Art History News: September 2023

Saturday, September 30, 2023

Edward Hopper & Cape Ann: Illuminating an American Landscape

Edward Hopper & Cape Ann: Illuminating an American Landscape” exhibition spotlights renowned American artist’s formative years in Gloucester

Cape Ann Museum draws record-setting attendance for show that runs through Oct. 16, 2023

In its 148-year history, The Cape Ann Museum has never had as many visitors as it has welcomed to see the critically-acclaimed exhibition, “Edward Hopper & Cape Ann: Illuminating an American Landscape” , on view until Oct. 16, 2023. The exhibition chronicles the untold story of how the region shaped the renowned American artist’s turning point in his life and career when he came to Cape Ann from 1923-1928.

This major exhibition is the first dedicated to Hopper’s formative development on Cape Ann, marking the pivotal summer of 1923 when Edward Hopper and his future wife, Josephine “Jo” Nivison, visited Gloucester. Edward Hopper & Cape Ann opened on Hopper’s birthday, July 22, 2023, and is presented in collaboration with the Whitney Museum of American Art, the major repository of the Hoppers’ work. Nearly 20,000 people have come to see the show since it opened, and more than 42,000 people have visited the museum this year to date. Annual museum attendance is usually 25,000 visitors.

“This inaugural partnership with the Whitney Museum of American Art as a leading national institution is a first for the Cape Ann Museum,” said Cape Ann Museum Director Oliver Barker. “Edward Hopper & Cape Ann marks the centennial of the summer of 1923 when Edward Hopper created watercolors that earned his first critical acclaim and laid the foundation for future success as one of the greatest 20th century American landscape painters.”

The exhibition features 66 works including paintings, drawings, and prints brought together from the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, National Gallery of Art, The Philadelphia Museum of Art and 28 other institutions and private lenders to tell the story of Hopper’s formative years when he experimented with his painting technique, met his future wife, and embarked on a legendary career. The exhibition includes 57 works by Edward Hopper, seven by Jo Hopper, and one by their teacher Robert Henri.

This once-in-a-generation exhibition, and the accompanying 224-page catalogue published by Rizzoli Electa, are curated by nationally recognized curator and former museum director, Elliot Bostwick Davis, PhD. “Despite painting in Gloucester in 1912 and in Maine for six more summers, Hopper initially struggled to find a distinctive artistic voice,” writes Davis. “Hopper understood that Gloucester, familiar from his earlier trip in 1912, was perhaps his last chance to make a name for himself as a painter at the age of 41. By 1923, he was supporting himself as an illustrator and etcher; his only painting sale had occurred over a decade earlier.”

Edward Hopper (1882-1967) visited Cape Ann initially at the invitation of his friend and fellow painter, Leon Kroll (1884-1974), and produced his first oil painting outdoors in the United States during that trip. The Whitney Museum is lending Hopper’s five oils painted in Gloucester in 1912, including Briar (sic) Neck, Gloucester (1912); Tall Masts (1912); Italian Quarter (1912); and Gloucester Harbor (1912). The exhibition will mark the first time these works have ever been shown together on Cape Ann.

Hopper was seemingly drawn to Cape Ann for its ease by train from New York City and by the legendary light that captivated other artists - such as Fitz Henry Lane (1804-1865), William Morris Hunt (1824-1879), Winslow Homer (1836-1910), John Sloan (1871-1951), Theresa Bernstein (1890-2002), William Meyerowitz (1887-1981), and Stuart Davis (1894-1964) among others. On Cape Ann, Hopper decided to paint various maritime scenes and portrayals of sunlight on houses.

In 1923, Josephine “Jo” Verstille Nivison (1883-1968) was an established artist, as well as an amateur actress and dancer, whose paintings had been accepted by the Brooklyn Museum, exhibited at prestigious Manhattan art galleries, and were included in a forthcoming exhibition in London and Paris. Although Hopper and Nivison knew each other from painting experiences and studies with artist and teacher Robert Henri, they met again in Gloucester and began painting together during early morning excursions where Nivison urged Hopper to paint with easy-to-transport watercolors instead of equipment-laden oils. Nivison’s beloved cat, Arthur, who traveled with her to Gloucester that summer, brought them together, when Hopper found him wandering Gloucester’s back streets and returned him.

Hopper took Nivison’s advice during their joint painting excursions. The result was Eastern Point Light (1923) followed by 17 more watercolors over eight weeks that summer including Deck of a Beam Trawler, 1923; Portuguese Church, Gloucester, 1923; House in Italian Quarter (1923); and The Mansard Roof (1923).

After Nivison and Hopper returned to New York in the fall of 1923, she lobbied for Hopper’s work to be included alongside her own in the second major biennial devoted to American watercolors at the Brooklyn Museum. The curators selected six of Hopper’s Gloucester watercolors and the Museum eventually purchased The Mansard Roof (1923) for $100. This first sale of a painting by Edward Hopper in over a decade was a major turning point in his career, thanks to Nivison and the influence of their time together on Cape Ann.

By 1924, Hopper hoped Nivison would return to Gloucester with him for another summer of painting. She wanted to return to Provincetown where she enjoyed the camaraderie of fellow artists and theatrical types. In the end, she agreed on one condition: that they marry that day, July 9, 1924. The wedding took place and the couple returned to Cape Ann for their honeymoon and another summer of painting together. They remained married for 43 years.

“Hopper gives us an extraordinary opportunity to tell Gloucester’s story as a significant and influential place for artistic inspiration and growth,” Barker said. “The exhibition in exploring this concept of place as a creative catalyst, thanks to Elliot Davis, also recasts Jo Nivison’s role of model and muse to the producer of Hopper’s distinctive style, from the time of their courtship on Cape Ann in 1923 to the last painting to leave his easel in 1965. It’s a remarkable story that we cannot wait to share.”

Cape Ann Museum’s exhibition follows the Whitney Museum’s Edward Hopper’s New York, which opened Oct. 19, 2022 and ran through March 5, 2023, featuring Hopper’s paintings around the city he called home for 60 years (1908-1967).

Another major aspect of the Cape Ann Museum exhibition is the accompanying 224-page catalog, published by Rizzoli Electa in hard and softcover editions. This publication, which shares the exhibit’s title, Edward Hopper & Cape Ann, tells the largely ignored but significant origin story of Edward Hopper’s years in and around Gloucester, Massachusetts – a period and place that imbued Hopper’s paintings with a clarity and purpose that had eluded his earlier work. The book description reads: “the success of Hopper’s Gloucester watercolors transformed his work in all media and set the stage for his monumental career.”

This important partnership with Rizzoli Electa marks the first time that the Cape Ann Museum has sought an outside book publisher to design, produce, and distribute an exhibition catalog. “We could not be more thrilled with this significant collaboration and the beautiful edition Rizzoli has created,” Barker said. The book will be distributed nationally and internationally and is available at the Cape Ann Museum Store which is also the exclusive vendor of the soft cover edition.

Images

All works by Edward Hopper (1882 – 1967) unless noted.

1. Anderson’s House, 1926

Watercolor over graphite pencil on paper, 13 15/16 x 19 15/16 in. (35.4 x 50.7 cm) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Bequest of John T. Spaulding, 48.720

Barge, c. 1894-1900

Wood and metal, 3 x 10 1/2 x 1 3/4 in. (7.6 x 25.4 x 4.4 cm) Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center, Nyack, New York The Sanborn Hopper Family Archive HC.SHFA.2017.10

Briar Neck, Gloucester, 1912

Oil on canvas, 24 3/16 x 29 1/8 in. (61.4 × 74 cm) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Josephine N. Hopper Bequest, 70.1193

Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY

N.B. The correct spelling of this local landmark is Brier Neck.

Cape Ann Granite, 1928

Oil on canvas, 29 x 40 1/4 in. (73.5 x 102.3 cm) Private Collection

Image courtesy Christie's

Josephine Nivison Hopper (1883-1968), Church Towers, Gloucester, 1923 Watercolor, 20 x 14 in. (50.8 x 35 cm)

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Bequest of Josephine N. Hopper

Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY

Freight Cars, Gloucester, 1928

Oil on canvas, 29 x 40 1/8 in. (73.66 cm x 101.92 cm)

Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts

Gift of Edward Wales Root in recognition of the 25th Anniversary of the Addison Gallery, 1956.7 Photo Credit: Addison Gallery of American Art

Gloucester Beach, Bass Rocks, 1923-24 Watercolor, 11 x 17 1/2 in. (29 x 44.4 cm) Private Collection

Image courtesy Christie’s

Gloucester Harbor, 1912

Oil on canvas, 26 3/8 x 38 5/16 in. (67 x 97.3 cm) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Josephine N. Hopper Bequest, 70.1204

Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY

Gloucester Mansion, 1924

Watercolor over graphite pencil on paper, 13 3/8 x 19 1/2 in. (34 x 49.6 cm) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Bequest of John T. Spaulding, 48.717

Hodgkin’s House, 1928

Oil on canvas, 28 x 36 in. (71.1 x 91.4 cm) Private Collection

House in Italian Quarter, 1923

Watercolor on paper, 19 7⁄8 x 23 7⁄8 in. (50.5 x 60.6 cm)

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Gift of Sam Rose and Julie Walters; 2004.30.7

Italian Quarter, Gloucester, 1912

Oil on canvas, 24 1/8 x 29 1/16 in. (61.3 x 73.8 cm) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Josephine N. Hopper Bequest, 70.1214

Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY

Jo Painting, 1936

Oil on canvas, 18 3/16 x 16 3/16 in. (46.2 x 41.1 cm) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Josephine N. Hopper Bequest, 70.1171

Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY

Portuguese Church in Gloucester, 1923

Watercolor over black chalk and pencil on ivory wove paper, 14 x 20 in. (35.5 x 50.8 cm) Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University

Gift of Sheila H. Hearne in memory of William L. Hearne, Class of 1924, for the Frank and Rosa Rhodes Collection; 94.026.001

Image courtesy Johnson Museum

Tall Masts, 1912

Oil on canvas, 24 1/4 x 29 1/4 in. (61.6 x 74.3 cm) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Josephine N. Hopper Bequest, 70.1198

Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY

The Mansard Roof, 1923

Watercolor over graphite on paper, 13 7/8 x 20 in. (35.2 x 50.8 cm) The Brooklyn Museum, New York

Museum Collection Fund, 23.100

Trawler, 1923-24

Watercolor and graphite pencil on paper, 13 15/16 by 19 15/16 in. (35.4 x 50.6cm) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Josephine N. Hopper Bequest, 70.1092

Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY

In Real Times. Arthur Szyk: Artist and Soldier for Human Rights.

Arthur Szyk 1894-1951, Poland, France, UK, Canada, and the United States. The Silent Partner. "In this game, Adolph, two aces is more than three kings." New York, 1941 Watercolor, gouache, ink, and pencil on paper Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and L

This special exhibition, organized around the theme of human rights features more than 50 works by acclaimed Polish Jewish miniaturist and political cartoonist Arthur Szyk (1894-1951), including political cartoons, and images that honor the power and importance of democratic ideals. A witness to the rise of totalitarianism in Europe, Szyk emigrated from London to America at the beginning of World War II. He lived and worked in Connecticut, and passed away in New Canaan in 1951. His powerful political cartoons animated the covers of magazines such as Time and Collier's, raising awareness of the plight of European Jews and helping sway public opinion toward support for American participation in the Second World War. As a self-described “soldier in art,” Szyk’s work was acclaimed by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt as a potent weapon “against Hitlerism.” He advocated for religious tolerance, racial equality, and human dignity. Active in the years leading up to World War II and during the Holocaust, Szyk became one of America’s most celebrated political artists for his powerful artistic and social contributions against Nazism and fascism. As our communities continue to confront issues of structural racism and social upheaval — including the sharp rise in anti-Semitic rhetoric and violence across the United States— this exhibition provides a platform for conversations on the urgent topics of human rights and social justice.

Szyk: The Interactive Experience (Walsh Gallery)

Expanding on the power of the main exhibition, FUAM will also host an immersive Szyk experience in the Walsh Gallery featuring two workstations that will enable visitors to explore Szyk’s miniatures in high resolution, reconstructing the artist’s gaze through a “digital magnifying glass.” Visitors will be able to remix and repurpose individual elements, characters, and motifs drawn from the works in the exhibition, to create new cartoons that will be instantly “published” as projections on large wall surfaces in the gallery itself and online, giving the contemporary exploration and reinterpretations of Szyk’s art a broad audience in real-time.

Other features of Szyk: The Interactive Experience will include a screening room with films about Szyk’s art and life, a reading room, an art-making space, and an ambient soundtrack of American music from the era of Szyk’s prominence in the late 30s and 40s.

Organized by the University of California, Berkeley, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, where it opened in May 2021, this exhibition is on view at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans from September 1, 2022 - May 7, 2023, before coming to the Fairfield University Art Museum, which is its only stop in the Northeast. At Fairfield, the exhibition is organized by Philip Eliasoph, PhD, Professor of Art History & Visual Culture, Department of Visual & Performing Arts, Sam & Bettie Roberts Lecturer in Judaic Studies, College of Arts and Sciences.

More Images

Image: Arthur Szyk, Liberia Souvenir sheet (full), 1948-1953, offset lithograph on paper with gum arabic adhesive, Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen at Rijksmuseum

About 90 works of art from the collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen can now be seen in the Philips Wing of the Rijksmuseum. The exhibition offers a unique opportunity to see this extraordinary collection in the Netherlands, as the museum building in Rotterdam is closed for renovation. With world-famous works such as The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel I, La petite danseuse de quatorze ans by Edgar Degas and the newly restored Infinity Mirror Room - Phalli's Field (Floor Show) by Yayoi Kusama. The exhibition Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen at Rijksmuseum can be seen from September 29, 2023 to January 14, 2024.

EVERYTHING THAT MAN EXPERIENCES IN HIS LIFE, SUCH AS BIRTH, YOUTH, ADULTHOOD, SEXUALITY, OLD AGE AND DEATH, IS UNIVERSAL, BUT HAS BEEN EXPERIENCED DIFFERENTLY OVER THE CENTURIES. THE EXHIBITION OFFERS, AS IT WERE, A JOURNEY THROUGH HUMAN EXISTENCE FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE PRESENT.

Friso Lammertse, curator of 17th-century Dutch painting at the Rijksmuseum

INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED

The collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, largely brought together by Rotterdam collectors and industrialists who were passionate about art, is internationally renowned. The museum has famous old masters and a leading collection of contemporary art.

SELECTION

In addition to the works already mentioned, masterpieces include Two Girls with an Apple Tree by Edvard Munch (1905), Vincent van Gogh's Portrait of Armand Roulin (1888), Composition with Color Fields by Piet Mondriaan (1917), The Shooting Gallery by Pyke Koch (1931) and The Pedlar by Hieronymus Bosch (ca. 1500) part of the exhibition. There is also work on display by Cindy Sherman, Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso. In addition, a wide selection of top drawings from the print room is on display, including work by Käthe Kollwitz, Hendrik Goltzius, Peter Paul Rubens and Matthias Grünewald. The exhibition is structured thematically, so that works of art from all eras are shown in context.

FOR THE FIRST TIME

Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirror Room - Phalli's Field (Floor Show) (1965/1998) can be seen in the Rijksmuseum for the first time since its extensive restoration. A team of restorers from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen worked for months to clean the phalluses made of white fabric with red dots, so that this work looks like new again in the Rijksmuseum. Yayoi Kusama is one of the most important contemporary artists.

FOR EVERYONE

The light artwork Breathe, Walk, Die by Ugo Rondinone (2014) can be seen from Museumplein , built on the rear facade of the Rijksmuseum. In the atrium of the Philips Wing there is a work by Donald Judd ( Untitled , 1984) that consists of large aluminum areas of color.

CAUSE

The many years of renovation of the museum building of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is the main reason for this collaboration. The opening of Depot Boijmans van Beuningen in 2021, the first publicly accessible collection building in the world, ensures that the collection is still accessible. For the first time since 2019, many important pieces from the Rotterdam collection can be seen in a museum presentation in the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands.

DESIGN

The design of the exhibition is in the hands of architects Ard de Vries and Donna van Milligen Bielke. Irma Boom is responsible for the graphic design.

AUDIO AND MUSIC TOUR

The exhibition is accompanied by an audio tour in which Rotterdam presenter and musician Raven van Dorst talks to the curators about the themes of the exhibition while walking past the works of art. There is also a music tour, composed and produced by DJ and producer Upsammy.

The exhibition Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen at Rijksmuseum was made possible by the generous loan from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

DOWNLOADS WORK

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Pieter Bruegel, The Tower of Babel, ca. 1568. Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

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Cindy Sherman, Untitled, 1981. Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

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Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirror Room - Phalli's Field (Floor Show), 1965/1998. Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Two Girls by an Apple Tree by Edvard Munch (1905)

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Edvard Munch, Two girls near an apple tree, 1905. Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

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Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of Armand Roulin, 1888. Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

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Hieronymus Bosch, The Pedlar, ca. 1500. Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

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Salvador Dalí, Shirley Temple, the youngest film idol of her time, 1939. Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Ugo Rondinone, Breathe, Walk, Die - Photo Rijksmuseum Kelly Schenk

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Ugo Rondinone, Breathe, Walk, Die, collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen - Photo Rijksmuseum/Kelly Schenk