Edward Hopper. Il Luogo e l'Attesa nella Città Moderna Place and Waiting in the Modern City

Hopper never was a painter of realism interested in the "chronicle of the world in its becoming", but he always strove to decipher the essence of things in the instant: in this he depended on an initial symbolistic inspiration. Paradoxically, composition, which for him was chiefly the technique of constructing and designing a picture, though understood according to the procedure of classical perspective, contained, in its allusion to a "beyond" of meanings, a foundation that was dear to the Symbolists. Without ending up in any metaphysics or ever adapting to the voluntary and organised use of symbols, Hopper perceived the "beyond" of naturalistic description, perceived what it hid and could not depict: in this lies the paradox that makes his painting so magic and so true.
Marco Fagioli