Farnsworth Art Museum Lectures ~ Edward Hopper's America

Written by Graham Thorndyke Sunday, 05 February 2012 21:17

 

Rockland, ME - The Farnsworth Art Museum, in downtown Rockland, Maine, will be presenting a three-lecture investigation by Susan Larsen into the life and work of Edward Hopper, the great American realist. This series, which will take place in the museum auditorium, will be held on three consecutive Wednesdays: February 6, 13, and 20 from 10:30 a.m. till noon.

Hopper's early life as an illustrator for popular magazines offered some interesting insights into the core of American society and its aspirations for the early twentieth-century. The series will look into his evolution as an artist, his struggle to gain time and freedom to work on his own, and the final triumph of his wonderful talent for simultaneous observation and commentary on our country and its citizens. Participants will discuss Hopper's interest in European literature, American pulp novels, and popular movies. The lecture will refer to Hopper's sketchbooks, his letters and his personal statements about his view of American life. Finally participants will have some fun reviewing Hopper's influence on popular culture in novels, movies and television as well as his enduring impact upon the American realist tradition of the later twentieth-century.

Susan Larsen, Ph.D., is an art historian, curator, writer and archivist. A resident of Tenants Harbor, she was formerly Chief Curator at the Farnsworth Art Museum and Curator of the Permanent Collection at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. She taught at the University of Southern California for over twenty years and also served most recently as New England Area Collector for the Archives of American Art. In 1989, she curated "Edward Hopper from the Permanent Collection of the Whitney Museum" a major exhibition which surveyed the artist's entire career. That show traveled widely in the United States as well as to Japan, Denmark, and France. She is a lifelong student of the work of Edward Hopper and has contributed to the literature on the artist. Due to limited seating, reservations are required. The fee for members is $25 and for non-members $30. For more information or to make a reservation please call the Education Department at 207 596-6457 ext 146 or 103.

Visit The Farnsworth Art Museum at : www.farnsworthmuseum.org

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