Edward Hopper and Photography

July 17–Oct 19, 2014

A painting by Edward Hopper. A woman and man sit in the sun on a second-story balcony.

By reducing all elements in his composition to their essential geometries and treating light as a palpable presence, Edward Hopper imbued his images of everyday life with what the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson called an “alienated majesty.” One of two permanent collection displays on the Museum’s fifth-floor mezzanine, Edward Hopper and Photography pairs Hopper paintings from the Whitney’s permanent collection with the work of contemporary photographers who share an interest in elevating everyday subject matter by manipulating light. The six photographers represented in this presentation, Gregory Crewdson, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, William Eggleston, Steve Fitch, Todd Hido, and Stephen Shore, record mundane subjects but endow their photographs with emotional poignancy and mystery similar to that in Hopper’s art.

Edward Hopper and Photography is organized by Barbara Haskell, Curator.

Artworks

Edward Hopper, Early Sunday Morning, 1930. Oil on canvas, 35 3/16 × 60 1/4 in. (89.4 × 153 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney 31.426. © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Edward Hopper (1882–1967), Seven A.M., 1948. Oil on canvas, 30 3/16 × 40 1/8 in. (76.7 × 101.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase and exchange 50.8. © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Edward Hopper (1882–1967), South Carolina Morning, 1955. Oil on canvas, 30 9/16 × 40 1/4 in. (77.6 × 102.2 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; given in memory of Otto L. Spaeth by his Family 67.13 © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Edward Hopper, New York Interior, c. 1921. Oil on canvas, Overall: 24 1/4 × 29 1/4 in. (61.6 × 74.3cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Josephine N. Hopper Bequest 70.1200. © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Edward Hopper, A Woman in the Sun, 1961. Oil on linen, overall: 40 1/8 × 60 3/16 in. (101.9 × 152.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; 50th Anniversary Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Hackett in honor of Edith and Lloyd Goodrich 84.31 © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Gregory Crewdson, Untitled (north by northwest), 2004, from Beneath the Roses, 2003-2005. Digital chromogenic print, 56 × 87 in. (142.2 × 221 cm). Edition no. 3/6. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Photography Committee 2005.169
Alexander Calder (1898-1976), Varèse, c. 1930. Wire, 15 × 11 3/4 × 12 1/2 in. (38.1 × 29.8 × 31.8 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; 50th Anniversary Gift of Mrs. Louise Varèse in honor of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney 80.25 © Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Alexander Calder, Calder’s Circus, 1926–31. Wire, wood, metal, cloth, yarn, paper, cardboard, leather, string, rubber tubing, corks, buttons, rhinestones, pipe cleaners, and bottle caps, 54 × 94 1/4 × 94 1/4 in. (137.2 × 239.4 × 239.4 cm) overall, dimensions variable. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from a public fundraising campaign in May 1982. One half the funds were contributed by the Robert Wood Johnson Jr. Charitable Trust. Additional major donations were given by The Lauder Foundation, the Robert Lehman Foundation Inc., the Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation Inc., an anonymous donor, The T. M. Evans Foundation Inc., MacAndrews & Forbes Group Incorporated, the DeWitt Wallace Fund Inc., Martin and Agneta Gruss, Anne Phillips, Mr. and Mrs. Laurance S. Rockefeller, the Simon Foundation Inc., Marylou Whitney, Bankers Trust Company, Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth N. Dayton, Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz, Irvin and Kenneth Feld, Flora Whitney Miller. More than 500 individuals from 26 states and abroad also contributed to the campaign 83.36.1-95
© 2009 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; photograph © Whitney Museum of American Art.
Alexander Calder, Object with Red Discs, 1931. Painted steel rod, wire, wood, and sheet aluminum, 88 1/2 × 33 × 47 1/2 in. (224.8 × 83.8 × 120.7 cm) overall. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Mrs. Percy Uris Purchase Fund 86.49a-c

Artists

Events

View all

Installation photography

Installation view of Edward Hopper and Photography (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, July 17–October 19, 2014). Photograph by Sheldan Collins
Installation view of Edward Hopper and Photography (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, July 17–October 19, 2014). Photograph by Sheldan Collins
Installation view of Edward Hopper and Photography (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, July 17–October 19, 2014). Photograph by Sheldan Collins
Installation view of Edward Hopper and Photography (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, July 17–October 19, 2014). Photograph by Sheldan Collins
Installation view of Edward Hopper and Photography (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, July 17–October 19, 2014). Photograph by Sheldan Collins
Installation view of Edward Hopper and Photography (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, July 17–October 19, 2014). Photograph by Sheldan Collins
Installation view of Edward Hopper and Photography (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, July 17–October 19, 2014). Photograph by Sheldan Collins