Introduction 

Kim Conaty: Hi, my name is Kim Conaty. I'm the Steven and Ann Ames Curator of Drawings and Prints at the Whitney Museum. And I'm also the Curator of Edward Hopper's New York. We're thrilled to welcome you to this exhibition that looks at Hopper's relationship with the city of New York, which is one that really evolved throughout his lifetime beginning when he was a child growing up in Nyack, just about thirty miles north of the city.

Narrator: Hopper studied illustration in New York as a young man, and went on to live in the city for nearly six decades. This entry area features a perspective on the city that he came to love during that time—the view from the elevated train. 

Kim Conaty: And these “el” trains, as they were called, allowed people to move through the city, not dissimilar to the way that we see that we have the experience of walking along the High Line today, slightly above street level. And of course with that, the ability to get a sort of privileged view into city life, not just the bustle of passersby on the street and the shop windows that are there to greet you, but also to be able to look into people's windows, to look into offices along the way. 

Narrator: As you’ll see as you move through this exhibition, Hopper frequently adopts a perspective like the one he could find on the el: on the outside of a scene, often slightly elevated from it, as though it were a set where a bit of theater might unfold. The painting hanging near the projection screen is one great example of this point of view. It’s called New York Pavements.

Throughout this exhibition, you’ll also see letters, notebooks, and other bits of daily life that give us a new understanding of Hopper’s New York.

Kim Conaty: One of the most exciting and truly revelatory parts of the research for this exhibition was the opportunity that we had to dig into the Whitney's Sanborn Hopper archive, which comprises nearly 4,000 items of Hopper's, including correspondence, illustration and advertising work from early in his career. Through this material, we've been able to get a fuller picture of the Hoppers' lives in New York.