Nighthawks Hopper Ive Done It Again

1942

Edward Hopper
American, 1882–1967

About Nighthawks Edward Hopper recollected, "unconsciously, probably, I was painting the loneliness of a large city." In an all-night diner, three customers sit at the counter opposite a server, each appear to be lost in thought and disengaged from one another. The composition is tightly organized and spare in details: there is no entrance to the establishment, no debris on the streets. Through harmonious geometric forms and the glow of the diner's electric lighting, Hopper created a serene, beautiful, yet enigmatic scene. Although inspired by a restaurant Hopper had seen on Greenwich Avenue in New York, the painting is not a realistic transcription of an actual place. As viewers, we are left to wonder about the figures, their relationships, and this imagined world.

Status: On View, Gallery 262
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Edward Hopper
Title: Nighthawks
Place: United States (Object made in)
Date: 1942
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: signed l.r. "Edward Hopper"
Dimensions: 84.1 × 152.4 cm (33 1/8 × 60 in.)
Credit Line: Friends of American Art Collection
Reference Number: 1942.51

Gail Levin, "Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, Surrealism, and the War," Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 22, 2 (1996), 180–95, fig. 1.
The Art Institute of Chicago: Twentieth–Century Painting and Sculpture, selected by James N. Wood and Teri J. Edelstein (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1996), 85, ill.
Judith A. Barter et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2009), no. 133.
Nina Baym et al., eds., The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th edition (W. W. Norton & Company, 2012), ill.
Arthur Shimamura, Experiencing Art: In the Brain of the Beholder (Oxford University Press, 2013), 237 (ill.).
Derek Matravers, Introducing Philosophy of Art: In Eight Case Studies (Routledge, 2013), ill.
Duane Preble Emeritus et al., Prebles' Artforms, 11th edition (Pearson, 2013), 428, ill.
Robert Burleigh, Edward Hopper Paints His World (Henry Holt and Co., 2014), ill.
Steven Mintz, The Prime of Life: A History of Modern Adulthood (Belknap Press, 2015), ill.
Ramsay H. Slugg, Handbook of Practical Planning for Art Collectors and Their Advisors (ABA Book Publishing, 2015), ill.
Judith A. Barter, ed. America After the Fall: Painting in the 1930s, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2016), fig. 3, 178.
Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago, Highlights of the Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2017), 135.
Judith A. Barter, "Prolog: Eine neue Welt der Kunst" and Susanne Scharf, "Bilder von Amerika: Edward Hoppers Äesthetisierung des Alltäglichen," in Es war einmal in Amerika – 300 Jahre US-amerikanische Kunst [Once Upon a Time in America: Three Centuries of American Art], eds. Barbara Schaefer and Anita Hachmann (Cologne: Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud/Wienand Verlag, 2018), 25, fig. 12 (ill.); 219, fig. 1 (ill.).
Charles Passy, "Edward Hopper's 'Nighthawks' Gets 21st Century Makeover," The Wall Street Journal, Dec 5, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/edward-hoppers-nighthawks-gets-21st-century-makeover-11607184000.
"The Defining Artworks of 2020," ARTnews, Dec 9, 2020, https://www.artnews.com/list/art-news/artists/most-important-artworks-2020-1234578712/edward-hopper-nighthawks-1942, ill.
Hall W. Rockefeller, "A Rehang of Hopper's Iconic 'Nighthawks' Changes the Game," Hyperallergic, Mar 23, 2022, https://hyperallergic.com/718667/a-rehang-of-edward-hopper-iconic-nighthawks-changes-the-game (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, The Fifty–third Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture, Oct 29–Dec 10, 1942, cat. 132.
Indianapolis, 1943.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Fifty–fourth Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture, Oct 28–Dec 12, 1943, cat. 15.
New York City, Whitney Museum of American Art, Edward Hopper: Retrospective Exhibition, Feb 11–Mar 26, 1950, cat. 61, pl. 28; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Apr 13–May 14, 1950; Detroit Institute of Arts, Jun 4–Jul 2, 1950.
New York City, Wildenstein, Loan Exhibition of Seventy Twentieth Century American Paintings, Feb 21–Mar 22, 1952, cat. 54.
Venice, Esposiazione Biennale Internazionale d'Arte, Jun 14–Oct 19, 1952, cat. 26.
Lake Forest College, Illinois.
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Edward Hopper, Sep 29–Nov 29, 1964, cat. 43; Art Institute of Chicago, Dec 18–Jan 31, 1965.
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, Fifty Years of Modern Art, Jun 14–Jul 31, 1966, cat. 81.
New York City, Whitney Museum of American Art, Edward Hopper: The Art and the Artist, Sep 23, 1980–Jan 18, 1981, cat. 386; London, Hayward Gallery, Feb 11–Mar 29, 1981 (separate catalogue, cat. 96), Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Apr 22–Jun 17, 1981; Düsseldorf, Städtische Kunsthalle, Jul 10–Sep 6, 1981; Art Institute of Chicago, Oct 3–Nov 29, 1981; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Dec16, 1981–Feb 14, 1982.
Essen, Germany, Museum Folkwang, Edward Hopper und die Fotografie: die Warheit des Sichtbaren (Edward Hopper and Photography: The Truth of the Real), Jun 28–Sep 27, 1992, p. 63, ill.
London, Tate Modern, Edward Hopper, May 27–Sep 5, 2004; Cologne, Museum Ludwig, Oct 9, 2004–Jan 9, 2005.
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Oct 3–Dec 31, 2006.
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Edward Hopper, May 6–Aug 19, 2007; Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, Sep 16, 2007–Jan 21, 2008; Art Institute of Chicago, Feb 16–May 11, 2008.
Madrid, Museo Thyssen–Bornemisza, Edward Hopper, Jun 12–Sep 16, 2012; Paris, Galeries nationales d'exposition du Grand Palais, Oct 5, 2012–Jan 28, 2013 (Paris only).
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Edward Hopper Drawings, May 23–Oct 6, 2013; Dallas Museum of Art, Nov 17, 2013–Feb 16, 2014; Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, Mar 15–Jun 22, 2022 (New York only).
Art Institute of Chicago, Art and Appetite: American Painting, Culture, and Cuisine, Nov 10, 2013–Jan 27, 2014, cat. 28; Fort Worth, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Feb 22–May 18, 2014.
Shanghai Museum, Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865–1945, Sep 28, 2018–Jan 6, 2019, cat. 71.

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