Edward Hopper, considered the most important realist painter of the United States of the 20th century, continues to be very present in the field of art 50 years after his death thanks to his works that manage to capture moments of stillness in an accelerated world.
Recently, its oils came to life with a project carried out by a British digital agency, Verve Search, which developed a series of GIF’s with their most famous works that lead the paintings to be even more real.
In “Automat” (1927), for example, the coffee of the woman who stars in the painting smokes and some of the lights of the cafeteria blink, and his “House by the Railroad” (1925) passes in a few seconds of the light of the Day to a starry night.
In addition, when tomorrow marks the 50th anniversary of his death, hundreds of people remember in social networks their particular works, applauded for their ability to provoke moments of deep analysis of what surrounds the human being.
“Contrary to all the noise of the 21st century, perhaps this message resonates more than ever,” the Royal Academy of Arts UK art director Tim Marlow recently explained.
For its part, the Edward Hopper House Museum has opened the doors these days from the artist’s room to his 28 years, where the designer Ernest de la Torre and the architect Walter Cain have tried to recreate the original look of the living room.
Although Hopper also devoted time to drawing and watercolor, it is his oils that made him go down in history for his realism, quietude and reflection, and for his portrayal of American landscapes and environments.
The painter began to produce some of his best works after the great American economic depression of 1929, when the country was immersed in a global sensation of uncertainty and anxiety.
His paintings, however, invited the citizen to stop, observe and contemplate what was around him in the form of serene and solitary landscapes or scenes of everyday American life in which used to include a very limited number of people.
Born in Nyack, New York, in 1882, Hopper was a child with the support of his family, who recognized his artistic talent and helped develop his skills by supporting his studies in two art schools from 1899 to 1906.
Afterwards, Hopper began working as an illustrator one season, after which he made three trips to several European cities, focusing on Paris, where he was inspired by the work of both Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet, whose representations of modern urban life influenced His works for life.
After returning to New York, where he settled in the Greenwich Village neighborhood, Hopper spent almost a decade living in artistic anonymity until his work was first shown at an individual show at the Whitney Studio Club in 1920.
A few years later, his recognition had grown exponentially and managed to sell each and every one of the pieces that were part of his exhibition of the Frank Rehn Gallery of New York.
In 1927, the painter married Josephine Nivison, an energetic and optimistic woman who contrasted with the conservative, timid and introverted character of Hopper.
In 1930, his oil “House by the Railroad”, 1925, was the first piece purchased by the newly founded Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA), which eventually became one of the most important art galleries in the world .
Three years later, Hopper’s work received another boost with a retrospective exhibition given by MoMA, where he celebrated his adult and identifiable style in which he dominated the feeling of silence and detachment.
Among its most prominent landscapes are deserted gas stations, train tracks, bridges, bucolic landscapes of the New England coast or cafes and cinemas frequented by thoughtful characters.
In spite of its commercial success, Hopper began to receive certain critics in the decade of 40 and 50, when the school of abstract expressionism began to dominate in the world of the art, although until its death in 1967 the painter never lost its popular claim.
