Written by Mathieu Doublet.

The city of New York was Edward Hopper’s home for nearly six decades (1908–67), a period that spans his entire mature career and coincides with a historictime of urban development. Edward Hopper’s New York is the first exhibitionof its kind to focus on the artist’s rich and sustained relationship withthe city that served as the subject, setting, and inspiration for so many ofhis most celebrated and persistently vexing pictures. The survey will take acomprehensive look at Hopper’s life and work through his depictions of thecity—from his early impressions in sketches, prints, and illustrations, tohis late paintings, in which New York served as a backdrop for his evocativedistillations of urban experience. Drawing from the Whitney’s extensiveholdings by the artist and amplified by key loans, the exhibition willbring together many of Hopper’s iconic city pictures, as well as severallesser-known yet critically important examples including the artist’swatercolors of downtown New York and his painting November, WashingtonSquare (1932/1958). The presentation will be significantly informed by avariety of materials from the Museum’s recently acquired Sanborn HopperArchive—printed ephemera, correspondence, photographs, and journals thattogether inspire new insights into Hopper’s life. By exploring the artist’swork through the lens of New York, the exhibition offers a fresh take onthis formidable figure and considers the city itself as a lead actor.

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