American artist Edward Hopper was born today, July 22nd, in 1882. He created numerous portraits of people in New York City, including the one pictured above, Summertime, painted in 1943. It is currently on view at the Delaware Art Museum.
Jul 222026
Jun 122025
This mural was created in 2019 by Tomokazu “Matzu” Matsuyama as a commission for The Houston Bowery Wall in NYC.
Matsuyama recently completed the painting Morning Sun Dance, inspired by Edward Hopper’s 1952 painting, Morning Sun. An exhibition of his paintings and works on paper centered around this new work opens at Edward Hopper House Museum in Nyack, New York, on Friday, 6/20/25.
From the museum about the exhibition-
The exhibition centers around Matsu’s new large-scale painting Morning Sun Dance. Of the work that inspired his painting, Matsu says, “While Hopper’s Morning Sun captures a moment of introspective stillness within the psychological landscape of mid-century urban life, his treatment of solitude, light, and constructed space continues to influence my own approach to thinking about isolation as well as my approach to painting.”
In Morning Sun, Hopper depicts a woman sitting on her bed in the sun, alone in an empty room, wearing a plain orange dress and a simple, contemplative expression. In Morning Sun Dance, Matsu paints a solitary woman with a similarly meditative demeanor. However, her environment is far more richly layered: the room is filled with personal artifacts—dogs, magazines, and a luxurious couch—reflecting contemporary material life. Notably, the presence of dogs, while suggesting companionship, also references historical depictions such as Toutou, le bien aimé by Rosa Bonheur (1885) and A Nurse and a Child in an Elegant Foyer by Jacob Ochtervelt (1663), in which dogs symbolized wealth and ownership. In Matsu’s work, these animals subtly underscore solitude rather than alleviate it—suggesting not connection, but the heightened self-awareness of being alone.
Her clothing fuses Western and Japanese motifs—a William Morris textile layered with traditional patterns—while a Sports Illustrated poster of Muhammad Ali nods to her alignment with diversity, strength, and modern identity. In contrast to Hopper’s figure, who gazes outward toward the cityscape, Matsu’s subject turns inward, facing her domestic space. This shift in gaze implies a broader narrative: solitude, once externalized and meditative, is now negotiated through personal space and cultural consumption.
The exhibition will also feature Matsu’s process drawings, which reveal how the artist engaged with Hopper’s use of light, figuration, and abstraction. Two additional smaller paintings by Matsu also reinterpret Hopper’s iconic figure in the orange dress—one from Hopper’s original perspective, and the other from an external vantage point, as if observing the figure from the outside.
“This exhibition offers a fascinating dialogue between two artists from different eras, both grappling with the complexities of modern life and the experience of solitude,” says Kathleen Motes Bennewitz, Executive Director of the Edward Hopper House Museum. “Matsu’s vibrant and layered response to Hopper’s work invites us to reconsider themes of isolation and introspection through a contemporary lens, highlighting the enduring relevance of Hopper’s vision while embracing new perspectives.”
Mar 052024
Edward Hopper’s oil painting Morning Sun, 1952, is part of Columbus Museum of Art’s permanent collection. The model for the painting was his wife, Jo.
Oct 242019
Mikal Cronin- Show Me
Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (10/24-10/27/19)-
Thursday
Oh Land is performing at the Bootleg Theater with Arthur Moon
X-TRA magazine is having a Fall Launch at Now Instant which includes a screening of artist and writer Nick Herman’s Some Among Others: Mexican Sound and Video Art
Poet Jana Prikyl is reading her work at the Hammer Museum
Plague Vendor are playing at The Echo with No Parents and Spirit Mother
D. A. Stern and Marso are playing a free show at Gold Diggers with a DJ set by Polyplastic
Friday
Mikal Cronin is playing at the Teragram Ballroom with Shannon Lay and Spring Summer
Late Night! At The Skirball features an outdoor screening of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining to coincide with their exhibition Through a Different Lens: Stanley Kubrick Photographs. The event includes late night access to the galleries as well as a DJ, food trucks. a bar and more. ($5)
Michael Govan, the CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director of the LACMA, will be discussing the experience of working with Dan Flavin on the artist’s final commission, an installation in the interior of a church, Chiesa di Santa Maria Annunciata in Chiesa Rossa, Milan, at Bridge Projects
FIGat7th is hosting its 5th Annual Day of the Dead Celebration with face painting, tequila tasting, DJs and a Design Your Own Poster printmaking workshop by Self Help Graphics & Art (free)
Aldous Harding is playing at The Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever with Hand Habits opening
WHAP! Lecture Series at the West Hollywood Public Library continues with Sarah Roberts’ Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media
RF Shannon and Jess Williamson are playing a free early show at Gold Diggers
Danny Brown is performing at The Regent Theater with Ashnikko and Zeelooperz
The Echoplex is hosting Firewalk With Me: A Twin Peaks Halloween Party with live performances and DJ sets- including a performance by Angela Seo of Xiu Xiu, photobooths, art installations, and more
Heart Bones (Har Mar Superstar and Sabrina Ellis) are performing at the Bootleg Theater with The Pink Slips and DYGL opening
Saturday
Photographer Stephen Wilkes will be at Fahey/Klein Gallery to give a talk and sign his book from 2-4pm
Grand Park and Self Help Graphics & Art are hosting the annual commemoration of Noche de Ofrenda (Night of Altars) with a first look at the altars and live entertainment at Grand Park’s Performance Lawn
The Theatre at the Ace Hotel with the LA Opera is showing Hitchcock’s Psycho with a live orchestra performing the score. Tonight there is also a Hitchcock Halloween Afterparty to follow. (screenings of Psycho taking place on Friday and Sunday also)
Saintseneca is playing at the Bootleg Theater with A.O. Gerber opening
Morrissey is playing at the Hollywood Bowl with special guest Interpol
Fell Runner, Sofia Bolt, and Bridal Party are playing a free show at Zebulon
Saturday and Sunday
The Fall Brewery Art Walk is a great way to check out what artists are creating in this massive complex (free)
Heritage Square is hosting Los Angeles True Crime Stories, which will present historic characters, crime reenactments and early investigators recreating conventional methods of the day to solve cases and bring perpetrators to justice. Additionally, participants will discover how poisons and other typical methods of murder were employed in early Los Angeles crime history. ($20)
Sunday
Cody Trepte and Charles Gaines will be in conversation at Meliksetian Briggs (RSVP at bottom of this pdf)
Chief curator Connie Butler is leading a walkthrough of Lari Pittman: Declaration of Independence at the Hammer Museum at 2pm
Author Alice Hoffman will be discussing her new novel The World That We Knew at Skirball Cultural Center ($10)
Alexander Nemerov, chair of art and art history at Stanford University, will be at The Getty for the talk- True Guilt: Edward Hopper and the Death of George Bellows (free but ticket required)
Prepare to be scared at Hollywood Forever Cemetery where there is a screening of the 1974 horror classic Texas Chainsaw Massacre
(Sandy) Alex G is playing at The Fonda Theatre with Tomberlin and Slow Pulp
Marc Almond of Soft Cell is performing at the Palace Theatre with a special performance by Dita Von Teese