Modern Life - Edward Hopper and His Time

Last Saturday I went to the Kunsthal for an exhibition of paintings by Edward Hopper. I really like his work, so the chance to see originals in my home town, Rotterdam, I could not let got to waste! This is what I learned…

About Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper (1882 - 1967) studied commercial art from 1899 – 1900 at the Correspondence School of Illustration, and after that until 1906 at the New York School of Art. He was employed as an illustrator and commercial artist in New York. He took time off for visits to Paris and to travel through Europe. He held his first solo exhibition at the Whitney Studio Club in 1920, where he also attended evening drawing classes in 1923. After a successful exhibition in 1924 he decided to quit working as a commercial artist. He married  Josephine Nevison , also a painter, in the same year. From then on she was nearly always his primary female model. Hopper received numerous distinctions during his career. In 1945 he was elected to the National Institute of Art and Letters. In 1952 he was selected to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale.

About Edward Hopper’s paintings

American modern art at the beginning of the twentieth century has been associated in Europe with one artist in particular: Edward Hopper. Hopper’s work is characterized by empty streets and landscapes, desolate buildings and by solitary figures in an urban setting. The places depicted in his paintings continue to shape our image of America.

About the exhibition

The Modern Life exhibition. Edward Hopper and His Time presents highlights of eight Hopper top works together with more than ninety masterpieces from the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York  in the spacious daylight hall of the Kunsthal. For the first time ever works by Edward Hopper are shown in the context of their time. The exhibition also includes works by famous artists like Georgia O’Keeffe, Charles Sheeler, Man Ray, Lyonel Feininger, Grant Wood and Alfred Stieglitz. The exhibition presents through paintings, works on paper, sculptures and photographs an imposing impression of the developments in modern art in America and puts the works of Hopper in a new light. The exhibition is organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art on the occasion of the 400^th anniversary of New York. (1609 – 2009)

The Kunsthal is both on the inside as on the outside a striking building, which was designed in 1992 by famous Rotterdam architect Rem Koolhaas. With more than 3300 square metres of exhibition space and some 25 exhibitions a year, it is worthwhile to pay a visit anytime. The exhibition Modern Life - Edward Hopper and His Time runs until January 17, 2010.

For more information about the Kunsthal you can visit it’s website www.kunsthal.nl