title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: A large number of lakes and rivers are found in the Eurasian Economic Union. Major lakes include Ladoga and Onega, two of the largest lakes in Europe. The largest and most prominent of the union's bodies of fresh water is Lake Baikal, the world's deepest, purest, oldest and most capacious fresh water lake. The Baikal lake alone contains over one-fifth of the world's fresh surface water. Russia is second only to Brazil in volume of the total renewable water resources. Of the union's numerous rivers, the Volga is the most famous, not only because it is the longest in Europe, but also because of its major role in history. In Siberia the Ob, Yenisey, Lena and Amur are among the longest rivers in the world.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Eurasian Economic Union's highest peak is the Khan Tengri in the Tian Shan mountains, Kazakhstan, 7,010 m above sea level. The lowest point in the Eurasian Economic Union is the Karagiye Depression in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan's Caspian shore includes some of the lowest elevations on Earth. According to a 2005 estimate by the United Nations, forests cover 40% of Belarus. 11,000 lakes and many water streams are found in the country. Russia is known for its extensive mineral and energy resources, the largest reserves in the world, making it the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: According to estimates, the Eurasian Economic Union's population of 176 million people is mostly urbanized, with Russia and Belarus having over 70% of their population living in urban areas. In Armenia over 64% of the population lives in urban areas. Kazakhstan's urban population comprises 54% of the country's total population.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The treaty establishing the Eurasian Economic Union was formally signed by three states which were part of the former Soviet Union: Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia. Agreements to enlarge the EAEU to the other post-Soviet states of Armenia and Kyrgyzstan were signed on 9 October and 23 December 2014, respectively. For Kyrgyzstan, facilitation of labour migration regulations with Russia was seen as the main benefit of joining the Eurasian Economic Union. The population migration indicator had an inverse dependance with GDP per capita, consumer price index, minimum wage, and unemployment rate.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Armenia announced its decision to join the Eurasian Customs Union in September 2013. President Serj Sargsyan announced the decision after talks with his Russian counterpart President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The treaty enlarging the EAEU to Armenia was signed on 9 October 2014. By signing this contract, Armenia has accepted corresponding application, and thereby gained access to the EAEU single market with a population of 170 million citizens. Armenia is the only country of the EAEU that has no common border with the other member states of the union. Georgia guaranteed a free transit corridor for exporting its goods to the Eurasian Economic Union, Armenian deputy economic minister Emil Tarasyan stated.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Uzbekistan and Cuba became observer members on 11 December 2020. After the presidential elections in December 2021, Uzbekistan is expected to obtain full membership by 2022 or 2023.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Each year, a Member State is elected chairman to head the Union. Chairmanship is passed from country to country in alphabetical order in the Russian language. Kyrgyzstan holds the chairmanship until 31 December 2022.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that his goal was to enlarge the Customs Union to all post-Soviet states, excluding the three Baltic EU member states. According to "The Guardian" newspaper, Putin's plan is for the Eurasian Union to grow into a "powerful, supra-national union" of sovereign states like the European Union, uniting economies, legal systems, customs services, and military capabilities to form a bridge between Europe and Asia to balance the EU and the U.S.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: In May 2015, an integration agreement was signed between the Russian Federation and South Ossetia. If South Ossetia were to join, it would be by acceding to the Russian Federation.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Tajikistan was formally invited to join the union and has expressed its interest in acceding. It is recognized as a potential candidate and membership negotiations are underway. In 2015, further efforts were made to integrate Tajikistan into the EAEU.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Uzbekistan has been hesitant to join the Economic Union, with Uzbek officials making opposing claims on the prospect of integration. Originally, the country preferred not to pursue economic and political integration. Russian officials have stated that integration with the country would be slow and analysts state that as Russian influence and trade increases in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan it may persuade Uzbekistan to join in the future. Uzbekistan began its integration process when Russia announced it would write off US$865 million off debt owed by the country. Uzbekistan joined the CIS Free Trade Area in 2014, meaning it has free trade with EAEU member states. According to some sources, Uzbekistan does not intend to become a full member of the EAEU, due to Uzbekistan's neutrality which is enshrined in the country's legislation. In March 2020, Uzbekistan announced that it wished to become a Eurasian Union observer state.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia have been offered by both the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union to join their integration unions. All three countries signed Association Agreements with the EU on 21 March 2014. However, break-away regions of Moldova (Transnistria), Ukraine (Donetsk and Luhansk) and Georgia (South Ossetia and Abkhazia) have expressed a desire to join the Eurasian Customs Union and integrate into the Eurasian Economic Union. Association Agreements with the EU are exclusionary to EAEU observer status, as in 2017 Moldova became the EAEU's first observer state and has attended EAEU forums in years since.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Ukraine submitted an application to participate in the Eurasian Economic Union as an observer in August 2013. Viktor Yanukovych's decision to abandon an association agreement with the European Union and exclusively pursue integration with the EAEU was a key factor in the Euromaidan protests that ended his term as president of Ukraine and led to the Crimean Crisis. The country's membership in the EAEU was seen by some analysts as the key to the success of the union as Ukraine has the second largest economy of any of the 15 former republics of the Soviet Union. With high tensions between Russia and Ukraine in the wake of the crisis, Ukraine decided to pursue integration with the EU.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Turkey was extended an invitation to join the EAEU by Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev on 6 June 2014 but the country prefers to join the EU.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Georgia's Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili said in September 2013 he was studying the possibility of acceding to the Union, although he later clarified that Georgia's main strategy was still to integrate into the European Union. Russia's Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev included Georgia as a prospective member in statements made in August 2013.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Eurasian Economic Union has sought to base its model on the European Union. All institutions carry out their work in compliance with the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) and the international agreements that provide the legal and regulatory framework of the Customs Union and the Single Economic Space.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Supreme Council, which is composed by the heads of state of the member states, makes important decisions for the union. It approves the budget and the distribution of the contribution of the Member States. The Supreme Council also determines the strategy, direction and prospects of integration and takes decisions aimed at achieving the goals of the union.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Eurasian Commission was established as the supranational governing body of the Eurasian Economic Space on 1 January 2012. The commission was modelled on the European Commission. Its headquarters are in Moscow. The commission monitors subordinate branches and advisory bodies. Its departments were greatly expanded on 1 January 2015, and the number of international employees increased from 150 to 1,200.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Eurasian Commission can take decisions on not only the customs policy of the union, but also on the macro-economy, the competition regulations, the energy policy and the fiscal policy of the Eurasian Economic Union. It has strict anti-corruption laws.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The council is composed of the Vice Prime Ministers of the member states. The council of the Commission oversees the integration processes in the Union, and is responsible for the overall management of the Eurasian Commission. It monitors the commission by approving the draft budget of the union, the maximum number of personnel, and the qualification requirements for the commission's employees. The council convenes once every quarter.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: It also considers issues of customs cooperation, trade and development of Eurasian integration. The council regularly holds discussions on the important aspects of the EAEU and meets with business representatives of the member states.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Board is composed of ten commissioners, one of which is the chairman of the board. Each member state provides two commissioners to the Board of the Eurasian Commission who carry out the operational management and oversee the everyday work of the Eurasian Commission. All ten commissioners are appointed by the Supreme Eurasian Council for a four-year renewable term. The commissioners also receive the status of federal ministers in their respective countries.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Board of the commission is the executive body of the commission. It convenes once every week at least, and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the Eurasian Economic Union. It has a wide range of activities, including monitoring the implementation of treaties, submitting annual progress reports and making recommendations. The Board also assists member states in the settlement of disputes, and carries out the draft of the union's budget. Part of its activities include being the intermediary between the departments of the commission and the heads of state of the member states.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: A number of departments are headed by the commissioners. The lower rank staff is composed of 84% Russian officials, 10% Kazakhs and 6% Belarusians, proportional to the populations of the member states. The departments enable the Board of the Eurasian Commission to make decisions not only with regard to customs policies, but in such areas as macroeconomics, regulation of economic competition, energy policy and financial policy. The Commission departments are also involved in government procurement and labour migration control.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: As of 2015, the EAEU has no directly or indirectly elected body. In 2012, the creation of a Eurasian parliament was under consideration. However, it was considered too premature, and member states have instead begun harmonising national laws and legal codes.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Court of the Eurasian Economic Union replaced the Court of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC Court) in 2015. It is in charge of dispute resolution and the interpretation of the legal order within the Eurasian Economic Union. Its headquarters is in Minsk. The court is composed of two judges from each member state, appointed by the heads of government of the member states. Their term of office is nine years.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The approved budget of the Eurasian Economic Union for 2015 exceeds 6.6 billion Russian roubles. The budget is formed from contributions by the union's member states. In 2015, 6 billion roubles will be allocated for the activity of the Eurasian Economic Commission, 463 million roubles will be set aside for financing the operation and further development of the EAEU integrated information system designed to promote and inform consumers of the EAEU's activities, and over 290 millions roubles will finance the activities of the Court of the EAEU.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: In addition, Russia allocated US$1 billion to accelerate Kyrgyzstan's entry into the union. Another US$177 million was provided by Kazakhstan.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Treaty on Increased Integration in the Economic and Humanitarian Fields signed in 1996 laid the first foundation for economic convergence. The treaty ensured the creation of a permanent executive organ to oversee integration of states that later would be part of the EAEU. It served as the blueprint for the future common market for goods, services, capital and labour. The Single Economic Space established a single market across the territory of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan. In 2015 with the entry into force of the EAEU Agreement, the single market was expanded to include Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. The countries represent a market of some 180 million people and a combined GDP PPP of around $5 trillion.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Euroasian Economic Union has the tenth-largest economy in the world by nominal GDP and the fifth-largest by purchasing power parity.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Since the turn of the century, member states have experienced economic growth with GDP averaging 6% to 8% growth between 2000 and 2007, rising again in 2010 after the Financial crisis of 2007–08.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Since the establishment of the Eurasian Customs Union in 2010, trade between member states rose sharply. In 2011 mutual trade was $63 billion, 33.9% more than in 2010. In 2012, mutual trade was $68 billion and combined exports reached $594 billion, while imports were $341 billion. The first integration stage primarily enhanced trade among member states, bolstered economies and created a legal and institutional foundation for the member states. The second stage includes the free movements of goods, people, services and capital.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Eurasian Economic Union is designed to reach a number of macroeconomic objectives such as reducing commodity prices by reducing the cost of transportation of raw materials, increasing return on new technologies and products due to the increased market volume, and promoting "healthy" competition in the common market. It is also designed to lower food prices, increase employment in industries and increase production capacity. EAEU members like Belarus and Kazakhstan (by its Nurly Zhol economic policy) seek to leverage the EAEU as a bridge between the European Union and the New Silk Road economic belt.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Eurasian Union is considered as a major player in the world's energy sector, raw materials, arms industry and agricultural production. In 2013 Russia was the 3rd most successful country in the world in attracting capital from abroad.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The core objective of the Single Economic Space is the development of a single market and achieving the "four freedoms", namely the free movements of goods, capital, services and people within the single market. The four freedoms came into effect on 1 January 2015 (the day the Eurasian Economic Union was officially established). The free movement of people means that citizens can move freely among member states to live, work, study or retire. Citizens of the member states of the union may travel to other member states on an internal passport. Although Russia also admits access to citizens of other CIS states without a passport, it is expected that after 2015 only citizens of the Customs Union will have this privilege.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Member states have a common external tariff on all goods entering the market and unified methods of valuing imported goods since the creation of the Eurasian Customs Union on 1 January 2010.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Roughly 75% of Belarusian goods are exported, about half of which go to other member states. Trade within the union primarily consists of Belarusian machinery and agricultural products which are exported to Russia. Low gas prices from Russian energy producers are guaranteed to member states or countries wishing to join the union.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Eurasian Economic Commission operates a competition policy to ensure equal competitive conditions in the commodity markets of the Single Economic Space. It also aims at harmonisation and improvement of legislation of each of the three countries in regard to competition policy. The commission serves as the competition regulator for the single market and is also responsible for antitrust issues. Special regulations limit state intervention in the economy.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev had first proposed, in 2009, the creation of a common noncash currency called "yevraz" for the Eurasian Economic Community. It would have reportedly helped insulate the countries from the global economic crisis. In 2012, the idea of the new joint currency found support from Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev and by 2014 proposals were drafted in Eurasian Commission documents for the establishment of a Eurasian Central Bank and a common currency to be called the altyn which is to be introduced by 2025.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: When discussing the Eurasian Economic Union, Vladimir Putin said the Eurasian Economic Union would include closer coordination of economic and monetary policy, including the use of a common currency in the future. Although the creation of a monetary union was not envisaged in the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called for the introduction of a common currency for the Eurasian Economic Union. Leonid Slutsky, head of the State Duma's CIS committee, backed Medvedev's proposal to start discussions on the creation of a monetary union. Slutsky said it could be introduced shortly after 2015, when the union's structure becomes clear.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, circulated the idea of creating a "new euro" for the Eurasian economic bloc. In April 2014, discussions to introduce a single currency resumed.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister, Igor Shuvalov, stated on 24 July 2014 that the Eurasian Economic Union will have a common currency unit in a span of five to ten years.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Eurasian Economic Union is seen as an energy superpower, producing about 20.7% of the world's natural gas, and 14.6% of the world's oil and gas condensate in 2012, making it the world's top producer in both domains.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: It is worth mentioning that these figures are mainly due to Russian Membership of EAEU, with Kazakhstan contributing 1.9% and 0.6% in gas and oil production respectively. Considerably small oil and gas reserved were discovered in Belarus while there are no such resources in Armenia.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: It also produces 9% of the world's electrical energy and 5.9% of the world's coal, making it the third and fourth producer in the world, respectively.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: In Kazakhstan, energy is the leading economic sector. The country holds about 4 billion tons of proven recoverable oil reserves and 2,000 cubic kilometers (480 cu mi) of gas. Kazakhstan is the world's 17th largest oil exporter and the world's 23rd largest natural gas exporter.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Russia has the world's largest natural gas reserves, the 8th largest oil reserves, and the second largest coal reserves. Russia is also the world's leading natural gas exporter and the second largest natural gas producer, while also the largest oil exporter and the largest oil producer. While trade in oil and gas between resource-rich Russia and Kazakhstan is relatively low, the Belarus economy is heavily dependent on the access to the Russian hydrocarbons and - unlike the case with Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, Russia is Belarus's main trade partner accounting for 47% of all the trade. Belarus imports Russian crude oil (of which 45-50% were used for production of oil products to export) and natural gas (which were not directly re-exported) for the prices below the market ones, paying $173 for 1000 cubic meters of gas (for comparison - $250 for Armenia, $430 for Ukraine).


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: By 2019, Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia intend to create a common electricity market as well as a single hydrocarbons market by 2025. "With the creation of a single hydrocarbons market, we will have a deeper coordination that will allow us to be more competitive both in terms of pricing and in terms of getting high value added products in this very interesting and important market", stated Eurasian Commissioner Daniyal Akhmetov.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The major economic centres are Moscow, Minsk and Astana. The distance between Moscow and Minsk is 717 kilometers, and the distance between Moscow and Astana is 2700 kilometers, making infrastructure a key challenge for the integration of member states. Major infrastructure projects began during the 2000s in order to modernise and connect the regional bloc to other markets, facilitating both integration and trade in the region. In 2007 Moscow announced it will invest US$1 trillion by 2020 to modernise the country's infrastructure.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Kazakhstan ranks favorably in terms of kilometres of road per inhabitant as other developed countries in the world have much less roadway per inhabitant.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Railways have been the primary way of linking countries in the Eurasian Economic Union since the 19th century. It has always been the main way of transport in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union up until today. The union ranks 2nd in the world in terms of railway trackage (about 7.8% of the world's share). However it is still looking to improve cross-border trade within the union.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Eurasian Development Bank has pledged to help in the construction of facilities to produce new generation freight cars and freight containers in Tikhvin, Russia and in Osipovichi, Belarus to respond to the increasing demand for rail transport. Projects have also been launched in Kazakhstan, as the landlocked country is highly dependent on railways for trade.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The most renowned railway in the union is the Trans-Siberian Railway which links the Russian Far East to Moscow. The Southern route also travels via Kazakhstan.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Single Eurasian Sky programme, administered by the Eurasian Economic Commission, outlines the creation of a single market for air services and a single air traffic zone. The single air traffic zone would make it easier for airlines to draw up new flight paths, thereby increasing the number of flights flying through the region. Eurasian Commissioner, Daniyal Akhmetov, said that it would be created on a step-by-step basis. In June 2014, Belarusian Airline Belavia stated that it was ready to move towards the development of the Single Eurasian Sky. The terms and conditions of operation in the common aviation market have not yet been agreed on. However, the project is likely to be modelled on the European Union's Single European Sky. The project will reportedly help turn the airspace of the Eurasian Union into a popular transit hub between Europe and Southeast Asia. "We should understand that currently, the aviation companies of Kazakhstan and Belarus are not able to compete with Russia's aviation companies. Therefore, the programme will envisage a phasing, creating a competitive environment and so on", Eurasian Commissioner Akhmetov said.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Eurasian Economic Union is the top producer of sugar beet and sunflower, producing 18.6% of the world's sugar beet and 22.7% of the world's sunflowers in 2012, as well as a top producer of rye, barley, buckwheat, oats and sunflower seed. It is also a large producer of potatoes, wheat and grain (and grain legumes).


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Part of the competences of the Eurasian Economic Commission are agriculture subsidies. It is responsible for the coordination of agricultural policy-making between member states and ensuring collective food security.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Eurasian Development Bank finances projects to further integration and develop agriculture. It has disbursed approximately US$470 million for projects between 2008 and 2013.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Member states remain optimistic of the union and key partners in the region, namely China, Iran, Turkey remain interested in it. A common belief is that the Eurasian Economic Union has significant potential over the next two decades, with experts predicting a 25 percent growth in the member states' GDP by 2030, which equates to over US$600 billion. The agreement will give member state citizens access to employment and education across the union. It will also entail collaborative policies in many sectors, including agriculture, energy, technology and transportation. These collaborative policies are particularly interesting for countries in Asia seeking access to energy, trade routes in Central Asia and Siberia, and agricultural goods.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Former president Dmitry Medvedev of Russia stated that both the positive and negative experiences of the European Union will be taken into account and argued that the Eurasian Union will avoid the problems of economic gaps and disparity between countries, such as those found in the eurozone, since the member countries have a comparable level of economic development, as well as common history and values.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The European Union and the United States as well as other western countries remain critical of the Eurasian Economic Union, with analysts stating that without modernisation and real economic reforms, the union will have little impact. The popular magazine "The Economist" stated that the advantages of joining the union remain unclear and further remarked "The agreement was vague, with technical details left unresolved, making it a political show rather than an economic one". Outlets have also stated that without Ukraine, the Eurasian Economic Union has lost a key member state necessary to the success of the union. Bloomberg's business magazine, Businessweek has affirmed that joining Putin's Eurasian Union looks like a bad deal, including for Russia. The union "won't really register on the radar of the global economy," said an analyst at the EU's Institute for Security Studies in Paris. Moreover, one research states that so far EAEU was not able to contribute to economic growth in Armenia - quite the contrary, it significantly slowed the economic performance of the country.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: In force since 2012, the multilateral CIS Free Trade Zone Agreement establishes a free trade area between Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia (now all EAEU member states), as well as Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Moldova and Tajikistan. Russia has suspended the Agreement with respect to Ukraine from 1 January 2016, following the provisional application of the DCFTA between the European Union and Ukraine.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Union has signed a first free trade agreement with Vietnam, which is planned to enter into force in October 2016 following the ratification by all the parties.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Having completed a free trade agreement (FTA) feasibility study for Vietnam in November 2012 the then Customs Union, which later became the EAEU, decided to proceed with negotiations. The negotiations over the FTA began in early 2013 and lasted approximately two years – on 29 May 2015 the agreement was signed by Prime Ministers of all the parties to be later ratified by the parties. Trade between Vietnam and the Customs Union in 2011 was US$2.24 billion.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Russia's economic development minister stated that the Turkish economic minister, Nihat Zeybekci, put forward an initiative for closer cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Union, including the formation of a free trade zone between the union and Turkey.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: As announced by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich on 9 December 2013, Israel is considering starting free trade negotiations with the Eurasian Economic Union. The feasibility study was conducted between the two parties and the decision was made to proceed with free trade negotiations, which are expected to start before the end of 2016. Experts believe the negotiations will take around 2 to 3 years to finish.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Russian President Vladimir Putin stated at a July 2014 meeting of ambassadors and permanent representatives of the Russian Federation that he was ready to discuss a free trade area between the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: In February 2015, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced his country would sign a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Union. The preliminary feasibility study has been conducted and the decision to launch negotiation process is expected to be made before the end of 2016.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: There have been discussions on free trade negotiations with over 30 countries, some of them resulting in the preliminary feasibility studies. Such feasibility studies have been conducted with India and the Republic of Korea.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: In May 2015, the Union gave the initial go-ahead to signing a free trade agreement with Iran. Described as the EAEU's "key partner in the Middle East" by Andrey Slepnev, Minister for trade on the Eurasian Economic Commission board in an expert-level EAEU meeting in Yerevan, Viktor Khristenko furthermore noted that Iran is an important partner for all the EAEU member states. He stated that "Cooperation between the EAEU and Iran is an important area of our work in strengthening the economic stability of the region". In December 2015 a "temporary Agreement" was signed between Iran and the EAEU, which Commissioner Andrey Slepnev characterized as the "first step toward the materialization of free trade between Iran and the Union".


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: One of the key initiatives in the field of free trade and economic cooperation is the proposal on "linking" the Eurasian economic integration and China's strategic "Silk Road Economic Belt" project. The relevant communique was signed by Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping on 8 March 2015. While the "linking" mostly is understood as support for infrastructure investments, there are ongoing negotiations between the EAEU and China on a "trade and economic agreement" in order to build "an open economic architecture without a political component, oriented on business and reducing barriers".


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The union is actively seeking to increase trade with East Asia. It commenced talks for official trade cooperation with ASEAN. Officials of both unions discussed opportunities for developing cooperation between them.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The South Korean president launched a "Eurasian Initiative", which seeks to connect transportation, electrical, gas and oil links from Western Europe to East Asia. The initiative echoes China's long-standing "New Silk Road" project.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The members of the union agreed to step up talks with Vietnam on creating a free trade zone, to strengthen cooperation with China, including in information exchange on goods and services, and to set up expert groups to develop preferential trade regimes with Israel and India.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The European Council on Foreign Relations and analysts suggest the Eurasian Union includes strategic interests as well as economic interests for its member states, especially Russia. In order to link both Europe and East Asia, Russia seeks to develop its eastern regions to increase its access to Asian markets. Russia's Far East has gained even more importance due to its proximity to alternative markets since the European Union and United States imposed sanctions on Russia following the crisis in Ukraine.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: China's rise as a major trading partner has been cited as a potential reason for Russia's loss of control over Central Asian economies. The union is seen as a way to counterbalance China's growing trade in Central Asia and the European Union's Eastern Partnership.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: As the trade bloc seeks to profit from the growing economies of East Asia, Russia has made steps to develop its eastern territories, Siberia and the Russian Far East. However, the development of the Russian Far East may face difficulties due to Russia's traditional orientation towards Europe and the region's backward infrastructure and underdeveloped economy. In 2012 Russian President Vladimir Putin called for Russia to "catch the Chinese wind in the sails of the Russian economy". During the same year, a Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East was established and the country hosted a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) in its eastern city of Vladivostok. The country also began striking deals and undertook massive efforts to improve infrastructure in its eastern territories.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Russia's pivot to Asia included the important task of creating a Eurasian trade bloc. The countries seek to increase their competitiveness by sustaining domestic development and defending their interests in the region.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: An estimated 76% of Russia's exports depend on resources extracted (or manufactured) in Siberia. In order to transport goods from East Asia to Europe, they must be transported through Siberia by rail. Hence, the region plays an important role in trade. However, it remains less developed than Russia's western regions and modernisation plans are ongoing.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: In 2013 the Russian government announced it would spend 450 billion roubles (US$14 billion) for the modernisation of the Trans-Siberian and Baikal-Amur railways. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Trans-Siberian railway the country's "strategically vital transport artery". In July 2013 he stated "Rail freight traffic to our Far East ports has increased by 55 percent over the last 5 years and now comes to around 110 million tons a year". Projects to upgrade stations at the border with Mongolia, China and North Korea were also undertaken the same year.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: In 2016, Putin calls on Eurasian Economic Union, China, India, Pakistan, Iran and the CIS to join "Greater Eurasian Partnership".


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Some experts also see the union as a way to curtail the loss of Russian influence in Central Asia. Russian politicians have voiced their concerns over Russia's long southern borders and the challenges it may pose. By creating a regional trade bloc to keep its neighbours in Central Asia stable, Russia hopes to find securing its own borders easier.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Neighbouring Kazakhstan has replicated Russia's attempt to access East Asian markets. In September 2013, the presidents of China and Kazakhstan signed commercial deals and launched China's "New Silk Road". On 20 May 2014, both presidents announced they would link Kazakhstan's railways to the Pacific Ocean by opening a new terminal in the Chinese port city of Lianyungang. China also signed agreements to make further investments in Kazakhstan's energy sector. Both countries announced they would put aside US$1 billion to modernise an oil refinery in Shymkent and a further US$150 million to open a new oil and gas plant near Almaty.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The president of Kazakhstan also held talks with the heads of Chinese corporations and agreed to cooperate in the areas of aircraft production, telecommunication and mining.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Eurasian Economic Union has 17 cities with more than 1 million inhabitants, the largest being Moscow. The most densely populated areas are the capital cities of member states and European Russia. Siberia is the region with the least inhabitants. In Russia about 160 different ethnic groups and indigenous peoples live within the country's borders. Kazakhstan and Belarus are home to sizable ethnic Russian minorities.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Though the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union's populations are comparatively large, its density is low because of the enormous size of Russia and Kazakhstan.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Eurasian Economic Union's average birth rate in 2010 was roughly 12.5 births per 1000 people, higher than the European Union, which has an average of 9.90 births per 1000 people.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: According to Article 110 of the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union (2014) the Russian language is the working language of the 'Bodies of the Union'.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Eurasian Economic Union mainly uses its arms industry, raw materials, gas and oil reserves, and railways as its key assets for trade with foreign countries.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Eurasian Economic Union must negotiate as a whole to sign free trade agreements with other countries. Key players for the Eurasian Economic Union are the European Union, Turkey, Iran, China and the Korean peninsula. The EAEU has sought to increase its trade with partners in the Middle East and East Asia in order to profit from the growing trade between Europe and Asia.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Tensions with the European Union in 2014 have led both unions to pressure post-Soviet states to join their integration unions. Both sides have accused each other of carving spheres of influence. Members of the union, especially Russia have tried to diversify their trade by signing economic agreements with China, Iran and Turkey. Trade with North and South Korea has also risen.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: A rising China has been increasingly interested in Central Asia and the Eurasian Economic Union. Analysts see the union as a potential way China could facilitate its investments in the region. Historically, China held close economic ties with many countries throughout Eurasia. Under the Han Dynasty, its trade routes extended to the Roman Empire. The Economy of the Han Dynasty and other subsequent dynasties exchanged numerous goods with countries throughout Europe and Asia. Both China and the union have stated they would benefit from recreating trade routes modelled on the historic Silk Road.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Railways transport goods from China to the European Union through Kazakhstan and Russia. The country has pushed for the construction of more railway lines to connect Berlin to east China to reduce shipping time. It proposed major high-speed railway lines going towards Europe via Russia and Kazakhstan and another through the Middle East via Tajikistan, a potential future member for the union. China has signed numerous energy deals with Russia and Kazakhstan, as it tries to move from coal to less pollutant alternatives.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Iran has sought to diversify its economy as well, seeing the EAEU and China as key economic partners. Relations between Russia and Iran have increased as both countries are under U.S. sanctions and are seeking new trade partners. in 2014 the two countries signed a historic US$20 billion energy deal. A free trade agreement between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union came into force on 27 October 2019.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Kazakhstan seeks to enhance its ties with Turkey, a key player in the region. In July 2014, Turkey announced closer economic ties with the EAEU, including a possible free trade agreement in the near future.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: In September 2013, Armenia announced its intentions of joining the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. At the time of joining the Union, the Republic of Armenia already had preferential treatment within the framework of the CIS as a party to the Free Trade Zone Agreement of 18 October 2011, and therefore enjoyed significant tariff benefits. According to an IMF representative in Armenia, Armenia's membership to the Eurasian Economic Union resulted in about $250 million a year in customs revenue. Armenia also benefited in the form of secured privileges for 752 products until 2020, which implies no EAEU tariffs due to Union membership. Joining the Union allowed the country to get even more tangible economic effects due to the functioning of the Common Economic Space, the use of common technical regulation, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, non-tariff regulation. Such results confirm that for the implementation of full-scale freedom of movement of goods, liberalization of tariff regulation alone is not enough. The region of Nagorno-Karabakh, however, is disputed between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Tensions rose further in the Caucasus region on 30 July 2014 due to clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Experts estimate that with the accession of Armenia, the internationally unrecognised Nagorno-Karabakh Republic would not be integrated into the Eurasian Union. Armenia is a permanent political, military and economic ally of Russia, whereas Azerbaijan holds close ties with Armenia's long-standing enemy Turkey. The Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev expressed concern in 2013 that no reliable customs border between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh could be drawn. However, Nazarbayev expressed that he holds all the existing disagreements preventing Armenia's integration into Eurasian Economic Union are surmountable. The Chairman of the Foreign Policy Committee in the Armenian Parliament, Artak Zakarian, announced on 14 May 2014 that Armenia will not build any customs borders, including with the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: According to Eurasian Economic Commission statistics, Eurasian Economic Union countries experienced a 1.9% GDP increase between January-June 2018, compared to the same period in 2017. Armenia had the greatest GDP growth index throughout the reporting period - 8.3%. The EEU's industrial output increased by 3.3%, with reprocessing industry increasing by 62.7% and mining increasing by 27.9%. Again, Armenia had the largest growth in industrial production - 9.6% - despite a 12.7% fall in mining.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Previously, Tajikistan was on track to become a potential member of the union, having signed the treaty on the Eurasian Customs Union and the Single Economic Space. However, due to border disputes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the integration process in Tajikistan has stalled. Both countries exchanged fire in December 2013 and August 2014, which resulted in casualties. Both countries have since announced they would resolve conflicts and improve border cooperation. Officials hope to make significant progress by the end of 2015. In March 2020, Uzbekistan announced that it wished to become a Eurasian Union observer state.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Former European commissioner José Manuel Barroso stated at the World Economic Forum that the EU supports the regional integration, including the Eurasian Union. He also praised Kazakhstan for joining the bloc. He criticized the post-Soviet space, saying "the integration in the region is not sufficient". However, he warned that the Russo-Ukrainian War is a major obstacle to good cooperation between the EU and the Eurasian Union.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Tensions between the EAEU and the European Union (EU) occurred as both have sought to deepen their ties with several former Soviet republics. The EU has signed free trade agreements with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. However, separatists in all three countries back closer ties with Russia. Ukraine planned to sign an EU association agreement in 2013, but abruptly cancelled the signing under Russian pressure to join the EAEU. This led to mass protests against Ukraine's president, with the EU supporting a failed political settlement before president Yanukovych fled to Russia, and Russia then annexing the Crimean peninsula (following a disputed referendum) and supporting separatists in Eastern Ukraine. In response, some member states of the European Union have sought to find alternatives to Russian gas, while others have voiced their support for the construction of the South Stream pipeline which circumvents Ukraine. Later the already started construction of the pipeline, under US sanctions on Russia and pressure on EU, the project was abandoned. Analysts believe Russia backs the Eurasian Economic Union in order to limit western influence in the region.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Western analysts generally see the Eurasian Economic Union as a way to reunite many of the former Soviet republics. For example, "Washington Post" author Abigail Hauslohner wrote the treaty was intended "to further bolster [Russia]'s ties to former Soviet republics." The United States expressed its opposition to the Eurasian Union, claiming it is "an attempt" to re-establish a USSR-type union among the former Soviet republics. In December 2012, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed "It's not going to be called that [Soviet Union]. It's going to be called customs union, it will be called the Eurasian Union and all of that, but let's make no mistake about it. We know what the goal is and we are trying to figure out effective ways to slow down or prevent it".


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Kazakhstan's president Nursultan Nazarbayev called it "a hard-won achievement" and "a blessing for our people." Public support in Kazakhstan for the country's accession to the EAEU stood at 68% in June 2014, with 5.5% opposed.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: Thailand, Iran, New Zealand, Tunisia, Turkey, and Vietnam are among the countries that expressed a desire to conclude trade agreements with the new Eurasian Economic Union after the treaty was signed. In 2018, the Faroe Islands signed a new memorandum of understanding with the EEU. The MoU is designed to boost trade and cooperation between the two sides.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: The Eurasian Customs Union has already brought partial economic integration between the three states, and the Eurasian Economic Union is said to be a continuation of this customs union. However, the impact or legacy of that agreement is unclear – trade between the three states actually fell 13% during the agreement's first year.


title: Eurasian Economic Union

text: A number of other regional organisations also provide the basis for further integration: the Union State of Russia and Belarus; the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, consisting of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan; and the Commonwealth of Independent States comprising most of the post-Soviet countries.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American realist painter and printmaker. While he is widely known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper created subdued drama out of commonplace subjects 'layered with a poetic meaning', inviting narrative interpretations. He was praised for "complete verity" in the America he portrayed. His career benefited significantly from his marriage to fellow-artist Josephine Nivison, who contributed much to his work, both as a life-model and as a creative partner.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper was born in 1882 in Nyack, New York, a yacht-building center on the Hudson River north of New York City. He was one of two children of a comfortably well-off family. His parents, of mostly Dutch ancestry, were Elizabeth Griffiths Smith and Garret Henry Hopper, a dry-goods merchant. Although not as successful as his forebears, Garrett provided well for his two children with considerable help from his wife's inheritance. He retired at age forty-nine. Edward and his sister, Marion, attended both private and public schools. They were raised in a strict Baptist home. His father had a mild nature, and the household was dominated by women: Hopper's mother, grandmother, sister, and maid.


title: Edward Hopper

text: His birthplace and boyhood home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. It is now operated as the Edward Hopper House Art Center, serving as a nonprofit community cultural center featuring exhibitions, workshops, lectures, performances, and special events.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper was a good student in grade school, and, by the time he was five, his talent with drawing was already apparent. He readily absorbed his father's intellectual tendencies and love of French and Russian cultures. He also demonstrated his mother's artistic heritage. Hopper's parents encouraged his art and kept him amply supplied with materials, instructional magazines, and illustrated books. Hopper first began signing and dating his drawings at the age of 10. Among the earliest of these drawings are charcoal sketches of geometric shapes, a vase, bowl, cup, and boxes. The detailed examination of light and shadow that continued throughout his career is already visible in these early works. By his teens, he was working in pen-and-ink, charcoal, watercolor, and oil—drawing from nature while also making political cartoons. In 1895, he created his first signed oil painting, "Rowboat in Rocky Cove", which he copied from a reproduction in "The Art Interchange", a popular journal for amateur artists. Hopper's other earliest oils, such as "Old ice pond at Nyack" and his c.1898 painting "Ships," have been identified as copies of paintings by artists including Bruce Crane and Edward Moran.


title: Edward Hopper

text: In his early self-portraits, Hopper tended to represent himself as skinny, ungraceful, and homely. Though a tall and quiet teenager, his prankish sense of humor found outlet in his art, sometimes in depictions of immigrants or of women dominating men in comical situations. Later in life, he mostly depicted women as the figures in his paintings. In high school (he graduated from Nyack High School in 1899), he dreamed of becoming a naval architect, but after graduation declared his intention to pursue a career in art. Hopper's parents insisted that he study commercial art to have a reliable means of income. In developing his self-image and individualistic philosophy of life, Hopper was influenced by the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. He later said, "I admire him greatly...I read him over and over again."


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper began art studies with a correspondence course in 1899. Soon he transferred to the New York School of Art and Design, the forerunner of Parsons School of Design. There, he studied for six years with teachers including William Merritt Chase, who instructed him in oil painting. Early on, Hopper modeled his style after Chase and French Impressionist masters Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas. Sketching from live models, however, proved challenging and somewhat shocking for the conservatively raised Hopper.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Another of his teachers, artist Robert Henri, taught life class. Henri encouraged his students to use their art to "make a stir in the world." He also advised his students, "It isn't the subject that counts but what you feel about it" and "Forget about art and paint pictures of what interests you in life." In this manner, Henri influenced Hopper, as well as future artists George Bellows and Rockwell Kent. He encouraged them to imbue their work with a modern spirit. Some artists in Henri's circle, including John Sloan, became members of "The Eight", also known as the Ashcan School of American Art. Hopper's first surviving oil painting to hint at his use of interiors as a theme was "Solitary Figure in a Theater" (c.1904). During his student years, he also painted dozens of nudes, still life studies, landscapes, and portraits, including self-portraits.


title: Edward Hopper

text: In 1905, Hopper landed a part-time job with an advertising agency, where he created cover designs for trade magazines. Hopper came to detest illustration. He was bound to it by economic necessity until the mid-1920s. He temporarily escaped by making three trips to Europe, each centered in Paris, ostensibly to study its art scene. In fact, he studied alone and seemed mostly unaffected by the new currents in art. Later, he said he didn't "remember hearing of Picasso at all". He was highly impressed by Rembrandt, particularly his "Night Watch", which he said was "the most wonderful thing of his I have seen; it's past belief in its reality."


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper began painting urban and architectural scenes in a dark palette. Then he shifted to the lighter shades of the Impressionists before returning to the darker palette, with which he was most comfortable. He later said, "I got over that and later things done in Paris were more the kind of things I do now." Hopper spent much of his time drawing street and café scenes, and going to the theater and opera. Unlike many of his contemporaries who imitated the abstract cubist experiments, Hopper was attracted to realist art. Later, he admitted to no European influences other than French engraver Charles Meryon, whose moody Paris scenes Hopper imitated.


title: Edward Hopper

text: After returning from his last European trip, Hopper rented a studio in New York City, where he struggled to define his own style. Reluctantly, he returned to illustration to support himself. Being a freelancer, Hopper was forced to solicit for projects, and had to knock on the doors of magazine and agency offices to find business. His painting languished: "it's hard for me to decide what I want to paint. I go for months without finding it sometimes. It comes slowly." His fellow illustrator Walter Tittle described Hopper's depressed emotional state in sharper terms, seeing his friend "suffering...from long periods of unconquerable inertia, sitting for days at a time before his easel in helpless unhappiness, unable to raise a hand to break the spell."


title: Edward Hopper

text: In 1912 (February 22 to March 5) he was included in the exhibition of The Independents a group of artists at the initiative of Robert Henri but did not make any sales.


title: Edward Hopper

text: In 1912, Hopper traveled to Gloucester, Massachusetts, to seek some inspiration and made his first outdoor paintings in America. He painted "Squam Light", the first of many lighthouse paintings to come.


title: Edward Hopper

text: In 1913, at the Armory Show, Hopper earned $250 when he sold his first painting, "Sailing" (1911), to an American businessman Thomas F Vietor, which he had painted over an earlier self-portrait. Hopper was thirty-one, and although he hoped his first sale would lead to others in short order, his career would not catch on for many more years. He continued to participate in group exhibitions at smaller venues, such as the MacDowell Club of New York. Shortly after his father's death that same year, Hopper moved to the 3 Washington Square North apartment in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan, where he would live for the rest of his life.


title: Edward Hopper

text: The following year he received a commission to create some movie posters and handle publicity for a movie company. Although he did not like the illustration work, Hopper was a lifelong devotee of the cinema and the theatre, both of which he treated as subjects for his paintings. Each form influenced his compositional methods.


title: Edward Hopper

text: At an impasse over his oil paintings, in 1915 Hopper turned to etching. By 1923 he had produced most of his approximately 70 works in this medium, many of urban scenes of both Paris and New York. He also produced some posters for the war effort, as well as continuing with occasional commercial projects. When he could, Hopper did some outdoor oil paintings on visits to New England, especially at the art colonies at Ogunquit, and Monhegan Island.


title: Edward Hopper

text: During the early 1920s his etchings began to receive public recognition. They expressed some of his later themes, as in "Night on the El Train" (couples in silence), "Evening Wind" (solitary female), and "The Catboat" (simple nautical scene). Two notable oil paintings of this time were "New York Interior" (1921) and "New York Restaurant" (1922). He also painted two of his many "window" paintings to come: "Girl at Sewing Machine" and "Moonlight Interior", both of which show a figure (clothed or nude) near a window of an apartment viewed as gazing out or from the point of view from the outside looking in.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Although these were frustrating years, Hopper gained some recognition. In 1918, Hopper was awarded the U.S. Shipping Board Prize for his war poster, "Smash the Hun". He participated in three exhibitions: in 1917 with the Society of Independent Artists, in January 1920 (a one-man exhibition at the Whitney Studio Club, which was the precursor to the Whitney Museum), and in 1922 (again with the Whitney Studio Club). In 1923, Hopper received two awards for his etchings: the Logan Prize from the Chicago Society of Etchers, and the W. A. Bryan Prize.


title: Edward Hopper

text: By 1923, Hopper's slow climb finally produced a breakthrough. He re-encountered Josephine Nivison, an artist and former student of Robert Henri, during a summer painting trip in Gloucester, Massachusetts. They were opposites: she was short, open, gregarious, sociable, and liberal, while he was tall, secretive, shy, quiet, introspective, and conservative. They married a year later with artist Guy Pene du Bois as their best man. She remarked: "Sometimes talking to Eddie is just like dropping a stone in a well, except that it doesn't thump when it hits bottom." She subordinated her career to his and shared his reclusive life style. The rest of their lives revolved around their spare walk-up apartment in the city and their summers in South Truro on Cape Cod. She managed his career and his interviews, was his primary model, and was his life companion.


title: Edward Hopper

text: With Nivison's help, six of Hopper's Gloucester watercolors were admitted to an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum in 1923. One of them, "The Mansard Roof", was purchased by the museum for its permanent collection for the sum of $100. The critics generally raved about his work; one stated, "What vitality, force and directness! Observe what can be done with the homeliest subject." Hopper sold all his watercolors at a one-man show the following year and finally decided to put illustration behind him.


title: Edward Hopper

text: The artist had demonstrated his ability to transfer his attraction to Parisian architecture to American urban and rural architecture. According to Boston Museum of Fine Arts curator Carol Troyen, "Hopper really liked the way these houses, with their turrets and towers and porches and mansard roofs and ornament cast wonderful shadows. Hopper always said that his favorite thing was painting sunlight on the side of a house."


title: Edward Hopper

text: At forty-one, Hopper received further recognition for his work. He continued to harbor bitterness about his career, later turning down appearances and awards. With his financial stability secured by steady sales, Hopper would live a simple, stable life and continue creating art in his personal style for four more decades.


title: Edward Hopper

text: His "Two on the Aisle" (1927) sold for a personal record $1,500, enabling Hopper to purchase an automobile, which he used to make field trips to remote areas of New England. In 1929, he produced "Chop Suey" and "Railroad Sunset". The following year, art patron Stephen Clark donated "House by the Railroad" (1925) to the Museum of Modern Art, the first oil painting that it acquired for its collection. Hopper painted his last self-portrait in oil around 1930. Although Josephine posed for many of his paintings, she sat for only one formal oil portrait by her husband, "Jo Painting" (1936).


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper fared better than many other artists during the Great Depression. His stature took a sharp rise in 1931 when major museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, paid thousands of dollars for his works. He sold 30 paintings that year, including 13 watercolors. The following year he participated in the first Whitney Annual, and he continued to exhibit in every annual at the museum for the rest of his life. In 1933, the Museum of Modern Art gave Hopper his first large-scale retrospective.


title: Edward Hopper

text: In 1930, the Hoppers rented a cottage in South Truro, on Cape Cod. They returned every summer for the rest of their lives, building a summer house there in 1934. From there, they would take driving trips into other areas when Hopper needed to search for fresh material to paint. In the summers of 1937 and 1938, the couple spent extended sojourns on Wagon Wheels Farm in South Royalton, Vermont, where Hopper painted a series of watercolors along the White River. These scenes are atypical among Hopper's mature works, as most are "pure" landscapes, devoid of architecture or human figures. "First Branch of the White River" (1938), now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is the best-known of Hopper's Vermont landscapes.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper was very productive through the 1930s and early 1940s, producing among many important works "New York Movie" (1939), "Girlie Show" (1941), "Nighthawks" (1942), "Hotel Lobby" (1943), and "Morning in a City" (1944). During the late 1940s, however, he suffered a period of relative inactivity. He admitted: "I wish I could paint more. I get sick of reading and going to the movies." During the next two decades, his health faltered, and he had several prostate surgeries and other medical problems. But, in the 1950s and early 1960s, he created several more major works, including "First Row Orchestra" (1951); as well as "Morning Sun" and "Hotel by a Railroad", both in 1952; and "Intermission" in 1963.


title: Edward Hopper

text: In 1966, Hopper was awarded The Edward MacDowell Medal by The MacDowell Colony for outstanding contributions to American culture.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper died of natural causes in his studio near Washington Square in New York City on May 15, 1967. He was buried two days later in the family plot at Oak Hill Cemetery in Nyack, New York, his place of birth. His wife died ten months later and is buried with him.


title: Edward Hopper

text: His wife bequeathed their joint collection of more than three thousand works to the Whitney Museum of American Art. Papers and drawings in the Hopper home passed into the keeping of family friend Arthayer Sanborn. Other significant paintings by Hopper are held by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Des Moines Art Center, and the Art Institute of Chicago.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Always reluctant to discuss himself and his art, Hopper simply said, "The whole answer is there on the canvas." Hopper was stoic and fatalistic—a quiet introverted man with a gentle sense of humor and a frank manner. Hopper was someone drawn to an emblematic, anti-narrative symbolism, who "painted short isolated moments of configuration, saturated with suggestion". His silent spaces and uneasy encounters "touch us where we are most vulnerable", and have "a suggestion of melancholy, that melancholy being enacted". His sense of color revealed him as a pure painter as he "turned the Puritan into the purist, in his quiet canvasses where blemishes and blessings balance". According to critic Lloyd Goodrich, he was "an eminently native painter, who more than any other was getting more of the quality of America into his canvases".


title: Edward Hopper

text: Conservative in politics and social matters (Hopper asserted for example that "artists' lives should be written by people very close to them"), he accepted things as they were and displayed a lack of idealism. Cultured and sophisticated, he was well-read, and many of his paintings show figures reading. He was generally good company and unperturbed by silences, though sometimes taciturn, grumpy, or detached. He was always serious about his art and the art of others, and when asked would return frank opinions.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper's most systematic declaration of his philosophy as an artist was given in a handwritten note, titled "Statement", submitted in 1953 to the journal "Reality":


title: Edward Hopper

text: Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world. No amount of skillful invention can replace the essential element of imagination. One of the weaknesses of much abstract painting is the attempt to substitute the inventions of the human intellect for a private imaginative conception.


title: Edward Hopper

text: The inner life of a human being is a vast and varied realm and does not concern itself alone with stimulating arrangements of color, form and design.


title: Edward Hopper

text: The term life used in art is something not to be held in contempt, for it implies all of existence and the province of art is to react to it and not to shun it.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Painting will have to deal more fully and less obliquely with life and nature's phenomena before it can again become great.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Though Hopper claimed that he didn't consciously embed psychological meaning in his paintings, he was deeply interested in Freud and the power of the subconscious mind. He wrote in 1939, "So much of every art is an expression of the subconscious that it seems to me most of all the important qualities are put there unconsciously, and little of importance by the conscious intellect."


title: Edward Hopper

text: Although he is best known for his oil paintings, Hopper initially achieved recognition for his watercolors and he also produced some commercially successful etchings. Additionally, his notebooks contain high-quality pen and pencil sketches, which were never meant for public viewing.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper paid particular attention to geometrical design and the careful placement of human figures in proper balance with their environment. He was a slow and methodical artist; as he wrote, "It takes a long time for an idea to strike. Then I have to think about it for a long time. I don't start painting until I have it all worked out in my mind. I'm all right when I get to the easel". He often made preparatory sketches to work out his carefully calculated compositions. He and his wife kept a detailed ledger of their works noting such items as "sad face of woman unlit", "electric light from ceiling", and "thighs cooler".


title: Edward Hopper

text: For "New York Movie" (1939), Hopper demonstrates his thorough preparation with more than 53 sketches of the theater interior and the figure of the pensive usherette.


title: Edward Hopper

text: The effective use of light and shadow to create mood also is central to Hopper's methods. Bright sunlight (as an emblem of insight or revelation), and the shadows it casts, also play symbolically powerful roles in Hopper paintings such as "Early Sunday Morning" (1930), "Summertime" (1943), "Seven A.M." (1948), and "Sun in an Empty Room" (1963). His use of light and shadow effects have been compared to the cinematography of "film noir".


title: Edward Hopper

text: Although a realist painter, Hopper's "soft" realism simplified shapes and details. He used saturated color to heighten contrast and create mood.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper derived his subject matter from two primary sources: one, the common features of American life (gas stations, motels, restaurants, theaters, railroads, and street scenes) and its inhabitants; and two, seascapes and rural landscapes. Regarding his style, Hopper defined himself as "an amalgam of many races" and not a member of any school, particularly the "Ashcan School". Once Hopper achieved his mature style, his art remained consistent and self-contained, in spite of the numerous art trends that came and went during his long career.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper's seascapes fall into three main groups: pure landscapes of rocks, sea, and beach grass; lighthouses and farmhouses; and sailboats. Sometimes he combined these elements. Most of these paintings depict strong light and fair weather; he showed little interest in snow or rain scenes, or in seasonal color changes. He painted the majority of the pure seascapes in the period between 1916 and 1919 on Monhegan Island. Hopper's "The Long Leg" (1935) is a nearly all-blue sailing picture with the simplest of elements, while his "Ground Swell" (1939) is more complex and depicts a group of youngsters out for a sail, a theme reminiscent of Winslow Homer's iconic "Breezing Up" (1876).


title: Edward Hopper

text: Urban architecture and cityscapes also were major subjects for Hopper. He was fascinated with the American urban scene, "our native architecture with its hideous beauty, its fantastic roofs, pseudo-gothic, French Mansard, Colonial, mongrel or what not, with eye-searing color or delicate harmonies of faded paint, shouldering one another along interminable streets that taper off into swamps or dump heaps."


title: Edward Hopper

text: In 1925, he produced "House by the Railroad". This classic work depicts an isolated Victorian wood mansion, partly obscured by the raised embankment of a railroad. It marked Hopper's artistic maturity. Lloyd Goodrich praised the work as "one of the most poignant and desolating pieces of realism." The work is the first of a series of stark rural and urban scenes that uses sharp lines and large shapes, played upon by unusual lighting to capture the lonely mood of his subjects. Although critics and viewers interpret meaning and mood in these cityscapes, Hopper insisted "I was more interested in the sunlight on the buildings and on the figures than any symbolism." As if to prove the point, his late painting "Sun in an Empty Room" (1963) is a pure study of sunlight.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Most of Hopper's figure paintings focus on the subtle interaction of human beings with their environment—carried out with solo figures, couples, or groups. His primary emotional themes are solitude, loneliness, regret, boredom, and resignation. He expresses the emotions in various environments, including the office, in public places, in apartments, on the road, or on vacation. As if he were creating stills for a movie or tableaux in a play, Hopper positioned his characters as if they were captured just before or just after the climax of a scene.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper's solitary figures are mostly women—dressed, semi-clad, and nude—often reading or looking out a window, or in the workplace. In the early 1920s, Hopper painted his first such images "Girl at Sewing Machine" (1921), "New York Interior" (another woman sewing) (1921), and "Moonlight Interior" (a nude getting into bed) (1923). "Automat" (1927) and "Hotel Room" (1931), however, are more representative of his mature style, emphasizing the solitude more overtly.


title: Edward Hopper

text: The spare vertical and diagonal bands of color and sharp electric shadows create a concise and intense drama in the night...Combining poignant subject matter with such a powerful formal arrangement, Hopper's composition is pure enough to approach an almost abstract sensibility, yet layered with a poetic meaning for the observer.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper's "Room in New York" (1932) and "Cape Cod Evening" (1939) are prime examples of his "couple" paintings. In the first, a young couple appear alienated and uncommunicative—he reading the newspaper while she idles by the piano. The viewer takes on the role of a voyeur, as if looking with a telescope through the window of the apartment to spy on the couple's lack of intimacy. In the latter painting, an older couple with little to say to each other, are playing with their dog, whose own attention is drawn away from his masters. Hopper takes the couple theme to a more ambitious level with "Excursion into Philosophy " (1959). A middle-aged man sits dejectedly on the edge of a bed. Beside him lies an open book and a partially clad woman. A shaft of light illuminates the floor in front of him. Jo Hopper noted in their log book, "[T]he open book is Plato, reread too late".


title: Edward Hopper

text: Plato's philosopher, in search of the real and the true, must turn away from this transitory realm and contemplate the eternal Forms and Ideas. The pensive man in Hopper's painting is positioned between the lure of the earthly domain, figured by the woman, and the call of the higher spiritual domain, represented by the ethereal lightfall. The pain of thinking about this choice and its consequences, after reading Plato all night, is evident. He is paralysed by the fervent inner labour of the melancholic.


title: Edward Hopper

text: In "Office at Night" (1940), another "couple" painting, Hopper creates a psychological puzzle. The painting shows a man focusing on his work papers, while nearby his attractive female secretary pulls a file. Several studies for the painting show how Hopper experimented with the positioning of the two figures, perhaps to heighten the eroticism and the tension. Hopper presents the viewer with the possibilities that the man is either truly uninterested in the woman's appeal or that he is working hard to ignore her. Another interesting aspect of the painting is how Hopper employs three light sources, from a desk lamp, through a window and indirect light from above. Hopper went on to make several "office" pictures, but no others with a sensual undercurrent.


title: Edward Hopper

text: The best-known of Hopper's paintings, "Nighthawks" (1942), is one of his paintings of groups. It shows customers sitting at the counter of an all-night diner. The shapes and diagonals are carefully constructed. The viewpoint is cinematic—from the sidewalk, as if the viewer were approaching the restaurant. The diner's harsh electric light sets it apart from the dark night outside, enhancing the mood and subtle emotion. As in many Hopper paintings, the interaction is minimal. The restaurant depicted was inspired by one in Greenwich Village. Both Hopper and his wife posed for the figures, and Jo Hopper gave the painting its title. The inspiration for the picture may have come from Ernest Hemingway's short story "The Killers", which Hopper greatly admired, or from the more philosophical "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place". The mood of the painting has sometimes been interpreted as an expression of wartime anxiety. In keeping with the title of his painting, Hopper later said, "Nighthawks" has more to do with the possibility of predators in the night than with loneliness.


title: Edward Hopper

text: His second most recognizable painting after "Nighthawks" is another urban painting, "Early Sunday Morning" (originally called "Seventh Avenue Shops"), which shows an empty street scene in sharp side light, with a fire hydrant and a barber pole as stand-ins for human figures. Originally Hopper intended to put figures in the upstairs windows but left them empty to heighten the feeling of desolation.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper's rural New England scenes, such as "Gas" (1940), are no less meaningful. "Gas" represents "a different, equally clean, well-lighted refuge ... ke[pt] open for those in need as they navigate the night, traveling their own miles to go before they sleep." The work presents a fusion of several Hopper themes: the solitary figure, the melancholy of dusk, and the lonely road.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper approaches surrealism with "Rooms by the Sea" (1951), where an open door gives a view of the ocean, without an apparent ladder or steps and no indication of a beach.


title: Edward Hopper

text: After his student years, Hopper's nudes were all women. Unlike past artists who painted the female nude to glorify the female form and to highlight female eroticism, Hopper's nudes are solitary women who are psychologically exposed. One audacious exception is "Girlie Show" (1941), where a red-headed strip-tease queen strides confidently across a stage to the accompaniment of the musicians in the pit. "Girlie Show" was inspired by Hopper's visit to a burlesque show a few days earlier. Hopper's wife, as usual, posed for him for the painting, and noted in her diary, "Ed beginning a new canvas—a burlesque queen doing a strip tease—and I posing without a stitch on in front of the stove—nothing but high heels in a lottery dance pose."


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper's portraits and self-portraits were relatively few after his student years. Hopper did produce a commissioned "portrait" of a house, "The MacArthurs' Home" (1939), where he faithfully details the Victorian architecture of the home of actress Helen Hayes. She reported later, "I guess I never met a more misanthropic, grumpy individual in my life." Hopper grumbled throughout the project and never again accepted a commission. Hopper also painted "Portrait of Orleans" (1950), a "portrait" of the Cape Cod town from its main street.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Though very interested in the American Civil War and Mathew Brady's battlefield photographs, Hopper made only two historical paintings. Both depicted soldiers on their way to Gettysburg. Also rare among his themes are paintings showing action. The best example of an action painting is "Bridle Path" (1939), but Hopper's struggle with the proper anatomy of the horses may have discouraged him from similar attempts.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper's final oil painting, "Two Comedians" (1966), painted one year before his death, focuses on his love of the theater. Two French pantomime actors, one male and one female, both dressed in bright white costumes, take their bow in front of a darkened stage. Jo Hopper confirmed that her husband intended the figures to suggest they are taking their life's last bows together as husband and wife.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper's paintings have often been seen by others as having a narrative or thematic content that the artist may not have intended. Much meaning can be added to a painting by its title, but the titles of Hopper's paintings were sometimes chosen by others, or were selected by Hopper and his wife in a way that makes it unclear whether they have any real connection with the artist's meaning. For example, Hopper once told an interviewer that he was "fond of "Early Sunday Morning"... but it wasn't necessarily Sunday. That word was tacked on later by someone else."


title: Edward Hopper

text: The tendency to read thematic or narrative content into Hopper's paintings, that Hopper had not intended, extended even to his wife. When Jo Hopper commented on the figure in "Cape Cod Morning" "It's a woman looking out to see if the weather's good enough to hang out her wash," Hopper retorted, "Did I say that? You're making it Norman Rockwell. From my point of view she's just looking out the window." Another example of the same phenomenon is recorded in a 1948 article in "Time":


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper's "Summer Evening", a young couple talking in the harsh light of a cottage porch, is inescapably romantic, but Hopper was hurt by one critic's suggestion that it would do for an illustration in "any woman's magazine." Hopper had the painting in the back of his head "for 20 years and I never thought of putting the figures in until I actually started last summer. Why any art director would tear the picture apart. The figures were not what interested me; it was the light streaming down, and the night all around."


title: Edward Hopper

text: In focusing primarily on quiet moments, very rarely showing action, Hopper employed a form of realism adopted by another leading American realist, Andrew Wyeth, but Hopper's technique was completely different from Wyeth's hyper-detailed style. In league with some of his contemporaries, Hopper shared his urban sensibility with John Sloan and George Bellows but avoided their overt action and violence. Where Joseph Stella and Georgia O'Keeffe glamorized the monumental structures of the city, Hopper reduced them to everyday geometrics and he depicted the pulse of the city as desolate and dangerous rather than "elegant or seductive".


title: Edward Hopper

text: Charles Burchfield, whom Hopper admired and to whom he was compared, said of Hopper, "he achieves such a complete verity that you can read into his interpretations of houses and conceptions of New York life any human implications you wish." He also attributed Hopper's success to his "bold individualism. ... In him we have regained that sturdy American independence which Thomas Eakins gave us, but which for a time was lost." Hopper considered this a high compliment since he considered Eakins the greatest American painter.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper scholar Deborah Lyons writes, "Our own moments of revelation are often mirrored, transcendent, in his work. Once seen, Hopper's interpretations exist in our consciousness in tandem with our own experience. We forever see a certain type of house as a Hopper house, invested perhaps with a mystery that Hopper implanted in our own vision." Hopper's paintings highlight the seemingly mundane and typical scenes in our everyday life and give them cause for epiphany. In this way Hopper's art takes the gritty American landscape and lonely gas stations and creates within them a sense of beautiful anticipation.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Although compared to his contemporary Norman Rockwell in terms of subject matter, Hopper did not like the comparison. Hopper considered himself more subtle, less illustrative, and certainly not sentimental. Hopper also rejected comparisons with Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton stating "I think the American Scene painters caricatured America. I always wanted to do myself."


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper's influence on the art world and pop culture is undeniable; see for numerous examples. Though he had no formal students, many artists have cited him as an influence, including Willem de Kooning, Jim Dine, and Mark Rothko. An illustration of Hopper's influence is Rothko's early work "Composition I" (c. 1931), which is a direct paraphrase of Hopper's "Chop Suey".


title: Edward Hopper

text: Hopper's cinematic compositions and dramatic use of light and dark have made him a favorite among filmmakers. For example, "House by the Railroad" is reported to have heavily influenced the iconic house in the Alfred Hitchcock film "Psycho". The same painting has also been cited as being an influence on the home in the Terrence Malick film "Days of Heaven". The 1981 film "Pennies from Heaven" includes a tableau vivant of "Nighthawks", with the lead actors in the places of the diners. German director Wim Wenders also cites Hopper influence. His 1997 film "The End of Violence" also incorporates a tableau vivant of "Nighthawks", recreated by actors. Noted surrealist horror film director Dario Argento went so far as to recreate the diner and the patrons in "Nighthawks" as part of a set for his 1976 film "Deep Red" (aka "Profondo Rosso"). Ridley Scott has cited the same painting as a visual inspiration for "Blade Runner". To establish the lighting of scenes in the 2002 film "Road to Perdition", director Sam Mendes drew from the paintings of Hopper as a source of inspiration, particularly "New York Movie".


title: Edward Hopper

text: Homages to "Nighthawks" featuring cartoon characters or famous pop culture icons such as James Dean and Marilyn Monroe are often found in poster stores and gift shops. The cable television channel Turner Classic Movies sometimes runs animated clips based on Hopper paintings prior to airing its films. Musical influences include singer-songwriter Tom Waits's 1975 live-in-the-studio album titled "Nighthawks at the Diner", after the painting. In 1993, Madonna was inspired sufficiently by Hopper's 1941 painting "Girlie Show" that she named her world tour after it and incorporated many of the theatrical elements and mood of the painting into the show. In 2004, British guitarist John Squire (formerly of The Stone Roses) released a concept album based on Hopper's work entitled "Marshall's House". Each song on the album is inspired by, and shares its title with, a painting by Hopper. Canadian rock group The Weakerthans released their album Reunion Tour in 2007 featuring two songs inspired by and named after Hopper paintings, "Sun in an Empty Room", and "Night Windows", and have also referenced him in songs such as "Hospital Vespers". Hopper's "Compartment C, Car 293" inspired Polish composer Paweł Szymański's "Compartment 2, Car 7" for violin, viola, cello and vibraphone (2003), as well as Hubert-Félix Thiéfaine's song "Compartiment C Voiture 293 Edward Hopper 1938" (2011). Hopper's work has influenced multiple recordings by British band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. "Early Sunday Morning" was the inspiration for the sleeve of "Crush" (1985). The same band's 2013 single "Night Café" was influenced by "Nighthawks" and mentions Hopper by name. Seven of his paintings are referenced in the lyrics.


title: Edward Hopper

text: In poetry, numerous poems have been inspired by Hopper's paintings, typically as vivid descriptions and dramatizations; this genre is known as ekphrasis. In addition to numerous individual poems inspired by Hopper, several poets have written collections based on Hopper's paintings. The French poet Claude Esteban wrote a collection of prose poems, "" ("Sun in an Empty room", 1991), based on forty-seven Hopper paintings from between 1921 and 1963, ending with "Sun in an Empty room" (1963), hence the title. The poems each dramatized a Hopper painting, imagining a story behind the scene; the book won the Prix France Culture prize in 1991. Eight of the poems – "Ground Swell", "Girl at Sewing Machine", "Compartment C, Car 293", "Nighthawks", "South Carolina Morning", "House by the Railroad", "People in the Sun", and "Roofs of Washington Square" – were subsequently set to music by composer Graciane Finzi, and recorded with reading by the singer Natalie Dessay on her album "Portraits of America" (2016), where they were supplemented by selecting ten additional Hopper paintings, and songs from the American songbook to go with them. Similarly, the Spanish poet Ernest Farrés wrote a collection of fifty-one poems in Catalan, under the name "Edward Hopper" (2006, English translation 2010 by Lawrence Venuti), and James Hoggard wrote "Triangles of Light: The Edward Hopper Poems" (Wings Press, 2009). A collection by various poets was organized in "The Poetry of Solitude: A Tribute to Edward Hopper" 1995 (editor Gail Levin). Individual poems include Byron Vazakas (1957) and John Stone (1985) inspired by "Early Sunday Morning", and Mary Leader inspired by "Girl at Sewing Machine".


title: Edward Hopper

text: In 1980, the show "Edward Hopper: The Art and the Artist" opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art and visited London, Düsseldorf, and Amsterdam, as well as San Francisco and Chicago. For the first time ever, this show presented Hopper's oil paintings together with preparatory studies for those works. This was the beginning of Hopper's popularity in Europe and his large worldwide reputation.


title: Edward Hopper

text: In 2004, a large selection of Hopper's paintings toured Europe, visiting Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany, and the Tate Modern in London. The Tate exhibition became the second most popular in the gallery's history, with 420,000 visitors in the three months it was open.


title: Edward Hopper

text: In 2007, an exhibition focused on the period of Hopper's greatest achievements—from about 1925 to mid-century—and was presented at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The exhibit comprised fifty oil paintings, thirty watercolors, and twelve prints, including the favorites "Nighthawks", "Chop Suey", and "Lighthouse and Buildings". The exhibition was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Art Institute of Chicago and sponsored by the global management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.


title: Edward Hopper

text: In 2010, the Fondation de l'Hermitage museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, held an exhibition that covered Hopper's entire career, with works drawn largely from the Whitney Museum in New York City. It included paintings, watercolors, etchings, cartoons, posters, as well as some of the preparatory studies for selected paintings. The exhibition had previously been seen in Milan and Rome. In 2011, The Whitney Museum of American Art held an exhibition called "Edward Hopper and His Times".


title: Edward Hopper

text: In 2012, an exhibition opened at the Grand Palais in Paris that sought to shed light on the complexity of his masterpieces, which is an indication of the richness of Hopper's oeuvre. It was divided chronologically into two main parts: the first section covered Hopper's formative years (1900–1924), comparing his work with that of his contemporaries and art he saw in Paris, which may have influenced him. The second section looked at the art of his mature years, from the first paintings emblematic of his personal style, such as "House by the Railroad" (1924), to his last works.


title: Edward Hopper

text: In 2020, Fondation Beyeler held an exhibition displaying Hopper's art. The exhibition focused on Hopper's "iconic representations of the infinite expanse of American landscapes and cityscapes". This aspect has rarely been referred to in exhibitions, yet it is a key ingredient to understanding Hopper's work.


title: Edward Hopper

text: From 2022 to 2023, his work was featured at the Whitney Museum in New York City, in an exhibition was entitled, "Edward Hopper's New York".


title: Edward Hopper

text: Works by Hopper rarely appear on the market. The artist was not prolific, painting just 366 canvases; during the 1950s, when he was in his 70s, he produced approximately five paintings a year. Hopper's longtime dealer, Frank Rehn, who gave the artist his first solo show in 1924, sold "Hotel Window" (1956) to collector Olga Knoepke for $7,000 () in 1957. In 1999, the Forbes Collection sold it to actor Steve Martin privately for around $10 million. In 2006, Martin sold it for $26.89 million at Sotheby's New York, an auction record for the artist.


title: Edward Hopper

text: In 2013 the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts put Hopper's "East Wind Over Weehawken" (1934) up for sale, hoping to garner the $22–$28 million at which the painting is valued, to establish a fund to acquire "contemporary art" that would appreciate in value. It is a street scene rendered in dark, earthy tones depicting the gabled house at 1001 Boulevard East at the corner of 49th Street in Weehawken, New Jersey, and is considered one of Hopper's best works. It was acquired directly from the dealer handling the artist's paintings in 1952, fifteen years before the death of the painter, at a very low price. The painting sold for a record-breaking $36 million at Christie's in New York, to an anonymous telephone bidder.


title: Edward Hopper

text: In 2018, after the death of art collector Barney A. Ebsworth and subsequent auction of many of the pieces from his collection, "Chop Suey" (1929) was sold for $92 million, becoming the most expensive of Hopper's work ever bought at auction.


title: Edward Hopper

text: In 1981, "Hopper's Silence", a documentary by Brian O'Doherty produced by the Whitney Museum of American Art, was shown at the New York Film Festival at Alice Tully Hall.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Austrian director Gustav Deutsch created the 2013 film "Shirley – Visions of Reality" based on 13 of Edward Hopper's paintings.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Other works based on or inspired by Hopper's paintings include Tom Waits's 1975 album "Nighthawks at the Diner", and a 2012 series of photographs by Gail Albert Halaban.


title: Edward Hopper

text: In the book (1985, 1998) and traveling exhibition called "Hopper's Places", Gail Levin located and photographed the sites for many of Hopper's paintings. In her 1985 review of a related show organized by Levin, Vivien Raynor wrote in the "New York Times": "Miss Levin's deductions are invariably enlightening, as when she infers that Hopper's tendency to elongate structures was a reflection of his own great height."


title: Edward Hopper

text: New wave band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's 1985 album "Crush" features artwork inspired by several Hopper paintings, including "Early Sunday Morning", "Nighthawks" and "Room in New York". The band's 2013 single "Night Cafe" was influenced by "Nighthawks" and mentions Hopper by name. Seven of his paintings are referenced in the lyrics.


title: Edward Hopper

text: The New York City Opera staged the East Coast premiere of Stewart Wallace's "Hopper's Wife" – a 1997 chamber opera about an imagined marriage between Edward Hopper and the gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, at Harlem Stage in 2016.


title: Edward Hopper

text: Irish novelist, Christine Dwyer Hickey, published a novel, "The Narrow Land", in 2019 in which Edward and Jo Hopper were central characters.


title: James Lafferty

text: James Martin Lafferty (born July 25, 1985) is an American actor, director, and producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Nathan Scott on The WB/CW teen drama television series "One Tree Hill" (2003–2012).


title: James Lafferty

text: Lafferty was born in Hemet, California to Angelica and Jeffrey Lafferty, who own a local construction company. He has a younger brother, actor Stuart Lafferty.


title: James Lafferty

text: Having worked as an uncredited extra on television shows including "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman", Lafferty received his first significant acting role in a school play when he was ten years old. Lafferty attended Hemet High School (where he played on the school's basketball team) until 2003, after which he enrolled at California State University, Long Beach. At age eighteen, he moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, having been cast as Nathan Scott in "One Tree Hill".


title: James Lafferty

text: In 1997, at age twelve, Lafferty made his small-screen acting debut with a voice-over role in the made-for-television film "Annabelle's Wish". Lafferty has since made guest appearances on television series' such as "Once and Again", "Get Real", and "Boston Public". In 2002, Lafferty starred in the ESPN made-for-television film "A Season on the Brink", an adaptation of the book of the same name by John Feinstein. The film centered on the 1985–86 season of Indiana University's college basketball team.


title: James Lafferty

text: In 2003, Lafferty was cast in his breakout role of Nathan Scott on The WB/The CW teen drama series "One Tree Hill". The series follows two estranged half-brothers, Nathan and Lucas Scott, who are put on the same basketball team, jeopardizing Nathan's position as the star player. In May 2011, The CW renewed the series for a ninth and final season, for which Lafferty chose to return on a recurring basis rather than in a full-time starring role. Over the course of the later seasons, Lafferty directed four episodes. He received four Teen Choice Award nominations throughout his time on the series.


title: James Lafferty

text: In February 2008, Lafferty was cast in the straight-to-DVD sequel to the cult film "Donnie Darko". Titled "S. Darko", the film was released in May 2009, and received mostly negative reviews from critics. In April 2011, Lafferty was confirmed to star alongside "One Tree Hill" castmate Stephen Colletti and brother Stuart Lafferty in a planned adventurous reality television series entitled "Wild Life: A New Generation of Wild", for which he was an executive producer. A pilot episode was filmed, however the series failed to find a network. In 2013, Lafferty was cast in the NBC crime thriller series "Crisis", as Mr Nash. This was followed by landing the lead role of Jimmy Adams in the independent movie "Waffle Street", alongside Danny Glover, and being cast in a recurring role during the first season of WGN America's slave drama "Underground". In August 2015, Lafferty directed an episode of the second season of E! drama series "The Royals", and returned to direct a few more episodes during season three.


title: James Lafferty

text: Lafferty currently resides in Los Angeles, California. He dated his "One Tree Hill" co-star Sophia Bush from 2008 to 2009. He became engaged to Australian actress Alexandra Park on September 7, 2020. The couple began dating in 2015 after meeting on the set of "The Royals", when Lafferty directed several episodes. They got married on May 23, 2022 in Hawaii.