Edward Hopper.

14 Oct 2009-24 Jan 2010. This is the first mayor exhibition in Italy dedicated to Edward Hopper (1882-1967), the leading exponent of American Realism who, better than any other, portrayed the daily life of the American middle class and the solitude of modern man.

This exhibition explores the various techniques used by the master painter such as oil, watercolour and etching. On display are over 160 works divided into seven chronological and thematic sections, which cover Hooper's entire oeuvre from his early canvases to his last work. Special attention is given to the relationship between his preparatory drawings and his paintings, which remained largely unexplored in previous exhibitions. The works on show include great masterpieces such as Summer Interior (1909), Pennsylvania Coal Town (1947), Morning Sun (1952), Second Story Sunlight (1960), A Woman in the Sun (1961) and many unpublished paintings. Visitors can also see one of his artist's ledgers, compiled together with his wife Josephine, which brings together sketches of many of his oil paintings.

The works come mostly from the Whitney Museum, which has been home to Hopper's entire legacy since 1968, but also from other American museums including the Brooklyn Museum of Art of New York, the Terra Foundation of American Art of Chicago and the Columbus Museum of Art.

The exhibition also features Friday, 29 August 1952, 6 A.M., New York, an interactive multimedia installation by Austrian film maker and video artist Gustav Deutsch, which allows visitors to appear in Hopper's paintings like actors in a series of brief plays.

After its Milan showing this exhibition will be at the Museo Fondazione Roma from 16 February to 13 June 2010.