Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Know About Hopper

That incomparable melancholy in Edward Hopper’s pictures occasionally leads us to look at the details of his life. Where exactly did this master of loneliness live and work? What were his most important influences while he was working on his great paintings of America? In this wonderful, simply structured, A-to-Z book, Ulf Küster pursues these themes, which say a great deal about the painter and his interests, and yet he never loses sight of the artist and the necessary distance to his inimitable pictures.

Thus, Küster strolls through the ABCs of Hopper’s life and work, from the “American landscape,” “Buick” “Goethe,” and “shadow and sunlight” to the key word, “zero.” On the way he opens up many new doors or insights, enriching the views of Hopper’s paintings and making it possible to interpret them in new ways. An entertaining and informative book.

Edward Hopper (1882–1967) is the master of American Realism. His paintings captured life during his era. His method of painting rapidly became the stylistic foundation of a type of American modernism. A source of inspiration for countless painters, photographers, and filmmakers, his body of work continues to be influential to this very day.

The art theoretician and curator Ulf Kuster(*1966, Stuttgart) has worked at the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen since 2004. He produces many internationally respected exhibitions and publications. Hatje Cantz has published a number of these, including his essay on Louise Bourgeois in the series Reading Art.

Edward Hopper’s world-famous paintings articulate an idiosyncratic view of modern life. With his impressive subjects, independent pictorial vocabulary, and virtuoso play of colors, Hopper continues to influence to this day the image of the United States in the first half of the twentieth century. He began his career as an illustrator and became famous around the globe for his oil paintings. They testify to his great interest in the effects of color and his mastery in depicting light and shadow. The Fondation Beyeler is devoting its large exhibition in the spring of 2020 to Hopper’s iconic images of the vast American landscape. The catalogue gathers together all of the paintings, watercolors, and drawings from the 1910s to the 1960s on display in the exhibition, and supplements them with essays focused on the subject of depicting landscape.

About the Artist:

Edward Hopper (1882–1967) is the master of American Realism. His paintings captured life during his era. His method of painting rapidly became the stylistic foundation of a type of American modernism. A source of inspiration for countless painters, photographers, and filmmakers, his body of work continues to be influential to this very day.

A fresh look at one of America’s best-known and beloved artists at a pivotal but little-known moment in his life that profoundly shaped both his art and career.

Edward Hopper & Cape Ann tells the largely ignored but significant origin story of Edward Hopper’s years in and around Gloucester, Massachusetts — a period and place that imbued Hopper’s paintings with a clarity and purpose that had eluded his earlier work. This volume focuses on summers Hopper spent there in the 1920s, starting in 1923, when he first embraced watercolor during outdoor painting excursions on Cape Ann and discovered one of his favorite subjects: houses and vernacular architecture. The success of Hopper’s Gloucester watercolors transformed his work in all media and set the stage for his monumental career.

Accompanying a major retrospective at the Cape Ann Museum, including an unprecedented loan of twenty-eight works from the Whitney Museum of American Art, this highly readable and beautifully illustrated volume reveals in great depth the lesser-known story about the influence of a young painter, Josephine Nivison, who became not only Hopper’s wife but also the most trusted force underlying his artistic confidence. Here she is recast as principal producer of Hopper’s distinctive style and his “brand” visionary from the time of their courtship until his death in 1967.

About the Author:

Elliot Bostwick Davis is a former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the John Moors Cabot Chair at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and director of the Norton Museum. She has published extensively on American art, including Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Mary Cassatt, and Jamie Wyeth, as well as on African American artists.

Urban loneliness. One of the greatest realists of American art

Edward Hopper (1882–1967) is considered as one of the first important American painters in 20th-century art. After decades of patient work, Hopper enjoyed a success and popularity that since the 1950s has continually grown. In canvas after canvas, he painted the loneliness of urban people. Many of Hopper s pictures represent views of streets and roads, rooftops, and abandoned houses, depicted in a brilliant light that strangely belies the melancholy mood of the scenes.

Hopper s paintings are marked by striking juxtapositions of colour, and by the clear contours with which the figures are demarcated from their surroundings. His extremely precise focus on the theme of modern men and women in the natural and man-made environment sometimes lends his pictures a mood of eerie disquiet. On the other hand, Hopper s renderings of rocky landscapes in warm brown hues, or his depictions of the seacoast, exude an unusual tranquillity that reveals another, more optimistic side of his character.

About the series:

Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features:

- a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance
- a concise biography
- approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions

Edward Hopper (1882 - 1967) is recognized as one of the most well-known American artists of the 20th century. His distinctive style, combining subtle observations of the world with his imagination, has not only influenced other artists but also photographers, filmmakers, and popular culture. Although Hopper is primarily known for his oil paintings, including such iconic works as "Nighthawks" (1942) and "Early Sunday Morning" (1930), this important publication is the first comprehensive exploration of his drawings and working methods.

In 1967, Hopper's widow, Josephine Nivison Hopper, bequeathed her husband's artistic estate to the Whitney Museum of American Art, including a fascinating collection of more than 2,000 drawings spanning his entire career. This group of works has never been the subject of in-depth study and many have never been reproduced before. Hopper kept these drawings for personal reference as he revisited various themes throughout his career. Carter E. Foster carefully examines how Hopper used his drawings to develop his paintings, arguing that the artist's work can only be fully understood after in-depth study of these preparatory sketches.

Foster also argues that Hopper was, in many ways, a traditional draftsman who methodically developed schematic ideas into detailed studies to refine content. However, the steps toward this refinement are unique to Hopper and reveal how he turned the mundane into poetic images with universal appeal.

Эдвард Хоппер (Edward Hopper; 22 июля 1882, Найак, штат Нью-Йорк — 15 мая 1967, Нью-Йорк) — популярный американский художник, выдающийся представитель американской жанровой живописи.

Предполагая стать книжным иллюстратором, Хоппер в 1906-10 гг. трижды посещал художественные столицы Европы, но остался равнодушен к авангардным течениям в живописи. В молодости примыкал к натуралистической «школе мусорного ведра». В 1913 г. принял участие в скандально известном Армори-шоу в Нью-Йорке. Работал над рекламными постерами и гравюрами для нью-йоркских изданий. К середине 1920-х гг. Хоппер вырабатывает собственную художественную манеру, которой остаётся верен до конца жизни. В его фотографически выверенных сценах из современной городской жизни (зачастую выполненных акварелью) одиноко застывшие, безымянные фигуры и чёткие геометрические формы предметов передают ощущение безысходной отчуждённости и затаённой в повседневном угрозы.

Многочисленные репродукции произведений Хоппера и их кажущаяся доступность (в сравнении с «высоколобым» авангардом французского искусства) сделали его одним из самых популярных художников в США. В частности, своим любимым художником называет его кинорежиссёр и художник Дэвид Линч. Отдельные критики относят Хоппера — наряду с Де Кирико и Бальтюсом — к представителям «магического реализма» в изобразительном искусстве.

Painter of urban loneliness. Significant American 20th-century art

Edward Hopper (1882-1967) is considered as one of the first important American painters in 20th century art. After decades of patient work, Hopper enjoyed a success and popularity that since the 1950s has continually grown. In canvas after canvas he painted the loneliness of urban people. Many of Hopper’s pictures represent views of streets and roads, rooftops, and abandoned houses, depicted in a brilliant light that strangely belies the melancholy mood of the scenes. Hopper’s paintings are marked by striking juxtapositions of color, and by the clear contours with which the figures are demarcated from their surroundings. His extremely precise focus on the theme of modern men and women in the natural and man-made environment sometimes lends his pictures a mood of eerie disquiet. On the other hand, Hopper’s renderings of rocky landscapes in warm brown hues, or his depictions of the seacoast, exude an unusual tranquillity that reveals another, more optimistic side of his character.

About the Series:
Every book in TASCHEN's Basic Art Series features:

* a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist
* approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions
* a concise biography

Edward Hopper is as quintessentially American as Jackson Pollock or Andy Warhol. Like them, his imagery has reached far beyond the realm of art to impact on our culture in the broadest terms, so that we see early twentieth-century America through his work, as much as within it. The painter Charles Burchfield attributed Hopper’s success to his “bold individualism,” declaring that “in him we have regained that sturdy American independence which Thomas Eakins gave us.” Hopper’s art was profoundly of its time, both in its expression of the subtle melancholies of modern life and in its deeply cinematic qualities--perhaps Hopper’s greatest gift was his treatment of light--to which directors from Alfred Hitchcock to Wim Wenders have paid homage.

This volume presents a definitive Hopper monograph. Published for a massive retrospective at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, and the Grand Palais in Paris, it approaches Hopper’s relatively small oeuvre in two sections. The first covers the artist’s formative years from approximately 1900 to 1924, examining a selection of sketches, paintings, drawings, illustrations, prints and watercolors, which are considered alongside works by painters that influenced Hopper, such as Winslow Homer, Robert Henri, John Sloan, Edgar Degas and Walter Sickert. The second section considers the years from 1925 onwards, addressing his mature output through chronological but thematic groupings. Comprehensive in its scope, with a wealth of color reproductions, Hopper is the last word on the artist.

Illustrated with over 150 oils, watercolours, etchings and drawings with comments on their formal and technical characteristics, this exhibition's catalogue offers an updated critical interpretation of Edward Hopper's work and an alternative view to the extensive literature that already exists on this artist. Perfect for casual perusing or serious study, it is certain to find a wide audience.

Edward Hopper, born in Nyack in 1882, remains one of the most important American painters. After studying to be an illustrator, he entered the famous New York School of Art, where he studied under the direction of Robert Henri, whose influence on Hopper’s work was fundamental, as he was the one who encouraged Hopper to paint scenes from American life. In his works, Hopper poetically expressed the solitude of man confronted to the American way of life as it developed in the 1920s. Inspired by the movies and particularly by the various camera angles and attitudes of characters, his paintings expose the alienation of mass culture. Done in cold colours and inhabited by anonymous characters, Hopper’s paintings also symbolically reflect the Great Depression. Despite his numerous trips to Europe, he remained impervious to the major trends revolutionizing painting at the time, such as cubism or surrealism. Dedicated to a very personal approach to his subjects, he modelled himself on classical painters, such as Rembrandt, Degas, or Daumier.

His paintings of gas stations, motels, and scenes from everyday life represent an aesthetic testimony to individualism, wide-open spaces, and the fundamental values of the American nation. He died in 1967, leaving behind a definitive imprint on American art.

Edward Hopper, born in Nyack in 1882, remains one of the most important American painters. After studying to be an illustrator, he entered the famous New York School of Art, where he studied under the direction of Robert Henri, whose influence on Hopper s work was fundamental, as he was the one who encouraged Hopper to paint scenes from American life. In his works, Hopper poetically expressed the solitude of man confronted to the American way of life as it developed in the 1920s. Inspired by the movies and particularly by the various camera angles and attitudes of characters, his paintings expose the alienation of mass culture. Done in cold colours and inhabited by anonymous characters, Hopper s paintings also symbolically reflect the Great Depression. Despite his numerous trips to Europe, he remained impervious to the major trends revolutionizing painting at the time, such as cubism or surrealism. Dedicated to a very personal approach to his subjects, he modelled himself on classical painters, such as Rembrandt, Degas, or Daumier. His paintings of gas stations, motels, and scenes from everyday life represent an aesthetic testimony to individualism, wide-open spaces, and the fundamental values of the American nation. He died in 1967, leaving behind a definitive imprint on American art.

Edward Hopper (1882–1967) is considered the first significant American painter in 20th-century art. Living in a secluded country house with his wife, Josephine, he depicted the loneliness of big-city people in canvas after canvas. Probably the most famous of them, Nighthawks, done in1942, shows a couple seated quietly as if turned inwards upon themselves, in the harsh artificial light of an all-night restaurant. Many of Hopper’s pictures represent views of streets and roads, rooftops, abandoned houses, depicted brilliant light that strangely belies the melancholy mood of the scenes. Hopper’s paintings are marked by striking juxtapositions of colour, and by the clear contours with which the figures are demarcated from their surroundings. His extremely precise focus on the theme of modern men and women in the natural and man-made environment sometimes lends his pictures a mood of eerie disquiet. In House by the Railroad, a harsh interplay of light and shadow makes the abandoned building seem veritably threatening. On the other hand, Hopper’s renderings of rocky landscapes in warm brown hues, or his depictions of the seacoast, exude an unusual tranquillity that reveals another, more optimistic side of his character.