backstory: Retirement
No, not that kind of retirement….
If you have a chance to see the Whitney’s Hopper show, you won’t see the Neuberger’s Hopper there. Our good colleagues at the Whitney asked to borrow it for the show, actually a couple of times, but we declined. Why? Well… it’s “retired.” What does that mean?
Museums sometimes retire works of art from traveling. Our Barber Shop (1931) by the artist, which, by all accounts, is the largest painting Hopper ever created, is retired from travel. There’s something about the white pigment, perhaps the way the artist mixed it, that makes it unstable and subject to “lifting” when out of its established climate. Basically, like a lot of us, it prefers its comfort zone. It’s fine at the Neuberger, where it’s almost always on view, but it just doesn’t like leaving home. So, while you can’t see it in the Whitney show, you can almost always see it at the Neuberger, where it’s happiest.
Be well.
Tracy Fitzpatrick
Director, Neuberger Museum of Art
Find me on Twitter @tracyfitzart