Of Edward Hopper shows there is no evident end and that is not a bad thing. This summer the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, Maine, is opening a massive Hopper show on a small Hopper theme-the artist’s oil sketches, paintings, watercolors, drawings, and etchings from his nine summers in Maine between 1914 and 1929. Some forty-five works in all will be borrowed from the Whitney Museum of American Art as well as from twenty other institutions and one private collection. In addition to being a celebration of Maine’s allure for artists, the exhibition also constitutes an argument to the effect that Hopper was as much Hopper among lighthouses, fishing boats, and fog as he was in his urban paintings of anomie and isolation. Visitors to Bowdoin will be able to judge the merits of this argument for themselves, aided by a substantial catalogue of articles by several scholars and one celebrity (Steve Martin), which in itself constitutes a significant addition to our understanding of the artist. This is nota show that will travel, making a visit to Brunswick a very good idea to say the least and the studying of the catalogue equally important.
Edward Hopper
Captain Upton’s House,1927
Oil on canvas, 28 x 36 in.
(71.1 x 91.4 cm). Private Collection
Edward Hopper’s Maine · Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine · July 15 to October 16 · www.bowdoin.edu
