Edward Hopper’s Manhattan Bridge, from 1925–26. Photograph: Robert Gerhardt and Denis Y Suspitsyn/Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Josephine N. Hopper Bequest 70.1098 © 2022 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

More than 200 images from the "quintessential American realist" are on display in a new exhibition, which emphasizes the significance of the relationship between people and places

“Cities are really palimpsests, so [Edward] Hopper’s New York is definitely still here. You may need to look around for it, but I like that sense of discovery.”

The Whitney Museum's Steven and Ann Ames Curator of Drawings and Prints, Kim Conaty, has been working on the most recent Hopper exhibition for the last four years. Since the Hopper Drawing show in 2013, which was centered on these drawings, it is the Whitney's first Hopper display in ten years. Given that the Whitney has the biggest collection of Hopper's art in the world, it is a considerable amount of time.

The new series, Edward Hopper's New York, portrays the renowned American realist as a genuine New Yorker who simultaneously caught distinctive, underappreciated features of his city and discovered methods to make it universal. It's a sizable exhibition that runs through March 2023 and has more than 200 paintings, watercolors, prints, and sketches. This is the first exhibition to ever concentrate on Hopper's time in New York City.

Edward Hopper’s Approaching a City, 1946. Photograph: The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; acquired 1947. © 2022 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Hopper, who was up in the Hudson River Valley in upstate New York, relocated to New York City in 1908 and lived there for the most of his life until his death in 1967. In his paintings, he avoided depicting iconic landmarks like the Brooklyn Bridge and New York's famed skyline in favor of less well-known scenes that reduced the immeasurable expanses of steel and concrete to a human scale. This may be seen in pieces like Approaching a City, which depicts a scene that is well-known to many New Yorkers: a commuter train line shortly before it enters a tunnel. For many individuals, that specific underpass serves as their introduction to the city, according to Conaty. He catches that moment, the exhilarating, apprehensive, and exciting one just before the unknown. It makes me think of my first travels to the city and the butterflies and physical excitement that accompanied them.

The artist has had a long and illustrious history with the Whitney, dating back to 1920, when his first solo show was presented there by the Whitney Studio Club. Hopper remained a prominent figure at the Whitney throughout the years, participating in 30 of the museum's biennials and annuals, including the very first one in 1932. Conaty stated, "I love the concept of how the historic was current once, when I think of Hopper at that first biennial.

When Hopper died away in 1970 and the Whitney acquired the contents of his studio, the connection between the two institutions assumed a new importance. It had 3,000 pieces, which, according to Conaty, was twice as much as the Whitney's whole collection at the time. How Hopper made up half of the Whitney's collection at that time is always a mind-boggling thought.

Roofs, Washington Square, from 1926. Photograph: Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Bequest of Mr. and Mrs. James H. Beal. © 2022 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Conaty and her colleagues meticulously combed through the Whitney's rich trove and used borrowed pieces to produce an examination of Hopper that seems both new and intelligent. The many cityscapes the artist painted, views of Hopper's Washington Square neighborhood, the countless sketches he made while strolling the city, and his extremely condensed later works are just a few examples of the large and varied collection of paintings, sketches, illustrations, notebooks, and other ephemera that has been divided into various subsections. Conaty intends for viewers to navigate the exhibition on their own, making their own connections and coming to their own conclusions by setting things up in this manner.

“We thought a lot about the exhibition design of the show,” said Conaty, “a lot about it. We wanted to emulate that exploratory experience of moving around the city on your own. The open floor plan lets us underscore just how much Hopper returns to the same themes and motifs. We’re really hanging by theme and by feel, and I think that’s created a really different viewing experience.”

Hopper initially left his mark and developed an eye for detail that would later be used to create paintings of the city in his etchings and drawings, which are where the presentation begins to trace the origins of his New York-inspired artwork. Additionally, it highlights Hopper's ongoing obsession with windows and theatrical settings by combining a number of works on both of these themes for a powerful and energizing impact. The window paintings, in particular, "remind you right away of what it feels like as a pedestrian and as a resident, where public and private blend together because we're all living in such close proximity together," said Conaty.

Manhattan Bridge Loop, from 1928. Photograph: Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA. © 2022 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Image courtesy Art Resource, NY

Many of Hopper's latter works, included under the heading "Reality and Fantasy," are shown in the exhibition. These pieces, which depict lone persons gazing out into the horizon, evoke a feeling of lonely desire while seeming to be set in an inconspicuous location. Conaty stated, "Hopper has often been referred to as the classic American realist. And although I don't want to downplay the fact that he does capture the essence of the city in these recent pieces, he's truly working from his imagination and the public imagination. He has the ability to step back and really distill, condense, distill before giving us a corner that could be in any city, even New York.

By avoiding many of the artist's most well-known works in favor of those that foster an understanding of him as a New Yorker and an innovative artist, the display is successful in exposing a new side of Hopper. It is an exhibition that will provide visitors and long-time New Yorkers many reasons to open their eyes again and rediscover a city that they thought they knew, in addition to letting viewers see an artist who has long been a staple of the American imagination.

“I like to imagine that when we New Yorkers see an artist reflecting on a city we know so well, it can remind you to see your New York,” said Conaty. “It can prompt you to walk out into the city streets and be curious about your New York, to be fascinated by a corner you walked by so many times and never took note of.”

New York by Edward Hopper is on display at the Whitney in New York till March 2023.

Thanks to Veronica Esposito at The Guardian whose reporting provided the original basis for this story.