The Edward Hopper Show at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York focused on the artist’s experience of the city, particularly the changing architecture of Greenwich Village, where he lived on Washington Square Park from 1913 until his death in 1967. Organized by Kim Conaty, the exhibition is expansive, featuring impressive selections from throughout the artist’s career, from his dark circa-1900 sketches of the city’s inhabitants to chalk studies, etchings, watercolors, examples of the artist’s commercial work, and several of Hopper’s most famous canvases, including Automat, 1927, Room in New York, 1932, and Early Sunday Morning, 1930. Overall, the impression is one of pessimism and skeptical reserve. Unlike the vistas of more affirmative urban representations, from Canaletto to Caillebotte, Hopper’s architectural scenes are coolly anti-picturesque. They read as ambivalent counterproposals, often highlighting an eclectic mix of vernacular architectural styles. This attitude is most obvious in Hopper’s aversion to portraying the structure that most directly emblematizes Manhattan’s aggressive architectural ambitions: the skyscraper. As he said, “I just never cared for the vertical.”
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