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Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks’ Captures the Isolation of American Modernity. Here Are 3 Things You Might Not Know About It
“Ed refused to take any interest in our very likely prospect of being bombed—and we live right under glass sky-lights and a roof that leaks whenever it rains,” wrote Edward Hopper’s wife, Josephine, in the days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Hopper was busy, perhaps avoidantly so, at work on a new canvas, soon to be named Nighthawks.
Hopper’s scenes of city and country life—houses and gas stations, trains and movie theaters, bedrooms, and offices—present the realities of everyday America infused with a voyeuristic, psychological complexity. During a period where abstraction grew increasingly dominant, Hopper explored the creative potential of the Realist tradition.
Certainly Hopper’s most iconic painting, arguably his masterpiece, Nighthawks is one of the most well-known works of the 20th century—a classic scene out of the “American Imagination,” to borrow from the title of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 1995 Hopper retrospective. The piece was acquired shortly after its completion by the Art Institute of Chicago, where it remains today.
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Three Things You Might Not Know About Edward Hopper's 'Nighthawks'
Hopper's mysterious 'Nighthawks' is an icon of American popular culture. Here are three facts that might make you see scene in a new way.
