#Edward hopper series#

The Hopper film has a special place in the director’s heart. “When I first broached the idea of showing art in cinemas, people thought I was mad,” said Grabsky.

#Edward hopper series#

The Exhibition on Screen series has been popular with cinemagoers since the first film, about Leonardo da Vinci, screened in 2011. One of my frustrations with art on TV is that it’s usually someone standing in front of a painting, telling us what we see.” “It’s to encourage people to think about the art. The pace of the film is deliberately slow. “People will watch the film and come to their own conclusions.” “It’s hard to be completely sure of anybody’s relationships,” said Grabsky. In turn, Josephine refused to cook meals and withheld sex from her husband. The women have different faces and bodies but all derived from Josephine.

She was also his muse, the only model for his female figures – reading, lost in thought, lingering over a cup of coffee, sitting on a train, working in an office. In the volumes, she records the couple’s arguments, ranging from routine bickering to acts of violence – biting, slapping, bruising – committed by both parties. The film draws on Josephine’s extensive diaries, which were transcribed many years after her death in 1968 (her husband died 10 months earlier). “His life story is told through his paintings – and you can’t understand his works without understanding who he was, and who his wife was.” The artist’s life was a “biography in paint”, said Grabsky. “When I said I was making a film about Edward Hopper, there were people who told me, ‘I don’t know who that is.’ If I showed them Nighthawks, they knew it immediately.” Hopper’s art was “extremely well known, but his name is less so”, said Grabsky. One of the interviewees talks about how he encourages you to look at things you might just pass over.” “It also refers to his love of America, of everyday life, of what’s around you. Photograph: Stills from the film Hopper: An American Love Story Detail from Cape Cod Evening (1939) by Edward Hopper.