopper’s paintings of women in interiors. These pictures—from Eleven A.M. (1926, Hirshborn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.) to New York Movie (1939, Museum of Modern Art, New York)—are tender evocations of the poignancy of solitude in the midst of the city’s noise and energy.
More here, and here.
