Edward Hopper [Paperback]

Carol Troyen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 30, 2007

One of the most enduringly popular painters of the twentieth century, Edward Hopper produced many works now considered icons of Modern art. Canvases such as Drugstore, New York Movie, and the universally recognized (and often parodied) Nighthawks not only reshaped what painting looked like in America, but created a visual language for middle-class life and its discontents. This extensive new assessment of Hopper, which accompanies a major traveling exhibition, examines the dynamics of the artist's creative process and discusses his work within the cultural currents of his day--examining the influence not only of other painters, but also of such media as literature and film. And while most studies have tended to see Hopper as the great painter of alienation, this one takes a much broader, more nuanced, and ultimately more representative view. Spanning the entirety of Hopper's career, but with particular emphasis on his heyday in the 30s and 40s, Edward Hopper highlights the artist's greatest achievements while discussing such topics as his absorption of European influences, critical reactions to his work, the relation of Realism to Modernism, the artist's fascination with architecture, his depiction of women, and the struggle in his last years to produce original works. Illustrated with over 150 oils, watercolors and prints, and including essays by several noted scholars in the field and an extensive chronology and bibliography, this is the most comprehensive volume on Hopper produced in the last decade.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Museum of Fine Arts Boston (July 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0878467130
• ISBN-13: 978-0878467136
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 10.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,347,160 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Paintings of American spirit, June 5, 2007

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Edward Hopper (Hardcover)

No one artist could capture anything as broad as the whole of American experience. If such a catalog were assembled, though, it would have to contain works by Hopper.

The book as produced by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts to accompany its 2007 show of Hopper's work. Text, including extensive notes and bibliography, make up a bit more than half of the book. This includes biographical information and analysis. It also contrasts comments on the works when the first appeared, vs. commentary today or just a few years after they appeared.

The artwork, 110 of Hopper's plus 91 supporting works by other artists, really make this book. The cover, 'Chop Suey,' typifies one part of his ouvre. It's a common urban scene, two friends dining in an unpretentious restaurant. One of the women faces directly towards the viewer - it's not the challenge in her gaze that strikes me, but the distance from her dining partner. It's common for people to talk about loneliness in Hopper's work, but I think that's too glib. There are other kinds of solitude and separation, and Hopper distinguishes between many of them.

What Hopper did for the everyday of urban life, he also did for familiar scenes along the Maine and Massachusetts coastlines. Gloucester, Cape Elizabeth, Two Lights - he painted all of them at one time or another. It is enlightening to see his early watercolors and later oils together. They show the progression from fussy rendering of Victorian detail to the monumental, graphic geometries of his later work.

If you're not yet familiar with Hopper's work, you owe it to yourself to learn about his work. Somehow, even seeing it for the first time, you're sure to find something familiar in it.

-- wiredweird

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Look at Hopper, September 3, 2007

By 

R. P. Jones (Greenville, RI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Edward Hopper (Hardcover)

One of the highlights of my summer was attending the Hopper exhibition at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, for which this volume (published by the MFA) was the companion text. At 288 pages, mostly filled with suberb reproductions of Hopper's paintings and sketches, this volume is comprehensive enough for even the most devoted Hopper fan. Perhaps only Gail Levin's "Catalogue Raisonne" offers a more comprehensive look at the artist. No matter how many art books you may own, clear a spot on your shelf or coffee table for this one. You will not be disappointed.

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunningly beautiful compilation, June 14, 2007

By 

Jon Hunt "musician, teacher" (Old Greenwich, Ct. USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Edward Hopper (Hardcover)

This recent publication of the life and works of Edward Hopper, in connection with an ongoing exhibition of Hopper's works at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston this summer, is one of the finest I've ever seen dedicated to one artist. The chapter presentations by five known experts in the field give us a comprehensive and a more subtle look at Hopper and his influence on twentieth-century American art. As some of the contributors point out, "American" is the operable word as Hopper was quintessentially American and few, if any, match Hopper's mirror of this country from decades past.

Hopper, a true conservative, was influenced nonetheless by French Surrealistic painters and one of the added benefits of this particular book is that there are many representations of works by other artists that had great effect on him. Light was Hopper's main asset and whether he was depicting a lighthouse in Maine or the inside of an apartment in New York, it is the light that catches one's eye first. Yet, for many of Hopper's works, it is also the "chiaroscuro" that counters so well and his most famous painting, "Nighthawks" is but one example. Indeed, an entire chapter is given over to this one painting, often thought (by critics and Hopper, himself) to be his finest.

Reading this book is like attending an art class as every aspect of Hopper's works are discussed....light having already been mentioned, there are also pages devoted to the individuals in his paintings, (never seemingly engaged with one another) the sometimes strange but pleasing geometric angles he presents and his choice of subject material, to name just three others. It came as no surprise to me that Hopper was often at odds with his times. Preferring to paint Victorian houses in the 1920s brought him a certain amount of derision, for instance, while the rage was to paint those "newfangled" skyscrapers and such. And as the century hit midspan, the Jackson Pollocks of the world began to eclipse the older, more sedate Hopper.

The genius of Edward Hopper, of course, is that he has stood the test of time and over that time has become more appreciated and understood. This terrific book goes a long way in explaining the world of Hopper and does much to keep his memory alive. I plan to see the exhibit in Boston this summer and I hope many others will, too. In any event, however, I highly recommend this fascinating book about one of America's exceptional artists for its breadth, honesty and the powerful way in which it is presented.