Hopper Drawing: A Painter’s Process at the Walker Art Center
(3/13–6/20) combines 22 major paintings by Edward Hopper with their related drawings to show the development of the artist’s iconic, often uncanny imagery. Many of the works have never before been exhibited.
Office at Night is a 1940 painting by Hopper that the Walker Art Center purchased in 1948 (he’s most famous for the 1942 Nighthawks).
The enigmatic perspective of Office at Night was inspired by Hopper’s nighttime rides on New York’s elevated trains.
In these drawings, we see the painting’s perspective develop—it’s as though the camera is being pulled up and back, with us floating up from eye level to a place close to the ceiling.
Hopper’s knack for combining the everyday with a sense of strangeness and awkwardness makes the viewer feel like a detective looking for clues.
