Edward Hopper’s iconic landscape paintings at the ‘Fondation Beyeler’ in Basel
Until May 17, 2020, the ‘Beyeler Foundation‘ in Basel, presents a vast exhibition dedicated to Edward Hopper’s Iconic Landscape Oil Paintings as well as a selection of its watercolors and drawings.
cover image: EDWARD HOPPER, GAZ, 1940
Oil on canvas, 66.7 x 102.2 cm
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Ms. Simon Guggenheim Fonds
© Héritiers de Joséphine Hopper / 2019, ProLitteris, Zurich
© 2019 Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York / Scala, Florence
Widely recognized as one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Hopper (1882-1967) is best known in Europe for his paintings of city life scenes dating from the 1920s to the 1960s, some of which have become very popular images. .. So far, less attention has been paid to its landscape, and surprisingly, no exhibition to date has comprehensively dealt with Hopper’s approach to the American landscape. Although Hopper had long worked primarily as an illustrator, his fame rests primarily on his oil paintings, which testify to his deep interest in color and his virtuosity in depicting light and shadow. Additionally, based on his observations, Hopper was able to establish a personal aesthetic that influenced not only painting but popular culture, photography, and film as well.
EDWARD HOPPER, PORTRAIT OF ORLEANS, 1950
Oil on canvas, 66 x 101.6 cm
San Francisco Art Museums, gift of Jerrold and June Kingsley
© Héritiers de Joséphine Hopper / 2019, ProLitteris, Zurich
Photo: Randy Dodson, San Francisco Museums of Fine Arts
EDWARD HOPPER, SECOND SUN STORY, 1960
Oil on canvas, 102.1 x 127.3 cm
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Purchase, with funds from the Friends of the Whitney Museum of American Art., Inv. N .: 60.54. © Héritiers de Joséphine Hopper / 2019, ProLitteris, Zurich. Photo: © 2019. Digital image Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala
In the historical-artistic tradition, “landscape” designates an image of nature as opposed to continuously evolving “nature”, which as such cannot be frozen in image. Landscape painting always shows the impact of man on nature, and Hopper’s paintings reflect this in subtle and multifaceted ways. He therefore established a decidedly modern approach to a historical genre in art history. Contrary to academic tradition, Hopper’s landscapes seem limitless; in the mind, they are infinite and always seem to show only a small part of a huge whole. Hopper’s American landscapes are geometrically clear compositions: their main elements are houses, which symbolize human settlements, while railroad tracks structure images horizontally and represent man’s commitment to conquer vast expanses of space. .
Hopper’s landscape paintings seem to deal with something invisible, occurring outside of the image, for example Cape Cod Morning (1950) illustrates: a woman looks out of a picture window, her face bathed in sunlight. , fixing something that the viewer cannot see because it is located beyond the pictorial space. As with all of his paintings, Hopper’s landscapes are defined by melancholy and loneliness. 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, also defined by the dark sides of progress – a vast and limitless space, which has become immensely popular especially through its development in films. such as North by Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock (1959), Wim Wenders Paris, Texas (1984) or Dances with Wolves by Kevin Costner (1990).
EDWARD HOPPER, HOUSE OF BURLY COBB, SOUTH TRURO, 1930 -1933
Oil on canvas, 64.1 x 92.1 cm
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Josephine N. Hopper bequest
© Héritiers de Joséphine Hopper / 2019, ProLitteris, Zurich
Photo: © 2019. Digital image Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala
As a highlight, the filmmaker Wim wenders produced a 3D short film titled ‘Two or three things I know about Edward Hopper‘, screened in a dedicated room.
The movie is Wenders’ personal tribute to Edward Hopper, which influenced his cinematographic work. He has traveled across the United States in search of “Hopper’s Spirit”, condensing the resulting images into a film that will premiere at the opening of the exhibition. Poetically and movingly, the film shows how much cinema owes to Edward Hopper and how much Hopper in turn was influenced by cinema.
above: “TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT EDWARD HOPPER”
by Wim Wenders, 2020 © Road Movies
The exhibition includes 65 works dating from 1909 to 1965. It is organized by the Beyeler Foundation in cooperation with the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the major global repository for Hopper’s work.
EDWARD HOPPER
January 26 / May 17, 2020
Beyeler Foundation
Baselstrasse 101, CH-4125 Riehen / Basel
https://www.fondationbeyeler.ch/fr/
EDWARD HOPPER, CAP COD MORNING, 1950
Oil on canvas, 86.7 x 102.3 cm
Smithsonian American Art Museum, gift from the Sara Roby Foundation
© Héritiers de Joséphine Hopper / 2019, ProLitteris, Zurich
Photo: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gene Young
Images, courtesy of the Fondation Beyeler
