Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time
Oct 28, 2010–Apr 10, 2011
Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time traces the development of realism in American art between 1900 and 1940, emphasizing the diverse ways that artists depicted the sweeping transformations in urban and rural life that occurred during this period. The exhibition highlights the work of Edward Hopper, whose use of the subject matter of modern life to portray universal human experiences made him America’s most iconic realist painter of the 20th century. Drawn primarily from the Whitney Museum’s extensive holdings, Modern Life places Hopper’s achievements in the context of his contemporaries—the Ashcan School painters with whom he came of age as an artist in the century’s first decades, the 1920’s Precisionist artists, whose explorations of abstract architectural geometries mirrored those of Hopper, and a younger generation of American Scene painters, who worked alongside Hopper in New York during the 1930s. Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time includes approximately 80 works in a range of media by Hopper and artists such as John Sloan, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Paul Strand, Charles Demuth, Guy Pène du Bois, Charles Sheeler, Charles Burchfield, Ben Shahn, Reginald Marsh. The show is accompanied by a 250-page illustrated catalogue with essays by American and German scholars, produced in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title which appeared at the Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, and the Kunsthal Rotterdam in 2009-10.
Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time is organized by Barbara Haskell and Sasha Nicholas.
Generous support is provided by
Additional support is provided by The Cowles Charitable Trust and The Gage Fund.
Media Partners WNET.ORG and New York magazine
Artists
- Berenice Abbott
- George C. Ault
- Milton Avery
- George Bellows
- Thomas Hart Benton
- Oscar Bluemner
- Margaret Bourke-White
- Charles Burchfield
- Paul Cadmus
- Ralston Crawford
- John Steuart Curry
- Stuart Davis
- Charles Demuth
- Preston Dickinson
- Arthur Dove
- Elsie Driggs
- Guy Pène Du Bois
- Walker Evans
- Andreas Feininger
- Lyonel Feininger
- William Glackens
- Marsden Hartley
- Robert Henri
- Lewis Hine
- Edward Hopper
- Earl Horter
- Walt Kuhn
- Gaston Lachaise
- Jacob Lawrence
- Helen Levitt
- Martin Lewis
- Louis Lozowick
- George Luks
- Stanton Macdonald-Wright
- Man Ray
- John Marin
- Reginald Marsh
- Lisette Model
- Elie Nadelman
- Georgia O'Keeffe
- Agnes Pelton
- Maurice Prendergast
- Ben Shahn
- Charles Sheeler
- Everett Shinn
- Aaron Siskind
- John Sloan
- Raphael Soyer
- Edward Steichen
- Joseph Stella
- Florine Stettheimer
- Alfred Stieglitz
- John Storrs
- Paul Strand
- Max Weber
- Grant Wood
Events
View all-
Member Preview Day: Modern Life: Edward Hopper and his Time
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
1:30–6 pm -
Opening Reception: Paul Thek: Diver a Retrospective and Modern Life: Edward Hopper and his Time
Thursday, October 28, 2010
7–9 pm -
Inside Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
10–11:30 am -
Inside Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
10–11:30 am
Audio guides
This audio guide, introduced by Alice Pratt Brown Director Adam Weinberg, highlights works from Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time, as curators and scholars discuss the diverse ways that artists depicted the sweeping transformations in urban and rural life from 1900–1940.
Exhibition Catalogue
Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time traces the development of realism in American art between 1900 and 1940, emphasizing the diverse ways that artists depicted the sweeping transformations in urban and rural life that occurred during this period. The exhibition highlights the work of Edward Hopper, whose use of the subject matter of modern life to portray universal human experiences made him America’s most iconic realist painter of the 20th century. Drawn primarily from the Whitney Museum’s extensive holdings, Modern Life places Hopper’s achievements in the context of his contemporaries—the Ashcan School painters with whom he came of age as an artist in the century’s first decades, the 1920’s Precisionist artists, whose explorations of abstract architectural geometries mirrored those of Hopper, and a younger generation of American Scene painters, who worked alongside Hopper in New York during the 1930s.
Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time includes approximately 80 works in a range of media by Hopper and artists such as John Sloan, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Paul Strand, Charles Demuth, Guy Pène du Bois, Charles Sheeler, Charles Burchfield, Ben Shahn, Reginald Marsh.
Hardcover, 250 pages.
Buy now
Explore works from this exhibition
in the Whitney's collection
View 138 works
In the News
Video: Curator Barbara Haskell walks through the exhibition
--WNET/Thirteen Sunday Arts
Review: "The Whitney's Good Friend is Joined by Some of His"
--The New York Times
Review: "It relieves Hopper from his 'lonely,' iconic status, clarifying his indebtedness to his time and honing our understanding of his originality."
--The Boston Globe
Review: "a suberb, intelligent exhibition, intimating the extent to which Hopper was both of his time and spectacularly beyond it."
--The Financial Times
Review: "curator Barbara Haskell and assistant Sasha Nicholas have done a service for Hopper's many fans by showing his work within the broader artistic community of his era."
--USA Today
Review: "The show gives us the unlikely experience of seeing Hopper the great loner in the context of his friends."
--The New York Observer
Video: Steve Martin discusses Hopper and walks through the exhibition as part of profile of Martin's career
--CBS Sunday Morning
"In Early Sunday Morning (1930) we look out rather than in, but the piercing loneliness is just as palpable."
--The New York Times, Ken Johnson's favorite paintings in New York
"Hopper is both a dreamer and a dream-slayer; he stills fashion, hope, solace, and conviction. He did that in his era; he can do it now."
--New York
An interview with exhibition co-curator Sasha Nicolas
--amNY
"Must See Arts in the City"
--WNYC Culture Blog