Martin Gayford

American psyche

The Royal Academy’s latest show includes several terrible paintings, but Edward Hopper’s ‘Gas’ gets deeper into the mystery of America than ‘American Gothic’ ever did

issue 25 February 2017

The latest exhibition at the Royal Academy is entitled America after the Fall. It deals with painting in the United States during the 1930s: that is, the decade before the tidal surge of abstract expressionism. So this show is a sort of prequel to the RA’s great ab ex blockbuster of last autumn.

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