Automat is another example of Hopper pushing toward dream. A woman sits lost in thought in an Art Deco eatery at night, one glove removed to hold her coffee cup. Automats, as curator Carol Troyen points out in the excellent catalog for the Boston show, were "busy, noisy, and anonymous." Despite its title, Hopper's remarkably still picture has none of the paraphernalia of the Jazz Age automat: gleaming coffee urns, seemingly magical vending machines, abundant condiments. Instead, our attention is drawn to those reflected overhead orbs streaming from the woman's cloche hat like thought bubbles in a comic book. Automat could suggest the Surrealist penchant for automatic writing, played out in the dark-gray dream-space of the window.