Edward Hopper's New York

The city of New York was Edward Hopper’s home for nearly six decades (1908–67). For Hopper, New York was a city that existed in the mind as well as on the map, a place that took shape through lived experience, memory, and the collective imagination. It was, he reflected late in life, “the American city that I know best and like most.” 

During his lifetime, the city underwent tremendous development—skyscrapers reached record-breaking heights, construction sites roared across the five boroughs, and an increasingly diverse population boomed—yet his depictions of New York remained human-scale and largely unpopulated. Eschewing the city’s iconic skyline, Hopper instead turned his attention to its out-of-the-way corners, drawn to the awkward collisions of new and old, public and private that captured the paradoxes of the changing city. 

The exhibition Edward Hopper’s New York takes a comprehensive look at Hopper’s life and work, from his early impressions of New York in sketches, prints, and illustrations, to his late paintings, in which the city served as a backdrop for his evocative distillations of urban experience. On view now until March 5, 2023.