Hopper, the american realism

Promoted by the Fondazione Roma, the initial driving force behind the exhibition, thanks to the initiative of its Chairman Professor Emmanuele Francesco Maria Emanuele, the exhibition is produced with Comune di Milano - Cultura and Arthemisia Group in collaboration with the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Fondation de l'Hermitage in Lausanne.

The exhibition is curated by Carter Foster, the Whitney Museum curator. Edward Hopper's career is closely linked to the Whitney Museum of American Art, which hosted various exhibitions of his works from the first in 1920 at the Whitney Studio Club, to the memorable shows held in the museum in 1960, 1964 and 1980. Since 1968, thanks to the bequest of the artist's widow Josephine, the Whitney has been home to his entire legacy: more than 2,500 works which include paintings, drawings and etchings.

Aside from the 160 works on show in the Milan exhibition, the Rome event will feature more of the artist's great masterpieces, including the beautiful Self-Portrait of 1925-1930, as well as The Sheridan Theatre (1937), New York Interior (circa 1921), Seven A. M. (1948), and South Carolina Morning (1955) along with their preparatory drawings. These extraordinary paintings will complete the group of famous works exhibited in Milan, such as Summer Interior (1909), Pennsylvania Coal Town (1947), Morning Sun (1952), Second Story Sunlight (1960), A Woman in the Sun (1961) and the stunning Girlie Show (1941).

The exhibition explores the whole of Hopper's oeuvre, and all the techniques used by an artist now viewed as a great master of the twentieth century.
Most of the works are length by the Whitney Museum but also by other important American museums as the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York, the Terra Foundation for American Art in Chicago and the Columbus Museum of Art.
Structured in seven sections according to chronological order and theme, the Italian exhibition covers Hopper's entire oeuvre, from his education, to his years as a student in Paris, up to his "classic" and best-known period of the 1930s, 40s and 50s, closing with the large, intense images of his later years. The show explores all of the artist's favourite techniques: oil, watercolour and etching, and devotes special attention to the fascinating relationship between his preparatory drawings and his paintings: a vital aspect of his work that up till now has not been greatly explored in the exhibitions dedicated to him.

The exhibition also exceptionally includes one of his Artist's ledger Book, the famous ledgers he and his wife compiled, and which contain sketches of many of his oil paintings. The visitor will have the opportunity, thanks to a touch screen, to glance through it.
The captivating layout designed by the team Master IDEA with the eye-catching, evocative settings is focused on the visitor's interaction. The aim is to let visitors experience Hopper's works as reconstructions of physical spaces, focusing above all on the architectural element. The audience enter the exhibition through an atmospheric nocturnal setting, with a reconstruction inspired by the bar of the famous painting Nighthawks, this entrance invites exhibition-goers to enter literally Hopper's world and become part of the painting.
The exhibition also features a photographic, biographical and historical component, tracing American history from the 1920s to the 1960s: the Depression, the Kennedys, the boom years. An opportunity for greater insight into today's global recession and Barack Obama's America.
After Rome the exhibition will be displayed at the Fondation de l'Hermitage in Lausanne.

Edward Hopper was born in 1882 and grew up in Nyack, a small town in New York State. He studied illustration for a short period, then painting at New York School of Art under legendary masters William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri. He visited Europe three times (from 1906 to 1907, in 1909 and 1910) and his experiences in Paris, above all, made a lasting mark on him: he remained a lifelong Francophile, even after settling permanently in New York in 1913.
Despite his imposing physical presence - he was six foot two - he was famous for his reserve, and very rarely wrote or spoke about his work. He died at the age of 84 and his work enjoyed the esteem of critics and the public throughout his career, despite the success of the up-and-coming avant-garde movements, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art.
In 1948 the magazine "Look" named him one of America's greatest artists; in 1950 the Whitney Museum dedicated an important retrospective to him, and in 1956 he appeared on the cover of "Time".
In 1967, the year of his death, he represented the United States at the prestigious Bienal di São Paulo.
Since then Hopper's work has been celebrated in numerous exhibitions and has inspired countless painters, poets and filmmakers. In a 1995 essay the great novelist John Updike paid an eloquent tribute to his "calm, silent, stoic, luminous, classic" works.

Museo Fondazione Roma  - via del Corso, 320

16th february - 13th june 2010