Edward Hopper

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the coastal city of Gloucester, Massachusetts, long a major hub for America’s fishing industry, became a celebrated summer resort for prominent American painters and writers including Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, Cecilia Beaux and T.S. Eliot. As a young man visiting Gloucester, Edward Hopper (1882–1967) turned away from the allure of its ragged coast line and instead created atmospheric watercolors of homes, lighthouses and street scenes in Gloucester.
In this volume, art historian Robert Hobbs revisits these works from the 1920s, which he positions alongside the work of New York–based painter Dike Blair (born 1952), who, a century later, has created a new body of work centered on the small fishing city.

The distinctive melancholy found in Edward Hopper’s (1882–1967) paintings often leads viewers to wonder about the more intimate details of the artist’s life. Where exactly did this master of loneliness live and work? What influenced him most while he was working on his great paintings of America?

In this wonderful, simply structured A-to-Z book, Ulf Küster pursues these themes, telling us a great deal about the painter and his interests without losing sight of the work itself. Küster takes us through the ABCs of Hopper’s life and work, from “American landscape,” “Buick,” “Cape Cod,” “Dos Passos,” “El[evated] Train,” “Frost,” “Goethe,” “House,” “Illustration” and “Josie” to “Shadow and Sunlight”—and of course the keyword, “Time.”

On the way he opens up many new doors and insights, enriching the views of Hopper’s paintings and the possible reinterpretation of them. Touching on lesser-known facets of the artist’s life such as his passion for literature, as well as his early pursuits in illustration as a career, this entertaining and informative book provides a closer look into the life of this master in American realism, who continues to be a source of inspiration for countless painters, photographers and filmmakers today.

Edward Hopper’s world-famous, instantly recognizable paintings articulate an idiosyncratic view of modern life, unfolding in a world of lonely lighthouses, gas stations, movie theaters, bars and hotel rooms. With his impressive subjects, independent pictorial vocabulary and virtuoso play of colors, Hopper’s work continues to this day to color our memory and imaginary of the United States in the first half of the 20th century.

Hopper began his career as an illustrator and became famous around the globe for his oil paintings. These paintings testify to the artist’s great interest in the effects of color and his mastery in depicting light and shadow, at work whether the artist was painting alienated figures in dreamlike interiors or desolate American landscapes.

Edward Hopper: A Fresh Look on Landscape is published to accompany a major exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler of Hopper’s iconic images of the vast American landscape. The catalog gathers together paintings, watercolors and drawings made by the artist between the 1910s and the 1960s, and supplements them with essays by Erika Doss, David Lubin and Katharina Rüppell, focused on the subject of depicting the landscape.

Edward Hopper (1882–1967) was the master of American Realism. His paintings captured the mood and atmosphere of his era. His style of painting and subject matter became the stylistic foundation for a distinct type of American modernism. A source of inspiration for countless painters, photographers and filmmakers, Hopper’s body of work continues to be influential to this day.

An extensive study on Hopper, which accompanies a major travelling exhibition and illuminates the life and work of one of America’s most celebrated artists. Illustrated with over 150 oils, watercolors, etchings and drawings with comments on their formal and technical characteristics, this exhibition’s catalog offers an updated critical interpretation of Edward Hopper’s work and an alternative view to the extensive literature that already exists on this artist. Among the artworks included are Cape Cod Sunset, Second Story Sunlight, and some interesting self-portraits from the Whitney Museum of American Art; the famous Morning Sun from the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, and a number of lesser-known watercolors and oils from Hopper’s journeys to Paris. Also included are essays by several noted scholars, and an extensive chronology and bibliography. Perfect for casual perusing or serious study, this lavish exploration of Edward Hopper’s work is certain to find a wide audience.

Carter E. Foster, former Curator and co-chair of the Department of Prints and Drawings at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is Curator of Drawings at the Whitney Museum of America Art. Carol Troyen has worked with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for 27 years and has organized many exhibitions, including a famous one on Edward Hopper in 2007. She has lectured at museums across the country, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Sasha Nicholas is a Whitney Museum curatorial assistant. Luigi Sampietro is Professor of American Literature at the Università degli Studi di Milano. Goffredo Fofi is an Italian writer and journalist. Demetrio Paparoni is a curator and author of fine art books.