INDIANAPOLIS, IN (AAPJ)- On view at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields through Sunday, October 25, 2020, “Edward Hopper and the American Hotel” is brought by Schahet Hotels welcomes visitors back inside the IMA Galleries since March, to experience a voyage back in time by this iconic American painter in this major exhibition.
The exhibition features 57 of Hopper’s (1882-1967) paintings, drawings, watercolors and magazine covers, including the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s iconic “Hotel Lobby” that show his fascination with commonplace hospitality settings of the time.
“Newfields is thrilled to welcome guests back inside the Indianapolis Museum of Art with this major exhibition,” said Dr. Charles L. Venable of the Newfields. “While Hopper has long been considered one of the most important American masters, interest in his work has soared during this period of anxiousness and isolation. His depictions of individuals alone in their hotel rooms and even completely empty rooms have even more relevance now.”
Hopper’s work is often explored through a lens of loneliness, but “American Hotel” provides a different context for the celebrated American artist’s work. Visitors will discover how 20th-century Americans participated in travel culture, depending on their race, gender and class.
In addition, visitors will see how Hopper’s works fit into a larger tradition of the role of the hotel in art. His paintings and works on paper are shown alongside 31 works by over 20 other artists, including Derrick Adams, David Hockney, Cindy Sherman and John Singer Sargent.
The works will be accompanied by firsthand accounts of travel culture in Hopper’s time in the form of photographs, postcards and personal stories from Americans of different walks of life.
While the white artist and his wife Josephine ‘Jo” Nivision Hopper could check into virtually any hotel of their choice in the mid-20th century, this was not true for Black Americans nor single women because of racism and sexism. These facts are highlighted in the show to give a more accurate depiction of hotel culture in America during this time.
The exhibition will feature a life-size recreation of Hopper’s “Western Motel” painting that offers viewers to peer into a mid-century modern getaway, much like the woman painted in the original scene.
Organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, in partnership with the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, the exhibition was conceived and curated by Dr. Leo G. Mazow of the Virginia Museum of Fine Art and curated by the Newfields Anna Stein, Curator of Works on Paper.
“There have been so many exhibitions and books written about the famous Edward Hopper. This one takes an especially thoughtful and creative approach to de-mystifying a great artist,” said Anna Stein. “Dr. Mazow has brought together a stunning group of artworks that can rarely be seen together, and our team is so excited to present them in Indianapolis.”
Learn more and reserve your tickets at www.discovernewfields.org.
