Edward Hopper, who was the subject of a major retrospective this summer at the Museum of Fine Arts, is America’s dark poet, the creator of the iconic Nighthawks, a man who painted film noir before the cinema discovered it. The MFA’s exhibition catalogue treated him with major-American-artist respect; this monologue by former California State University professor Walter Wells probes the shadows and the erotic underbelly of Hopper’s America — and of Hopper himself — in works that weren’t part of the MFA show (New York Pavements, with its nun pushing a perambulator; The Lee Shore, with its nightmarishly oversize fleeing boat) and works that were (the girl in Summertime is not a prostitute, so what’s with the see-through bra?). Part of that examination is a hard look at the relationship between Hopper and his wife, Jo. From Jo’s diary: “I couldn’t help being a virgin when he married me, & if I hadn’t been he wouldn’t have wanted to marry me anyway.” If you suspected there’s more to Hopper than the MFA let on — or even if you didn’t — this is the book for you.
Related:
Visions of isolation, Going deep, Radical dude, More 
- Visions of isolation
In Edward Hopper’s world, everyone is lost in an unending rut of office overtime, rattling El trains, cheap fluorescent diners, and bad dates.
- Going deep
A gaggle of big solo shows share the art waves with that powerful influx of computer-reliant art known as the Boston Cyberarts Festival this season.
- Radical dude
Cameron Jamie grew up in the ’burbs.
- Gods and monsters — and David Hasselhoff
The Museum of Fine Arts did big things with Napoleon and Edward Hopper, pictures of prostitutes graced the walls of Boston’s two biggest art museums, and all hell broke loose when the Mooninites invaded.
- Hopper speaks
I recall meeting an artist who hung with Edward Hopper during the summers he spent on the Lower Cape.
- Win tickets to Grizzly Bear
Text the word GRIZZLY to 22122*, and you will be entered into a random drawing to win yourself and a pal a pair of tickets to see Grizzly Bear on August 14 at the MFA.
- Slideshow: X-ray reveals secrets of Tintoretto's painting
Jacopo Tintoretto’s painting Nativity , in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, has long puzzled scholars because of its odd composition.
- Museum of Fine Arts's cocktails and couture
Boston Phoenix video wrap-up
- Bringing back sexy
It seems the Hindu god Krishna and his lover Radha were always sneaking off to some secluded moonlit spot. Slideshow: Domains of Wonder: Masterworks of Indian Painting at the MFA
- Viva Modernism
Long before the threat of swine flu, Mexico was the scene of an outbreak of a very different kind: Modernism.
- Three-way
Did we piss off the hipster-show gods?
- Less
Topics:
Books
, Cultural Institutions and Parks, Museums, Museum of Fine Arts, More
, Cultural Institutions and Parks, Museums, Museum of Fine Arts, Edward Hopper, California State University System, Less
