Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 10 : Record of press coverage, March 1982 - May 1984

"SOIR BLEU" (19J4), one of the works by American .realist pioneer Ed"ard Hopper lnc1'8ded In his major exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery. Pioneer of American Realism "THE W0RLD of Edward Hopper" at the Queensland Art Gallery is a selection_f;om 1he huge collection of Hopper's wo,k held by the Whitney Museum in New York. Jt coincides with four other exhibi– tions from abroad, two or which I have .reviewed already. This is the fir'~t tii.,c: an e,thihition from the Whitney Museum has toured Australia; and the first time we have seen a survey or Hopper's work. Two memorable and characteristic Hopper oils were include.d in the Thys– sen-Bormenisza eilbibition we had two years ago. Edward Hopper ( 1882.-. 1967) is re– cognised as the pioneer .and major art– ist or America" Realism or the 28th Art Review can be direct, yet there is I rcticcii~ which allows for a sense of mystery.: Yet, for ~ long time, his paintings The exhibition contains drawings, brought him no success and he had,to ctchin$s, watcrcolors and oils. It was work for a living as an illustrator and · with h1s etchinJs'that Hopp:i- achieved commercial artist. his first recognition; the etchings in this However, this ~upation probably exhibition arc superb. · did him a~ little harm as an artist as "Night in the Park" and "Night having. io make a living as a cartoonist Shadows", for example, have so intense harmed I;>aumicr's art. an emotional resonance and are so far In I9.80, .when the Whitney Museum from ordinary realism that, in spite of' arranged .a large retrospective of the much greater reticence, they are as· Hopper's work 13 years af&cr his death, haunting as Alfred Ku bin's night- . record-breaking crowds attended! mares. Although Hopper's art is both very "Soir Blcu". of 1914, shown on the · American and very personal in subject cov~r Of the catalogue and mentioned matter and feeling, his greatness re- in it · as one of the largest canvaaea sides ih the fact that he transcends both Hopper ever painted, is the major work national and personal barriers. here, ,: His art expresses reelltigs and obser- It indicates Hopper's admiration for• vations which all modern humanity can Manet, Degas and Toulouse Lautrec. recognise as true and as pert of its own Hopper spent some time in Paris -but experience. ·· strove consciously for an A~erican It has been .observed again and identity, and none or the painters 11)~n- again, that Hopper is the painter of tioned expressed such sense of'uttet al- lonelincs.s and alienation. icnation. He is that to a great extent and with- None of the seven people depicted in out any ~race of sentimentality. Most this painting has any contact with an– importantlr, he transcends literal real- other. This sense or separateness ifJkil– ism by expressing deeply felt and fully manipulated by paulc, and tlie haunting moods not by any mimetic ·self-contained forms of the figures; the means, but by a potent orchestration of cold colon arc intensified fiy sparae forms, space,.li&ht and color. touches of warm ones. , Hopper has an acute sense of place- There arc other pictures that stay in mcnt, or s~tting broadly handled mass- the mind. cs against each other to create tension How sad Hopper can make a row of and suspense, all reinforced by strong idofltical teflemcnts; how chill a seas- . cont~asts or t_onal an~ colo_ristic v~lucs. cape, just .because of thii sudden red · . His handh,ng.' of ltgh,t, in ,Particular glow of sunlight touching some rocks. his ch,ar~cte_rist1c cold hght, 1s person~! · How poignantly he evokes whole and di st mc.tive. . . condition of the Deep South in f.Caroli - , The scn~e ~r lonelt,ncss .and ce,:ic~c~s ·. na Morning", where a sensuous, sultry in Hoppers. pictures 1s a_s inten~~.as 1t 1s Negro girl stands in a·doorway or a hut, in Mu~c~ s, but achi~vel3 ~tt_hout , which is anjlc'd sharply against a vast Munch s v10Jent, cxpress1onl1t1c d11tor- 'horizon. ttO;he aurreal stare or some works, ·,, People w:in be ,remi~ded _in this of which reminded some critics or Ma- tomo of Drysdale• pamtlnp. such ~• gritte, is a~hievcd without the invention "The. Dr!'\'er'a \Ylfe." But Ho_pper 1s or surreal imagery. superior in c~ca_tm$ !? e,tpresStve for~ Hopper can extract his intena«:'mood mal structure. •·• from "ordinar " life and ob"ects. He - DR GERTRUDE LANGER