A motel room of one’s own

Carolyn Stewart | Spectator USA | 15th November 2019

Hopper liked to travel. Once successful as an artist, he and his wife began taking road trips. Some hotels they stayed at ended up in his art. And why not? Empty hotel rooms have an air of loneliness, something that would have been obvious to Hopper, a loner. What better a subject for his detached, “empty” compositions, where he could lay out “the truth of a scene”. What remains elusive though, is which truth?