Amiche al Bar

The art of the American painter Edward Hopper (1882-1967) has always fascinated us for his extraordinary ability to capture silence, defining with geometric precision the colors and shapes around the essence of our contemporary life. A modernity that, despite its constantly evolving frenetic dynamism, reveals itself to be immobile and voiceless, suspended in a disorienting atmosphere along with its characters. The latter are invariably crystallized in a shell of fatal melancholy, like the protagonists of this 1929 painting titled "Chop Suey," a term visible on the sign outside the establishment, indicating that Chinese food is served there.

Derived from the Cantonese expression "tsap sui" (meaning odds and ends), Chop Suey restaurants became very popular in 1920s America as convenient luncheonettes where one could have quick and inexpensive meals. Hopper was a frequent visitor to these establishments along with his wife, Jo Nivison.

The painting, once part of the prestigious Ebsworth Collection in St. Louis, was sold at a Christie's auction in New York in 2018 to a private collector for the extraordinary sum of $91,875,000.