Edward Hopper 26 January – 26 July 2020

Media release

Edward Hopper (1882–1967) is widely acknowledged as one of the most significant artists of the 20th century. In Europe, he is known mainly for his oil paintings of urban life scenes dating from the 1920s to 1960s, some of which have become highly popular images. Less attention has so far been paid to his landscapes. Surprisingly, no exhibition to date has dealt comprehensively with Hopper’s approach to American landscape. Initially until 17 May 2020, the Fondation Beyeler presents an extensive exhibition of iconic landscape paintings in oil as well as a selection of watercolors and drawings. This will also be the first time Hopper’s works are shown in an exhibition in German-speaking Switzerland.

Hopper was born in Nyack, New York. After training as an illustrator, he studied painting at the New York School of Art until 1906. Next to German, French and Russian literature, the young artist found key reference points in painters such as Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Goya, Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet. Although Hopper long worked mainly as an illustrator, his fame rests primarily on his oil paintings, which attest to his deep interest in color and his virtuosity in representing light and shadow. Moreover, on the basis of his observations Hopper was able to establish a personal aesthetics that has influenced not only painting but also popular culture, photography and film.

The idea for this exhibition arose when Cape Ann Granite, a landscape painted by Edward Hopper in 1928, joined the collection of the Fondation Beyeler as a permanent loan. For several decades, the work belonged to the celebrated Rockefeller collection, and it dates from a time in which Hopper received growing attention from critics, curators and the public. In 1929, he was thus invited to take part in the Museum of Modern Art’s second exhibition, Paintings by Nineteen Living Americans.

In the art-historical tradition, “landscape” signifies an image of nature as opposed to ever-changing actual “nature”, which as such cannot be fixed as an image. Landscape painting always shows the impact of man on nature and Hopper’s paintings reflect this in a subtle and multifaceted way. He thus established a distinctly modern approach to a time-honored genre of art history. Unlike academic tradition, Hopper’s landscapes seem unbounded; in one’s mind, they are infinite and always appear to be showing only a small part of an immense whole.

Hopper’s American landscapes are geometrically clear compositions. Their main elements are houses, symbolizing human settlement. Railroad tracks structure the images horizontally and stand for man’s endeavor to conquer wide expanses of space. A vast sky as well as specific lighting moods − bright midday sunlight and the glimmer of dusk − illustrate the immensity and constant transformation of nature even in an actually static landscape painting. A lighthouse can thus become a point of reference in the vastness of the sea and the coastline.

Hopper’s landscape paintings seem to deal with something invisible, occurring outside the image, as illustrated for example by Cape Cod Morning (1950): a woman is looking out from a bay window, her face bathed in sunlight, staring at something the viewer cannot see because it is located beyond the pictorial space. Hopper’s visible landscapes always have an invisible, subjective counterpart that appears inside the viewer. As is the case with all his paintings, Hopper’s landscapes are defined by melancholy and loneliness. They often convey a sense of eeriness and apprehension. Hopper also shows the sometimes brutal intrusion of man into nature by confronting natural and urban landscapes. Hopper played a major role in establishing the notion of a melancholy America, defined also by the dark sides of progress – a vast, unlimited space, which became immensely popular especially through its development in films such as

Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959), Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas (1984) or Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves (1990).

As a special highlight, filmmaker Wim Wenders has produced a 3D short film entitled Two or Three Things I Know about Edward Hopper, screened in a dedicated room. The film is Wenders’ personal tribute to Edward Hopper, who made a lasting impression on him and influenced his cinematic work. He travelled across the USA on a quest for “Hopper’s spirit”, condensing the resulting footage into a film that will premiere at the exhibition’s opening. In a poetic and moving way, the film shows just how indebted cinema is to Edward Hopper as well as the extent to which Hopper was in turn influenced by movies.

The exhibition comprises 65 works dating from 1909 to 1965. It is organized by the Fondation Beyeler in cooperation with the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the worldwide major repository of Hopper’s work.

The exhibition is generously supported by:

Beyeler-Stiftung Hansjörg Wyss, Wyss Foundation

BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation LUMA Foundation Terra Foundation for American Art

Press images available at www.fondationbeyeler.ch/en/media/press-images

Further information: Silke Kellner-Mergenthaler Head of PR & Media Relations Tel. + 41 (0)61 645 97 21, [email protected], www.fondationbeyeler.ch Fondation Beyeler, Beyeler Museum AG, Baselstrasse 77, CH-4125 Riehen

Fondation Beyeler opening hours: 10am to 6pm daily, Wednesday 10am to 8pm

Edward Hopper 26 January – 17 May 2020

01 Edward Hopper 02 Edward Hopper Cape Cod Morning, 1950 Gas, 1940 Oil on canvas, 86.7 x 102.3 cm Oil on canvas, 66.7 x 102.2 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund © Heirs of Josephine Hopper / 2019, ProLitteris, Zurich © Heirs of Josephine Hopper / 2019, ProLitteris, Zurich Photo: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gene Young Photo: © 2019 Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York / Scala, Florence

03 Edward Hopper 04 Edward Hopper Railroad Sunset, 1929 Lighthouse Hill, 1927 Oil on canvas, 74.5 x 122.2 cm Oil on canvas, 73.8 x 102.2 cm Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Josephine N. Hopper Bequest Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Purnell © Heirs of Josephine Hopper / 2019, ProLitteris, Zurich © Heirs of Josephine Hopper / 2019, ProLitteris, Zurich Photo: © 2019. Digital image Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala Photo: Dallas Museum of Art, Photo by Brad Flowers

Press images: www.fondationbeyeler.ch/en/media/press-images The visual material may be used solely for press purposes in connection with reporting on the exhibition. Reproduction is permitted only in connection with the current exhibition and for the period of its duration. Any other kind of use – in analogue or digital form – must be authorised by the copyright holder(s). Purely private use is excluded from that provision. Please use the captions given and the associated copyrights. We kindly request you to send us a complimentary copy.

FONDATION BEYELER Edward Hopper 26 January – 17 May 2020

05 Edward Hopper 06 Edward Hopper Cape Ann Granite, 1928 Portrait of Orleans, 1950 Oil on canvas, 73.5 x 102.3 cm Oil on canvas, 66 x 101.6 cm Private Collection Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, gift of Jerrold and June Kingsley © Heirs of Josephine Hopper / 2019, ProLitteris, Zurich © Heirs of Josephine Hopper / 2019, ProLitteris, Zurich Photo: Christie's Photo: Randy Dodson, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

07 Edward Hopper 08 Edward Hopper Lee Shore, 1941 Second Story Sunlight, 1960 Oil on canvas, 71.8 x 109.2 cm Oil on canvas, 102.1 x 127.3 cm Private collection Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Purchase, with funds from © Heirs of Josephine Hopper / 2019, ProLitteris, Zurich the Friends of the Whitney Museum of American Art Photo: © 2019. Photo Art Resource / Scala, Florence © Heirs of Josephine Hopper / 2019, ProLitteris, Zurich Photo: © 2019. Digital image Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala

FONDATION BEYELER Edward Hopper 26 January – 17 May 2020

09 Edward Hopper 10 Edward Hopper Burly Cobb’s House, South Truro, 1930–1933 Cobb’s Barns, South Truro, 1930–1933 Oil on canvas, 64.1 x 92.1 cm Oil on canvas, 87.2 x 127.2 cm Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Josephine N. Hopper Bequest Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Josephine N. Hopper Bequest © Heirs of Josephine Hopper / 2019, ProLitteris, Zurich © Heirs of Josephine Hopper / 2019, ProLitteris, Zurich Photo: © 2019. Digital image Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala Photo: © 2019. Digital image Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala

11 Edward Hopper 12 Edward Hopper Cobb’s Barns and Distant Houses, 1930–1933 Road and Houses, South Truro, 1930–1933 Oil on canvas, 74 x 109.5 cm Oil on canvas, 68.4 x 109.7 cm Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Josephine N. Hopper Bequest Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Josephine N. Hopper Bequest © Heirs of Josephine Hopper / 2019, ProLitteris, Zurich © Heirs of Josephine Hopper / 2019, ProLitteris, Zurich Photo: © 2019. Digital image Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala Photo: © 2019. Digital image Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala

13 Edward Hopper Square Rock, Ogunquit, 1914 Oil on canvas, 61.8 x 74.3 cm Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Josephine N. Hopper Bequest © Heirs of Josephine Hopper / 2019, ProLitteris, Zurich Photo: © 2019. Digital image Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala

FONDATION BEYELER

Biography Edward Hopper

1882–98 – Origins and Family Edward Hopper is born on July 22, 1882, in Nyack, New York, a small town along the Hudson River shaped by the boatbuilding industry. The younger of two children, he is raised in an educated middle-class family that belongs to the local Baptist church. Edward’s interest in English, French, Russian, and German literature is awakened by his father, Garret Henry Hopper. His mother, Elizabeth Griffiths Smith Hopper, encourages Edward and his sister, Marion Louise, to pursue their artistic inclinations. Hopper’s considerable artistic talent is already evident at the age of five, and he develops his abilities further while at school. One of his first oil paintings, the depiction of a sailing vessel from around 1898, reflects the artist’s lifelong fascination with the sea and his initial plan to become a naval architect.

1899–1905 – Artistic Training Hopper begins his artistic training after graduating from Nyack High School. Since his family considers the career path of a painter precarious, he enrolls at the Correspondence School of Illustrating in New York City in 1899 to study commercial art. A year later he transfers to the New York School of Art, where he initially studies illustration with Frank Vincent DuMond and Arthur I. Keller. As of 1901 Hopper attends painting classes taught by William Merritt Chase, Robert Henri, and Kenneth Hayes Miller. Their explicit encouragement that Hopper study his immediate environment and articulate his impressions in realistic paintings is formative for the development of Hopper’s characteristic artistic vocabulary. His classmates, some of whom become lifelong friends, include George Bellows, Patrick Henry Bruce, Rockwell Kent, Walter Pach, Guy Pène du Bois, and Walter Tittle. Hopper is a popular and talented student. 1903 He is awarded a scholarship in life drawing and receives the school’s painting prize, and in 1904 the school tasks him with teaching Saturday classes in life drawing as well as painting, sketching, and composition.

1905–25 – The Commercial Illustrator Hopper earns his living for many years as a freelance illustrator and graphic artist for such New York advertising agencies as C. C. Phillips & Co. and Sherman and Bryan. To some extent, he has to acquire new customers and commissions and works for specialized journals and magazines. He takes little delight in these jobs because the subjects are determined by others, and he would prefer to concentrate on his own artistic work. He does, however, take up motifs in his commercial illustrations that can also be found in his autonomous drawings, etchings, watercolors, and oil paintings: boats, trains, and movie theater auditoriums.

1906–10 – Travels to Paris and Moving to New York City 1906 In October, Hopper leaves for Europe, where he would live and work for the next ten months. He spends a great deal of time in Paris and is fascinated by the city and its inhabitants. With the exception of his former classmate Patrick Henry Bruce, who is in Paris at the same time, Hopper does not seek out contact with other artists or avant-garde intellectual circles. He visits numerous exhibitions and sees the works of artists such as Gustave Courbet, Paul Cézanne, Albert Marquet, Alfred Sisley, Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro. He spends most of his time painting and drawing Parisian street scenes along the Seine in a style influenced by the luminous palette and free brushstrokes typical of the Impressionists. Hopper visits London, Amsterdam, Berlin, and Brussels before returning home to New York by way of Paris in August 1907. 1908 Hopper leaves Nyack and settles for good in New York. The now twenty-six-year-old artist takes part in his first group show, Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Contemporary American Artists, which was organized by former Henri students. He shows three of the paintings he made in 1907 during his stay in Paris. None of them are sold or reviewed in the press. Hopper’s earnings from his work as a commercial artist enable him to take two further trips to Europe. 1909 From March to July Hopper stays in Paris. In the drawings and paintings he makes there, including Valley of the Seine (cat. p. 23), Hopper already turns attention to the theme of the landscape and discovers light and shade as a powerful means of expression. Moreover, as can be seen in Le Bistro or The Wine Shop (cat. p. 24), for example, he employs a considerably more structured and composed formal language than in the freely sketched paintings from 1907. 1910 Edward Hopper rents a studio at 53 East 59th Street. He spends most of his time by himself; he reads a great deal and frequently goes to the movies. In April he submits his oil painting Le Louvre et la Seine (1907) to the Exhibition of Independent Artists organized by John Sloan and Robert Henri. The painting remains unsold. His third and final European venture, from May to early July, takes him to Paris and then Spain.

1912–14 – New Motifs: Sojourns in Maine and Massachusetts 1912 Hopper spends the summer with his former classmate Leon Kroll in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Over the course of the following years, he travels regularly to Massachusetts and Maine. 1913 After unsuccessfully participating in several exhibitions, Hopper shows his oil painting Sailing (1911) at the International Exhibition of Modern Art in New York, also known as the Armory Show. The painting finds a buyer. It is the last oil painting he will sell in the next ten years. Hopper’s father, Garret, dies in Nyack in the fall. In December, Hopper moves into rooms at 3 Washington Square North in New York City. He lives and works here for the rest of his life. Although the building is located in a neighborhood frequented by artists, writers, and intellectuals, Hopper leads a withdrawn life. He begins recording information about his paintings, his sales, and other sources of income in ledger books, consistently reproducing his paintings in them as small-scale drawings. 1914 Hopper spends the summer in Ogunquit, Maine. He produces numerous views of the rocky cliffs that reveal his great interest in the effect of color and the depiction of light and shade. One of the pictures he paints there, Road in Maine (cat. p. 27), is shown at the Montross Gallery, in New York City, and thus exhibited for the first time in a commercial gallery. Hopper earns his living this year by, among other things, designing movie posters for the US Printing & Litho Co.

1915–23 – Successes with Etching and the First Landscape Watercolors 1915 Hopper learns how to create etchings; in the following years he produces more than fifty works in the medium, gradually making a reputation for himself as an artist. In February, he exhibits his oil paintings New York Corner (1913) and Soir Bleu (1914) at the MacDowell Club of New York. Critics review his works for the first time. New York Corner is positively received, but the poor reviews for Soir Bleu prompt him to give up French subject matter in his painting, dealing with them solely in his prints. Hopper, like Henri and Bellows, spends the summer in Ogunquit. From 1916 to 1919, however, he summers on Monhegan Island, Maine, where he depicts not only the rocky coast but also street views. 1916 Hopper purchases his own printing press. 1918 He is awarded first prize from the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation for his poster Smash the Hun, which thematically responds to the zeitgeist and attracts a great deal of attention. Guy Pène du Bois, a friend of Hopper’s from art school, writes a newspaper article in which he reviews the artist’s etchings on view at the MacDowell Club. From now on, Pène du Bois regularly reviews Hopper’s works, decisively contributing to his increasing reputation. At Pène du Bois’s intervention, Hopper becomes a member of the Whitney Studio Club in New York, founded by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and Juliana Force, one of the country’s liveliest cultural centers at the time. The contemporary art acquired by Whitney and Force will make up the core of the Whitney Museum of American Art when it opens in 1931. 1920 The first solo exhibition of the now thirty-seven-year-old Hopper takes place at the Whitney Studio. The show features prints, watercolors, and sixteen oil paintings, most of which were made during the artist’s time in Paris. The exhibition attracts little attention in the press, and none of his works from the

2 show sell. Hopper’s etchings concentrate on the depiction of typical American architecture, which he later also renders in many of his paintings. Hopper’s works are represented at numerous exhibitions in 1921 and 1922, including shows in New York and Washington, DC. 1922 Hopper becomes friends with John Dos Passos, a major figure in modern American literature, when the writer and his wife, Katy, move into the same townhouse on Washington Square North. 1923 Although he often receives prizes for his prints, Hopper makes—with the exception of two in 1928—a final group of etchings. He sees himself as a painter and wishes to be recognized as such. During his summer vacation that year, in Gloucester, Hopper again encounters Josephine Verstille Nivison (1883–1968); they had already met at art school. They undertake painting excursions together, during which Hopper makes his first landscape watercolors. One of them sells for $100 at an exhibition later that year at the Brooklyn Museum.

1924–34 – Growing Recognition as a Painter 1924 Josephine and Edward wed in July; Pène du Bois is Hopper’s best man. The Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries present the now forty-two-year-old artist’s first solo exhibition in a commercial gallery; sixteen watercolors are sold. Hopper remains associated with this gallery for the rest of his life. 1925 His increasing artistic success permits him to give up his day job as a commercial illustrator. The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquires fifteen of Hopper’s etchings, and for the first time he sells an oil painting (Apartment Houses, 1923) to a museum, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. From April to September, the Hoppers undertake their first cross-country railroad trip. He produces more than ten watercolors during their stays in Colorado and Santa Fe, New Mexico. That same year, Hopper paints The Bootleggers (cat. p. 69) and House by the Railroad. The latter is shown and also sold at his 1926 exhibition at the Anderson Galleries in New York. In his review, the young art critic Lloyd Goodrich expresses enthusiastic praise for the striking picture of a large Victorian building rising up behind railroad tracks; he subsequently becomes one of the most ardent supporters of Hopper’s art. Hopper spends the summer and fall working in Rockland, Maine, and in Gloucester. 1927 The Hoppers buy their first automobile, with which they can reach more remote sites from their summer vacation home at Cape Elizabeth, Maine. One of Hopper’s favorite motifs, the lighthouse, appears in paintings he makes this summer, Lighthouse Hill (cat. p. 71) and Captain Upton’s House. Josephine and Edward Hopper also visit Portland; Ogunquit; and Charlestown, New Hampshire. Hopper paints The City (cat. p. 105) as well, which is successfully sold at the Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries. Hopper becomes better known with the publication of articles by and about him in The Arts (Lloyd Goodrich, “The Paintings of Edward Hopper”; and Edward Hopper, “John Sloan and the Philadelphians”). 1928 During his summer vacation, Hopper produces thirteen watercolors and three oil paintings, including Freight Cars, Gloucester (cat. p. 55). 1929 Vanity Fair publishes an article on Hopper early in the year (Forbes Watson, “A Note on Edward Hopper”). The Hoppers travel to Charleston, South Carolina, in April, later returning to New York by way of Charlottesville and Richmond, Virginia, as well as Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. They spend the summer at Cape Elizabeth, where Hopper paints Railroad Sunset (cat. p. 63). 1930 Hopper exhibits for the first time in the American Pavilion at the 17th Venice Biennale. The Hoppers spend their first summer vacation in Truro, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. As they would over the following three summers, the couple rents a cottage on A. Burleigh Cobb’s farm. Hopper’s reputation as an artist is reinforced through museum acquisitions and reviews of his art in the press (1931: Guy Pène du Bois, “The American Paintings of Edward Hopper,” in Creative Art; Guy Pène du Bois, Edward Hopper, Whitney Museum of American Art; June 1932: Frank Crowninshield, “A Series of American Artists, No. 3: Edward Hopper,” in Vanity Fair). 1933 The Hoppers make a long trip to Charlestown, New Hampshire; Quebec; Portland; and the Two Lights lighthouse at Cape Elizabeth; as well as to Gloucester, Magnolia, and Boston, Massachusetts, before returning to Truro in October, where they purchase land. In November, the Museum of Modern Art, in New York, opens the first retrospective exhibition dedicated to the work of the now fifty-one-year-old artist. Fea-

3 turing twenty-five oil paintings and thirty-seven watercolors, it is also shown a year later at the Arts Club of Chicago. Alfred H. Barr Jr. is responsible for the exhibition and its accompanying catalogue, for which he writes the introduction. Hopper’s paintings Early Sunday Morning (1930) and Lombard’s House (1931; cat. p. 80) as well as two etchings are exhibited in the American Pavilion at the 19th Venice Biennale. 1934 The Hoppers build a studio house on the property they purchased in Truro. They move into it in July and later spend almost every summer and fall there.

1935–49 – The Established Painter and Traveler While the sale of his art remains within bounds over the coming years, Hopper shows his works at several exhibitions and they are awarded numerous museum prizes (e.g., the 1932 painting Mrs. Scott’s House, shown at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, wins the Temple Gold Medal). 1935 Edward Hopper’s mother, Elizabeth, dies. That same year he paints House at Dusk and Shakespeare at Dusk. 1937 A solo exhibition encompassing thirty-two oil paintings, fifty-three watercolors, and eleven etchings opens at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. The Hoppers spend their summer in Truro and Vermont. 1938 The watercolor Jo Painting (1936) is featured in The 133rd Annual Exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Hopper paints Compartment C, Car 293 (cat. p. 64). 1939 In March the Art Institute of Chicago presents a retrospective of the artist’s watercolors featuring twenty-six works in conjunction with the Eighteenth International Exhibition. Hopper actively protests the Federal Art Project, which is part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, because he believes it promotes artistic mediocrity. 1940 In order to register to vote against Roosevelt, Hopper even interrupts his stay at Truro and returns to New York City. Hopper paints Gas (cat. p. 91), one of his most famous paintings; it is acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, in New York, in 1942. 1941 From May to July the Hoppers make an extensive road trip along the West Coast to California and Oregon, along with Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. The couple visits museums and collectors during their travels. Arnold Newman takes his photographs of Edward Hopper in November. 1942 Hopper paints Nighthawks, an icon of modern American painting. 1943 Wartime gas rationing prevents the Hoppers from driving to Truro. Instead, they travel from June to September by railroad to Mexico City, Saltillo, and Monterrey. 1945 Hopper is elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He paints Rooms for Tourists and Two Puritans (cat. p. 113). 1946 In May, Hopper makes a second trip to Mexico with his wife. Upon their return, they are informed that New York University has purchased the building in which they live and their rental contract is thus to be canceled. A long legal dispute ensues, which the Hoppers ultimately win. 1947 Josephine Hopper writes in her diary that her husband is depressed and lacks motivation. He reads much (e.g., the poems of Robert Frost) and goes to the movies. 1948 In February, Hopper undergoes his first prostate operation; he has further extended hospital stays in 1949, 1950, 1954, 1958, and 1967. Compartment C, Car 293 is exhibited at the 24th Venice Biennale. Time prints a cover story on Hopper. Penguin Books publishes Lloyd Goodrich’s monograph on Hopper in 1949. Berenice Abbott photographs the artist in his studio.

1950–67 – The Late Years Numerous honors are bestowed upon Hopper during the final years of his life. He receives three honorary doctorates (from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1950, from Rutgers University in 1953, and from the Philadelphia College of Art in 1965); he is awarded the Gold Medal of the National Institute of Arts and Letters (1955), made a member of the Academy of Arts and Letters (1956), and receives the Art in America Award (1960) as well as the Edward MacDowell Medal for outstanding contributions to art (1966). 1950 A retrospective exhibition of Hopper’s work organized by Lloyd Goodrich is shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art. It features seventy-three oil paintings, sixty watercolors, and seventeen drawings from the time between 1907 and 1949. The exhibition subsequently tours to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Detroit Institute of Arts. In September the Hoppers visit Orleans on Cape Cod, where he paints Portrait of Orleans (cat. p. 89) and Cape Cod Morning (cat. p. 115). Charles Burchfield publishes the article “Hopper: Career of Silent Poetry” in Art News.

1951 In May Josephine and Edward travel to Mexico by way of Chattanooga, Tennessee, with a stopover in Santa Fe on the way home. 1952 Hopper joins forty other artists to form the Reality group, which protests against the preferential treatment given to abstract art by institutions like the Museum of Modern Art. Fifteen oil paintings and five watercolors by Hopper are shown along with works by Alexander Calder, Stuart Davis, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi in the American Pavilion at the 26th Venice Biennale. In December, the Hoppers travel to Mexico by way of El Paso, Texas, and spend a month near Mitla, Oaxaca, whence they visit Puebla and Laredo. 1955 The Hoppers return to Mexico from March to May. 1956 Early Sunday Morning is exhibited in the American Pavilion at the 28th Venice Biennale. The cover story of Time’s 1956 Christmas Eve issue, titled “The Silent Witness”, is devoted to Edward Hopper. 1960 Arnold Newman photographs Hopper in front of his house in Truro. 1963 The critic Brian O’Doherty and the photographer Hans Namuth visit Truro and accompany Hopper at work. This sojourn and later conversations between Hopper and the critic form the basis for O’Doherty’s article “Portrait: Edward Hopper” (published December 1964 in Art in America). 1964 In September the Whitney Museum of American Art presents its Edward Hopper exhibition featuring seventy-four oil paintings, sixty-two watercolors, twenty-seven etchings, and twenty-one drawings. 1965 Hopper’s sister, Marion, dies in Nyack. In November, he paints the last of his 366 oil pictures, Two Comedians. 1967 On May 15, after a protracted hospital stay, Edward Hopper dies in his studio at the age of eighty- four. His wife, Josephine, dies a year later, on March 6. Hopper’s entire artistic estate, comprising over three thousand works, is bequeathed to the Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York.

Quotes by Edward Hopper

“If you could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint.” From an interview with Hopper in Time Magazine Vol. LXVIII, No. 26, December 24, 1956

“My aim in painting has always been the most exact transcription possible of my most intimate impressions of nature.” Edward Hopper, “Notes on painting”, 1933

“So much of every art is an expression of the subconscious, that it seems to me most all of the important qualities are put there unconsciously, and little of importance by the conscious intellect.” Edward Hopper, letter to Charles H. Sawyer, October 19th, 1939

“What I wanted to do was to paint sunlight on the side of a house.” Hopper in conversation with Lloyd Goodrich, April 1946

Associated events “Edward Hopper”

Edward Hopper (1882–1967) is widely acknowledged as one of America’s most important painters. A large selection of his world-famous works, usually only on view in the US, will be presented at the Fondation Beyeler. The more than 60 paintings and watercolors on loan from museums and private collections feature iconic masterpieces as well as magnificent surprises. This will be the first time an exhibition focuses on Hopper’s fascinating landscapes, in which he explored the relation between man and nature. A further highlight of the exhibition will be the screening of Two or Three Things I Know about Edward Hopper, a 3D short film by renowned director and photographer Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas; Wings of Desire; Don’t Come Knocking). Inspired by Edward Hopper’s “American spirit”, the film will be shown in spectacular 3D projection.

Wednesday, January 29 Guided tour with the curator 6.30pm-7.30pm See the «Edward Hopper» exhibition through the eyes of the show’s curator on this guided tour with Ulf Küster. The curator will talk not only about the conception of the exhibition, its organization and planning, but also about the artist, his era, the genesis of the works and their significance. The tour is held in German.

Tuesday, Febuary 11 Talk with Wim Wenders 6.30pm Christian Jungen, artistic director of the Zurich Film Festival, in conversation with Wim Wenders. The event is included in the museum admission fee.

Wednesday, March 11 Talk with David Lubin 6.30am-8pm «Hopper and the Movies: A Two-Way Exchange» Art historian and film expert David Lubin talks about the work of Edward Hopper. The event is included in the museum admission fee and held in English.

Sunday, March 22 Directors’ Movie Night with films by Wim Wenders & Wes Anderson in Zurich The Fondation Beyeler will screen movies from two outstanding directors in collaboration with the Zurich Film Festival. Guests can look forward to cinematic masterpieces by Wim Wenders and Wes Anderson.

Monday, March 23 Directors’ Movie Night & talk with Wim Wenders & Wes Anderson in Zurich The Fondation Beyeler will screen Wim Wenders’s 3D short film Two or Three Things I Know about Edward Hopper (2020), which was exclusively produced for the Fondation’s Edward Hopper exhibition in Riehen, as well as a short film by Wes Anderson that has yet to be announced. A conversation with the two directors moderated by Christian Jungen, artistic director of the Zurich Film Festival, will follow.

Wednesday, April 1 Lecture by Didier Ottinger, “Les fantômes de Hopper” 6.30pm Didier Ottinger, assistant director of the Centre Pompidou and the curator of countless international exhibitions of twentieth-century art, explores the tension between realism and the imaginary in Edward Hopper’s work. In collaboration with the Alliance Française, Basel, and the Société d’Etudes Française, Basel.

Edward Hopper A Fresh Look at Landscapes

⁄ American Landscapes

Edward Hopper’s world-famous paintings articulate an idiosyncratic view of modern life. With his impressive subjects, independent pictorial vocabulary, and virtuoso play of colors, Hopper continues to influence to this day the image of the United States in the first half of the twentieth century. He began his career as an illustrator and became famous around the globe for his oil paintings. They testify to his great interest in the effects of color and his mastery in depicting light and shadow. The Fondation Beyeler is devoting its large exhibition in the spring of 2020 to Hopper’s iconic images of the vast American landscape. The catalogue gathers together all of the paintings, watercolors, and drawings from the 1910s to the 1960s on display in the

exhibition, and supplements them with essays focused

on the subject of depicting landscape. Edward Hopper

A Fresh Look at Landscapes

Ed. Ulf Küster for Fondation Beyeler, Riehen / Basel, texts by Erika Doss, Ulf Küster, David Lubin, Katharina

Rüppell, graphic design by Richard Pandiscio English 148 pp., 110 ills. hardcover 30,00 x 27,40 cm

ISBN 978-3-7757-4654-0

58,00 € / CHF 62,50

⁄ Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Know About Hopper

That incomparable melancholy in Edward Hopper’s pictures occasionally leads us to look at the details of his life. Where exactly did this master of loneliness live and work? What were his most important influences? Ulf Küster strolls through the ABCs of Hopper’s life and work, from the “American landscape” to “Buick” up to the key word “zero.”

Text by Ulf Küster, graphic design by Torsten Köchlin and Joana Katte English Edward Hopper: A – Z 120 pp., 40 ills. [companion volume] hardcover 13,00 x 19,50 cm ISBN 978-3-7757-4656-4 18,00 € / CHF 19,90

TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT EDWARD HOPPER

Work details

Artist Wim Wenders Title TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT EDWARD HOPPER Production Road Movies GmbH Year 2020 Edition 4 + 1 AP

Type of work 3D art film Aspect ratio 1:1.85 Type of installation 3D art film installation Length/duration 14 minutes

Brief statement by Wim Wenders

When the Fondation Beyeler invited me to contribute to its HOPPER exhibition, I was very grateful. I have seen many exhibitions in this wonderful museum, but this one is particularly close to my heart. My discovery of the great American painter Edward Hopper provided me with an important source of inspiration. This was back in the 1970s, when he was still virtually unknown in Europe. His affinity with film is unparalleled, both in his themes – the American landscape or the existential void of man in the 20th century – as in his lighting and framing. Hopper was also a frequent moviegoer, often going to the cinema every day for weeks on end, especially when he didn’t know what to paint any more, as a friend reported. My 3D installation Two or Three Things I Know about Edward Hopper addresses this circularity – a painter is impressed by movies and paints images that in turn influenced filmmakers. I wanted to allow the viewer to immerse him – or herself in the world of Hopper, a creator of iconic images and a narrator of stories and destinies. Wim Wenders

Short biography Wim Wenders

Wim Wenders (born 1945) is considered one of the pioneers of the New German Cinema of the 1970s and one of the most important representatives of contemporary cinema. In addition to multi-award-winning feature films, such as ALICE IN THE CITIES (1973), PARIS, TEXAS (1984) and WINGS OF DESIRE (1987), he has also created several innovative documentaries such as PINA, and most recently POPE FRANCIS – A MAN OF HIS WORD. Wenders is a director, producer, photographer and author; his photographic work has been exhibited in museums around the world, and his output includes numerous photo books, film books and collections of texts. Wim Wenders and his wife Donata Wenders live in Berlin. In 2012, they founded the non-profit Wim Wenders Foundation in Düsseldorf, which brings together Wim Wenders’ film, photographic and literary life’s work by restoring and making it permanently accessible to the public. The Wim Wenders Foundation is also committed to promoting young talent in the field of innovative cinematic storytelling.

Edward Hopper 26 January – 17 May 2020

FONDATION BEYELER Partners, foundations and patrons 2019 / 2020

Public Funds

Main Partners

Partners

Foundations and Patrons

BEYELER-STIFTUNG HANSJÖRG WYSS, WYSS FOUNDATION

AMERICAN FRIENDS OF FONDATION BEYELER ECKHART & MARIE-JENNY KOCH-BURCKHARDT ATHENE STIFTUNG L. + TH. LA ROCHE STIFTUNG AVINA STIFTUNG LUMA STIFTUNG FX & NATASHA DE MALLMANN MAISON RUINART ERICA STIFTUNG MÄZENINNEN DER FONDATION BEYELER ERNST GÖHNER STIFTUNG MAX KOHLER STIFTUNG FONDATION COROMANDEL VERA MICHALSKI-HOFFMANN SIMONE & PETER FORCART-STAEHELIN DR. CHRISTOPH M. MÜLLER & SIBYLLA M. MÜLLER FREUNDESKREIS DER FONDATION BEYELER JERRY SPEYER & KATHERINE FARLEY LARRY GAGOSIAN STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION ANNETTA GRISARD SULGER-STIFTUNG MARTIN & MARIANNE HAEFNER-JELTSCH TARBACA INDIGO FOUNDATION HILTI ART FOUNDATION WESTENDARTBANK IWB