Edward Hopper in Milan.
Edward Hopper in Truro, Massachusetts, with his wife down in the background, August 14, 1960.
Photo by Arnold Newman / Getty Images
"If You Could Say it in words, There'd be no reason to paint" .
Thus begins the path to the first exhibition dedicated to Edward Hopper (1882-1967) in Italy, precisely at the Palazzo Reale di Milano no until January 31, 2010, before moving to Rome and after Lausanne .
Hopper is considered by critics and art historians as the greatest painter "American Realist" of the twentieth century, label that has always been close.
While I was in a bookstore, I was immediately attracted by the cover of the printed catalog at this event. The volume stood out majestically
"Second Story Sunlight" (1960), under which the bias is painted the facade of a house with sloping roofs and white walls, flooded with a flat light to which the two women leave sitting on the balcony. The light was the aspect that struck me most of all, to expand the moods of the characters and with them the perception of space, restoring a sense of anticipation dissatisfied and loneliness. So, curious and willing to learn more, I went to visit the exhibition.
The rooms of the Palazzo Reale , I had confirmation of the great interest that Hopper felt for the light. So much that has come to say: "What wanted to do was paint sunlight on the side of a house" . The attraction of this subject is developed after the trip to Paris during the early years of 900. In the French capital, rather than attend workshops and studios of famous artists, he wandered around the city trying to draw inspiration from the places and atmospheres. It was not influenced as much by avant-garde of the time as the paintings of the Impressionists . E 'possible to say that he stays in Paris after becoming "painter of light" .
s The results and the mood loneliness of modern man - in particular, the "middle class" American , during the depression of the thirties - are the dominant elements in the painting Hopperiana . Often in his paintings appear f solitary figure laying pervaded by light, which seem to reflect on one's Committee of dissatisfaction, distrust of waiting for an event to happen solver, as in the case of "Morning Sun" (1952) and "A Woman in the Sun" (1961). These intense paintings, which also manifest the artist's interest in the windows, the symbol of an extension introspective portrait in which the landscape outside of the interior seems a reflection of the characters. Looking beyond the windows Hopper at times I felt evocations of metaphysical atmospheres to De Chirico.
The artist also manages to convey the deep sense of not place, where the space is not lived, but it's just passing through and there hangs the perception of an event just happened, stressing that life is already elsewhere, for example in "The El Station (1908).
The exhibition as a whole is extremely careful and didactically exemplary. Each room comes with very good explanations in Italian and English, offering a comprehensive overview on the artistic life of the painter. In addition, installation was hosted Gustav Deutsch, "Friday, 29th August 1952, 6 AM, New York" , which reproduces the scene of "Morning Sun" .
only flaw, the absence of some key works, one in all
"Nighthawks" (1942).
A shows that all art lovers should not miss to know or learn more about an artist through his works has returned as an image so realistic metaphysics of his time.
Andrea Bugliarello @ D + Arch
Second Story Sunlight, 1960.
© Whitney Museum of American Art, NY Photo by Steven Sloman.
Morning Sun, 1952.
© Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; acquisition by the Fund Howald, 1954.
A Woman in the Sun, 1961.
© Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
La Stazione El, 1908.
© Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Nighthawks, 1942.
© Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
