ONLINE PROGRAM THROUGH ZOOM

Members’ Virtual Tour of Edward Hopper’s New York at the Whitney
Teaching Fellow TBA

The city of New York was Edward Hopper’s home for nearly six decades (1908–67), a period that spans his entire mature career and coincides with a historic time of urban development. As skyscrapers punctuated the skyline and elevated trains and construction sites roared below, Hopper’s New York betrays only glimpses of the broader changes underfoot. His city was human-scale, decidedly non-iconic, and largely rooted in a past that had fallen out of step with the present; “I just never cared for the vertical,” Hopper reflected in 1956. This exhibition is the first of its kind to focus on Hopper’s rich and sustained relationship with New York: how the city served as the subject, setting, and inspiration for so many of the artist’s most celebrated and persistently vexing pictures.

Edward Hopper’s New York takes a comprehensive look at Hopper’s life and work through his city pictures, from his early impressions of New York in sketches, prints, and illustrations, to his late paintings, in which the city served as a backdrop for his evocative distillations of urban experience. Drawing from the Whitney’s extensive holdings by the artist and amplified by key loans, the exhibition brings together many of Hopper’s iconic city pictures as well as several lesser-known yet critically important examples. The presentation is significantly informed by a variety of materials from the Museum’s recently acquired Sanborn Hopper Archive—printed ephemera, correspondence, photographs, and journals that together inspire new insights into Hopper’s life in the city. By exploring the artist’s work through the lens of New York, the exhibition offers a fresh take on this formidable figure and considers the city itself as a lead actor.

Members only, no fee, no registration required

MEMBERS: THIS PROGRAM WILL NOT BE RECORDED.