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Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Allison Stewart. The artist and New York Native, Edward Hopper, is known for his poignant depictions of life, but what may not be as well known was that he was an avid cyclist and cycling fan. A new event kicking off this month combines both passions in anyone with a bike and stamina to get evolved. The journey is called the Whitney Hopper Ride, and it's both open to Hopper fans and cyclists or anyone inspired to ride a good 60 miles.

Kicking off at 7:00 AM on July 22nd, the route goes from the Whitney in the Meatpacking District to Hopper's birthplace in Nyack in honor of the late artist's birthday. Here to talk about it and how to participate are two people who have been closely involved with both Hopper's work and the event, Kim Conaty, who is curator of Edward Hopper's New York, which is at the Whitney this past year. You might have heard about it on this very show. Nice to see you.

Kim Conaty: Nice to see you as well, Alison

Alison Stewart: Executive director of the Edward Hopper House Museum and Study Center in Nyack, which is the end of the ride, Kathie Bennewitz. Kathie, nice to meet you.

Kathie Bennewitz: It's nice to meet you too. Thanks for having us both on.

Alison Stewart: Kim, who dreams this up? This birthday bike ride?

Kim Conaty: I think this was a wonderful collaborative effort. In fact, I think a number of people at the Whitney in thinking about how to expand Edward Hoppers New York and to think about programming began thinking there happens to be a very popular New York bike ride for city cyclists who go to Nyack. It is the bike ride. Of course, that bike ride then could connect. You leave from the west side path of the Hudson River Greenway right up and over the George Washington Bridge and often end in Nyack right by the Edward Hopper house.

There were a number of us here thinking about that. Of course, the Hopper house, as Kathie knows well, is well aware of the cycling community from the city that end up there and vice versa. It was a perfect perfect opportunity.

Alison Stewart: Kathie, how is Edward Hopper's love of cycling documented? Where? How do we know this?

Kathie Bennewitz: Well, it's documented in a number of ways. First of all, we happen to own his actual bicycle from 1897, his high school bicycle, which was made in Chicago. It was a racing bike. There are also quite a few drawings in the Whitney's collection that Edward Hopper did as a youth of cycling. That there are sometimes they're self-portraits. They're portraits of racers from Princeton and Yale as well as women's cyclists, which was a very important element to this.

I think that really for this ride, and I just want to add one note. The ride actually is full circle to the Whitney. It's going to be starting at the Whitney, going to the Edward Hopper house. We're having a refueling station, if you will, for the cyclist as well as an opportunity to have a quick photo op with the bicycle in the galleries. Then they all return on the eastern side of the Hudson back to the Whitney, where there'll be a little small celebration as well.

Alison Stewart: For people who aren't familiar with the Edward Hopper house, tell us a little bit about it.

Kathie Bennewitz: Well, the Edward Hopper house was actually built in 1858 by Edward Hopper's maternal grandparents. It was them who the Hoppers lived as a family. He was born in 1882, so this is his 141st birthday and he lived in the house in Nyack with his sister and parents until 1908, when at age 26 he moves to New York permanently. However, after high school, he starts commuting to the city like so many people do, and commuting both by ferry and then trained to Grand Central or taking the New Jersey line, which was in Nyack.

There's always been a chemistry between the two locations and the family, like many people today in Nyack, would go to New York often for entertainment and other things to do. The house, our museum preserves the house and his legacy. We're doing a lot more to really explore what Nyack meant to his artistic development and in leading themes to his mature art.

Alison Stewart: Kim, what was Hopper's connection to the Meatpacking District?

Kim Conaty: Well, he lived quite close to here. As Kathie mentioned, Hopper grew up in Nyack but began commuting to Manhattan for art school between 1899 and 1906. Then after living in a couple of apartments, a typical early New York life for many people, he settles in 1913 on Washington Square North. That location right on the north side of Washington Square Park is really just about a 20-minute walk from the Whitney today. He's really tied to his neighborhood.

What was also very interesting is thinking about how much of a walker Hopper was during his life in the city. He loved taking strolls and really looking closely observing the city around him. We know he took many walks along Seventh Avenue, so you imagine him literally walking right along where the Whitney's location is today.

Alison Stewart: Am I misremembering, but were there a few paintings of the L the elevated train in the show?

Kim Conaty: Right, exactly. Well, he certainly made a number of paintings that were based on the views from elevated trains from that way of seeing the city during his lifetime. The Highline, that of course is here today, that begins right at the Whitney's site and stretches up to Hudson Yards, that was the freight train. It gives us the idea of what the idea of the experience of the elevated rail that Hopper would've ridden as a passenger. However, those passenger lines are really mostly no longer extent.

Alison Stewart: We are talking about the Whitney Hopper ride taking place on July 22nd. My guests are Kathie Bennewitz from the Edward Hopper House and Kim Conaty, curator at the Whitney. Kathie, when we think about some points along the way, which might be interesting for people who want to look up from the bike along the bike ride, what might people see?

Kathie Bennewitz: Well, I think that what's important is that this ride, which is being organized by outcycling.org, is a ride that really is for cyclists to make their way as best they can because it's a hard ride. We know that, as Kim has pointed out, the scenes in New York, he clearly would've experienced scenery along the Hudson when he traveled by train or by ferry. The views from Nyack are things that he grew up with, views from his window of the Hudson River is a very important source of light and imagery for him. These are all things that allow you to go back.

I think that what is also most important is that on the Rockland County side, and especially in Nyack, the topography, the architectural setting has really not changed. When you come into downtown Nyack, you're seeing the same buildings that he saw when he was a child. This low-rise, two to three-story architectural scene is very much what he's drawn to in the city as well.

You really do go back in time and it's a wonderful ride to connect the past to the present and then add that extra element of learning about Edward Hopper for the cyclists, especially who may not know as much or understand those connections to the place that they come and have their halfway snacks as well. It's wonderful just to come a few blocks up and be engrossed in that experience and to really walk the footsteps of that Edward Hopper did and or the cycling path that he did, through the town.

Alison Stewart: Kim, do you want to add something?

Kim Conaty: Yes, one other thing I wanted to add. I love this idea that this ride is really a traveling back in time. That's absolutely right. Then what has always thrilled me, even as a longtime New Yorker, is that experience when you're coming back from Nyack on bike. You come through Rockland County, you're passing the Palisades and you re-approach the George Washington Bridge and have that truly majestic view down the Hudson to see the Manhattan skyline.

That's something I also now find myself thinking about Hopper because he wouldn't have been taking this bike ride over the George Washington Bridge. It wasn't open until 1931. He was almost 50. He wasn't riding his bike there, but he was taking that ferry. He did have that view, that coming around the corner on the Hudson, looking down and capturing that really great long view of the city. When you're on a bike, you're not angry that you're sitting in traffic at that same spot.

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Alison Stewart: Kim, I'm curious, if someone is going on this ride and they get to Hopper house and they feel like, "Oh, I really would like to see some more Edward Hopper," the show is already closed, but what is in the collection that people can come see at the Whitney?

Kim Conaty: Sure. We always have Edward Hopper's work on view within our permanent collection at the Whitney. As many people know, we are the largest repository of Hopper's work in the world. We have a little over 3,000 works by Hopper in the collection. Currently on our seventh-floor permanent collection galleries, we have four great paintings on view. That includes the iconic Early Sunday Morning. We also have a couple of his gorgeous watercolors and some of his drawings as well. You really will get a nice scan of the types of work that Hopper was making.

Alison Stewart: Kathie, if someone's interested, how can they sign up? Where's the best place to go? What are some of the perks of going on the trip aside from learning about some art?

Kathie Bennewitz: No, great. You can go directly to the Whitney website, to Edward Hopper House website, which has a registration link, or also to outcycling.org, which has a direct link to the Whitney Hopper Ride. The cost is $100 per cyclist. There's food and snacks at the turn event, as we call it in Nyack. I think there's pizza and a drink at the Whitney. You also get a one-of-a-kind water bottle specially designed with a cartoon inspired by a drawing at the Whitney.

Inside are going to be two tickets to the Whitney Museum to return at your leisure in the next year, as well as two tickets to come to the Edward Hopper House, so you can explore another time on your bicycle or via train or take a ride up. It's a nice little package. Our hope is that this will become an annual event, but no matter, this is a great kickoff and a celebration of success at the Hopper's New York show and more. I think it's been a wonderful partnership with everybody.

Alison Stewart: Happy riding to everybody, my guests have been Kathie Bennewitz and Kim Conaty. Thanks so much for giving us all the information.

Kathie Bennewitz: Great. It's nice to be here.

Kim Conaty: Thanks for having us, Alison.

Alison Stewart: That's All Of It for today. I'm Alison Stewart. I appreciate you listening and I appreciate you. I'll meet you back here next time.

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