Edward and Jo Hopper: Excursion into Philosophy
Artist
George Deem
(American, 1932 - 2008)
Date1995
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions32 x 42 in.
ClassificationsOil Painting
Credit LineGift of the estate of George Deem
Object number2013.54.37
DescriptionEdward and Jo Hopper, 1995. In this painting I placed the painter Edward Hopper, seated with his wife, Jo, in one of his own paintings, Excursion into Philosophy. In Hopper's 1959 painting a man sits on the couch. Behind him, facing the wall, lies a woman wearing only a pink shirt. In my painting I have removed Hopper's figures of the seated man and recumbent woman and replaced them with the figures of Edward and Jo Hopper from a 1955 black-and-white photograph by Sidney Waintrob. Next to the man in Hopper's painting, and next to Hopper in my painting, is a book that lies open on the couch, as if tossed there. The book in Hopper's painting has been identified by Jo Hopper as "Plato, reread too late." I have left a one-inch margin around the edge of my canvas, which is 32 by 42 inches, as a sign that this is not a painting by Hopper whose Excursion into Philosophy measures 30 by 40 inches.There is an oil-on-plastic-canvas study for this painting, also made in 1995. The study measures 15 by 20 inches. It is in a private collection in New York. (George Deem, New York, February 19, 1996).
On View
Not on view
