This was one of the best museum shows I've seen in a long time. Went on the first day of its run, October 20, as the doors opened. The paintings, the drawings, the photographs, the videos, the ephemera -- all came together so beautifully to tell the story. The artist is associated with other places, including Cape Cod, but I came away understanding his relationship with his home base so much better and, therefore, came to understand better Hopper himself and the whole body of his work, no matter what its subject. One of my favorite bits was an ephemera display: a long row of torn theater stubs; on each Jo Hopper had written the name of the show they had attended. The signage pointed out that the couple invariably took cheaper (mezzanine) seats, which helps to explain the Hopper perspective in many of his theater paintings.
Office at Night, 1940. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. This one has personal meaning for me, since my mother was a secretary and must have pounded away on a typewriter much like the one at bottom left.
Manhattan Bridge Loop, 1928. Lent by my hometown museum, the Addison Gallery of American Art.
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