Arts & Leisure
Icons and surprises in Edward Hopper Retrospective at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts
By Rose Safran
Nighthawks, 1942. Oil on Canvas. The Art Institute of Chicago: Friends of American Art Collection. Photography copyright The Art Institute of Chicago
Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Captain Upton's House, 1927. Oil on Canvas. Collection of Steve Martin.
Photo Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Another Edward Hopper exhibit, one might ask of this acclaimed artist of the American scene. And yet, as with every well-researched, re-thought and fresh look at any master, whether in art or literature, one's insight expands, appreciation is reinforced and the joy of the experience of seeing anew many of the artists masterpieces is enhanced, especially when surrounded by surprises.
Besides, it's been around 25 years since the last major show of this realist painter's art.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Curator Carol Troyen immersed herself in Hopper, visiting places where he painted, and, in collaboration with curators from Chicago and Washington contacted museums and private collectors in America and Europe to assemble 100 oil paintings, watercolors and etchings, thereby giving museum visitors an understanding of both the art and the man. This astonishing assemblage also manages to bring together important paintings of the same subject, as with Cape Elizabeth's "Two Lights." Three of his finest oil paintings of that famous Maine lighthouse, each from a different perspective and time of day are in one gallery: "Lighthouse Hill" of 1927 on loan from the Dallas Museum of Art, "Captain Upton's House" of 1927 with the lighthouse beyond, owned by collector Steve Martin, and "The Lighthouse at Two Lights" of 1929 on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
While the exhibit concentrates on the artist's most important period, namely from the mid-1920s through 1950, early works, including a series of etchings as well as later works when the artist was less productive round out the assemblage, for Hopper who died in 1967 at 84 years of age was exceedingly prolific throughout most of his long life, slowing down only towards the end.
Despite early promise, Hopper was not an immediate success, and was forced to earn his living teaching and illustrating. However, as the introductory gallery in this exhibition indicates, when quite young, he was drawn to themes with which we are very familiar, namely stark urban architecture, city views of restaurants and store fronts, and isolated figures in settings, especially interior ones. The promise of the future is indicated through paintings such as "Summer Interior" of 1909, which shows a woman slumped below an unmade bed or "New York Corner" of 1913, in which the geometry of a curved corner of a building meets the street and a vertical lamp post.
In the 1920s Hopper went to Cape Ann, Mass., to the working, busy fishing seaport of Gloucester. Did he paint the ships, the colorful harbor activity as did most artists who summered there? No, he saw the architecture, the interesting design and detail in the town's Victorian buildings. In 1923, he successfully submitted several of his Gloucester watercolors to the Brooklyn Museum of Art for a show, one of which the museum purchased for $100 - namely the intricately detailed house with striking shadows known as "Mansard Roof."
Subsequently, his career began to take off.
Maine also attracted Hopper where he settled in Two Lights in 1927 and 1929 (he also visited Ogunquit earlier and we saw paintings of our area at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art.) Once again, he did not focus on the splendid topography, but rather on the structures and forms in the architecture he saw, in particular lighthouses (e.g., the "Pemaquid Light" of 1929) as well as modest keeper's houses. The MFA show has three versions of the Two Lights' "Home of the Fog Horn" - an unpretentious structure that most artists would have ignored. Troyen states that every time she looks at these watercolors, and they appear side-by-side, she changes her mind concerning which one she likes the best - so interesting and mobile is Hopper's treatment of light. From 1933 on, Hopper turned to Cape Cod for concepts, selecting the relatively remote Truro area where he painted various views, including some of his friends' houses.
While Hopper summered first in Gloucester and then in Maine (and later on the cape where he and his wife Jo bought the Truro home) he always maintained a permanent residence and studio in a New York City building on the north side of Washington Square in Greenwich Village. It was in New York City that he painted some of his most important and best known works of art - "Nighthawks" of 1942, a late night interior scene depicting three lonely people at a diner counter, owned by the Art Institute of Chicago; "Early Sunday Morning" of 1930 - a series of closed storefronts on a pedestrian-and-vehicle-free street, on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art; and "Automat" of 1927, depicting a lone woman at a circular table in a bare-bones setting of a restaurant corner, on loan from the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa.
The exhibit also points to Hopper as a sort of innocent "voyeur," frequently producing through-the-window-glimpses of people, especially lone women. Invariably, he is on the outside, observing, catching moments - much the way Degas did. He is not a narrative artist - for generally, there is no set story related, but rather an impression, seemingly of isolation, of apartness. In looking at his people, whether in restaurants, seashore houses, rooming houses, apartments or offices, one has no idea concerning what is happening within; it's introspection, to be sure, but nothing is clear. Just a moment in time. Hopper himself said that perhaps reviewers made too much of the implied loneliness, the solitary aspect, the quietness. In a way, though, it's as if the people were simply there, anchored in place - almost part of the architecture, adding drama to its angles and lines - another form, mysterious, the meaning of which is left to the viewer. Hopper is a recorder, not an interpreter.
"I paint what I see," he commented.
In addition to the exhibit, there is a film narrated by Steve Martin featuring the artist and his friends, there is a slide presentation furnishing a current; i.e., "today" look at some of the places where Hopper painted. The gift shop has considerable Hopper memorabilia for sale while the MFA restaurants are featuring popular mid-20th century dishes and beverages, such as chocolate malted milk shakes. This exhibit is a three-museum collaboration, planned to run well into 2008. In Boston it remains to Aug. 19, after which it will travel to the National Gallery in Washington (Sept. 16 to Jan. 21, 2008), where it will make history as the first time the National Gallery has participated in a major Hopper exhibit, and subsequently to the Art Institute of Chicago beginning in February of 2008. A catalog both in hard cover and soft cover is available
Admission to "Edward Hopper" is by ticket only for a reserved date and time of entry at half-hour intervals. Admission includes general admission and a return visit to the MFA collection within 10 days. When available, same day tickets will be sold. Tickets may be purchased by visiting the MFA Box Office or http://www.mfa.org/, or by calling (800) 440-6975.
