Summer FridaysA guide to enjoying the best of the city every weekend.
A Chance to Walk Into Edward Hopper's World
If you could inhabit a painting — walk into the scene, look around and maybe sit down and have a cup of coffee — which one would you want to be in? This weekend you will have three well-known paintings by the stark urban realist Edward Hopper to choose from. You could take a seat at the counter as if you had found your way, tired and late, to the diner in his masterpiece, "Nighthawks." Like the counterman in the painting, a barista will be on hand to pour coffee. Or you could transport yourself to the Parisian nightclub in Hopper's "Soir Bleu," another scene where the people don't seem to have anything to do with one another. You don't have to wear a tuxedo, as one of the figures in the painting does. But a clown — made up to look like the one Hopper depicted — will be at the center of things. Or you could step into the stillness of "Early Sunday Morning" and stand in front of what Hopper called "almost a literal translation of Seventh Avenue." You don't have to wait until Sunday morning to do so. Starting this afternoon at 1 p.m., the three canvases will be recreated as life-size installations, like stage sets on the street, in the meatpacking district in Manhattan. They will be the centerpieces of a four-day program called "Step Into Hopper" at Gansevoort Plaza, on Gansevoort Street where Greenwich Street becomes Ninth Avenue. "Step Into Hopper" is part of a birthday celebration — Hopper was born 142 years ago on July 22 — but is not the only part. On Saturday a 60-mile round-trip bike ride will take cyclists from the Whitney Museum of American Art to Hopper's birthplace, the Edward Hopper House in Nyack, N.Y. "There's a distinct emotion that comes across when you look at a Hopper painting — even in the ones with people in them, there's a stillness," said Jeffrey LeFrancois, the executive director of the Meatpacking BID, as the business improvement district in the neighborhood is known. The group organized "Step Into Hopper" with the Whitney. The installations in "Step Into Hopper" are different from the electronically projected images in some interactive displays. The Meatpacking BID turned to the set designer Theresa Rivera to transform the paintings into three-dimensional backdrops. "Obviously with Hopper, it's a pretty significant ask to ask someone to copy," LeFrancois said. "Everything from the brush stroke to the color choices are things she had to take into consideration while making it life-size." Scott Rothkopf, the director of the Whitney, said the experience of stepping into scenes like the three Hoppers was "different from what can be done in Photoshop." "Anyone can put themselves in a painting," he said. "That's different from doing it down the street from where the painting lives." Down the street from where two of the three live, anyway. "Early Sunday Morning" and "Soir Bleu" are at the Whitney. "Nighthawks" — in which, Hopper said, "unconsciously, probably, I was painting the loneliness of a large city" — was sold to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1942. But over the weekend, the re-creations will be placed close together because "there's an eerily similar look" to the row of townhouses in the background of "Nighthawks" and those in "Early Sunday Morning," LeFrancois said. "Step Into Hopper" will continue through Monday afternoon and serve as a prelude to another Whitney event. On Tuesday, after the Hopper sets have been stowed, Gansevoort Plaza will become a dance studio for a free class led by Linda Celeste Sims, an instructor from Ailey Extension, an affiliate of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. The connection to the Whitney is "Edges of Ailey," an exhibition about Ailey's legacy that is scheduled to open at the museum in September; tickets will go on sale on Tuesday. As for Saturday's bicycle ride, don't expect Rothkopf to pedal along. "I am not a cyclist," he said, adding that he looked forward to "seeing the pictures on Instagram." WEEKEND WEATHER It will be a weekend of sun and clouds with temperatures in the mid-to-high 80s during the day. The evenings will be partly cloudy, with temperatures dropping to the low 70s. There is a chance of showers on Saturday night. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Aug. 13 (Tisha B'Av). What Else to Do This Weekend
Arts & Culture
For more events in New York, here's a list of what to do this month. 'Junie B.'s Essential Survival Guide to School'
Yes, it's only July. But even children who can't bear to think of reading, writing and arithmetic until September will enjoy "Junie B.'s Essential Survival Guide to School." It will be performed on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. and on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at the 92NY in Manhattan. The show is about a little antiheroine's attempts to write the ultimate first-grade advice manual. Junie B. Jones (Taylor Rae Fox) butts heads with classmates after the teacher turns the endeavor into a class project. Junie B. — who has "an ego almost as big as her id," my colleague Laurel Graeber wrote after a 2016 production of the show at the Lucille Lortel Theater — doesn't like that. "Junie B.'s Essential Survival Guide" has pop tunes that often show her to be more creative, and more outrageous, than her classmates. In the number "El Toro Fabuloso," a flamenco dancer (Melissa Hunt) portrays the little girl's temper as an ornery bull. But eventually Junie B. tames the beast within. METROPOLITAN DIARY Gym pals
Dear Diary: Most mornings at 6, I'm on the cross-trainer at my Upper West Side gym. More often than not, the same man is on the cross-trainer next to me. We have never talked to each other or exchanged glances while working out, each of us focused intently on exercising. On a glorious June afternoon, I was walking outside when I spotted my gym neighbor having a meal outside at a restaurant. I stopped at his table. "Hi," I said, smiling. "I think you and I work out at the same time every morning." He returned my smile. "Yes!" he said emphatically. "See you tomorrow morning?" I gave him a thumbs up and kept walking. The next morning, we were back at our respective cross-trainers bright and early. We did not talk to each other or exchange glances, each of us focused intently on exercising. — Sujal Kapadia Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you Monday. — J.B. P.S. Here are today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Melissa Guerrero and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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N.Y. Today: A Walk Into Edward Hopper’s World
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