MATTHEW WOODCOCK visits Britain's first Edward Hopper exhibition in more than two decades.

THE paintings of Edward Hopper are some of the most influential and well known of the modern era. No student bedroom wall or chic wine bar is complete without one.

His snapshots of everyday American life have had a major impact on popular culture, from the films of Alfred Hitchcock to the books of Norman Mailer.

Fans of the artist now have the opportunity to see the first major Hopper exhibition to take place in the UK for more than 20 years at the Tate Modern in London. My girlfriend and I have long been admirers and jumped at the chance to travel by GNER to London for the day to see his paintings.

Seventy of Hopper's works, from his early Parisian subjects to the poignant portraits of American life created in the 1940s and 1950, hang in 11 rooms at the gallery. The exhibition was heaving during our visit so it is advisable to book in advance.

A helpful pocket-sized guide is provided free on entry, giving colourful background information on the paintings.

Hopper's mission was to reveal the truth about the everyday and the interior lives of ordinary people. There is an overwhelming sense of loneliness and isolation in his paintings, from the man tending the petrol pumps on a country road to nowhere, to the moody diner scene in his most famous work, Nighthawks.

A sense of sexual tension permeates many of Hopper's works, most notably in Office At Night, in which a secretary stares suggestively at her boss as he fiddles with a sheet of paper.

Some of the paintings on display are accompanied by a series of fascinating rough sketches, detailing the painstaking process the artist went through to produce his masterpieces.

Hopper aside, culture vultures can enjoy a feeding frenzy at the Tate Modern.

The works in its four main sections range from the ingenious to the frankly ridiculous and take some getting round before art fatigue sets in.

Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe images are on display, as well as several Picasso nudes and Rodin sculptures, including The Kiss.

Even more modern art lovers will enjoy Mark Dion's Tate Thames Dig 1999. He and a team of volunteers combed the foreshore of the river at low tide along two stretches of beach at Millbank and Bankside, which yielded all manner of human flotsam. The artefacts are now displayed but uncategorised in a huge mahogany cabinet at the gallery, leaving the viewers to make up their own minds about them.

Breathtaking views of the Thames and beyond can be found in the restaurant and bar section on the top floor. What better place to debate how on earth that squiggly red line or mounted glass of water can be classed as art.

Fact file

- Tate Modern has free entry and is open from 10am to 6pm between Sundays and Thursdays and 10am to 10pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

- Edward Hopper exhibition runs until September 5. Tickets are £9 (£7 concessions).

- For more information, telephone 0207 8878687 or visit the website www.tate.org.uk

- Journey: GNER train service from York to Kings Cross, then London Underground to Blackfriars, and five-minute walk to Tate Modern.

Updated: 08:46 Saturday, July 10, 2004