Clip: 01/02/2024 | 1m 59s | Video has closed captioning.
Edward Hopper displayed a preference for quieter social commentary with his art. In "Automat," he paints a woman alone in an empty automat, conveying a sense of loneliness and isolation. In "Chop Suey," two women are depicted at lunch without male chaperones, reflecting the newfound independence many women were experiencing at the time.
Aired: 01/02/24
(somber music) - He had the just uncanny ability to paint pictures that have a lot of details that don't quite add up.
We know it's an automat because that's the title of the picture, but we don't see any of the little doors with the pieces of pie behind them.
We don't see any other people, even though they were incredibly popular restaurants in Hopper's day.
(gentle music) If you look at his pictures, the values of contemporary society are reflected in them.
One of my favorite Hopper's is a painting called "Chop Suey," and it's two women sitting.
It must be at lunchtime 'cause there's a lot of sun outside.
They're in a Chinese restaurant and extraordinarily, they are out on their own without male escort.
They are dressed up and they have a lot of makeup on, which in an earlier generation might have indicated that they were available.
In fact, what Hopper's commenting on is a social change that had been coming for a while, but that had affected women of his generation who were more independent.
So those kinds of quieter social comments are in his work.
(gentle music)
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