Two or three things I know about Edward Hopper | By Wim Wenders

Created for the “Edward Hopper” exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler in 2020, Wim Wenders’ immersive 3D installation invites viewers to ‘enter the world’ of Hopper. Rather than replicate his paintings, Wenders crafts atmospheres, perspectives, and cinematic spaces that echo Hopper’s enduring dialogue with film. The work is an homage, a meditation, and a contemporary statement about one of the most cinematic painters of the 20th century.

“My fascination with Edward Hopper dates back to one of my first visits to New York, when I saw several Hopper paintings at the Whitney Museum and the MoMA. That was in the seventies. His art opens up such a preciousness of the moment—manifesting itself in his colors and in a dramatic sense of light and shadows—that I always felt that words fell short, photographs fell short, even moving images fell short (even if he was such an ardent moviegoer himself) to express the impact of his art on my work and my sensibility. I do not intend to replicate any Hopper paintings as such but rather create ‘his world’ with its distinct atmosphere.”

– Wim Wenders