Hopper’s earliest influences included the French Impressionists, particularly Edgar Degas. It’s as much a picture of our own sense of isolation (and, of course, Hopper’s) as it is a picture of a vulnerable lone woman. A painting such as Night Windows (1928), which positions the viewer in a first-floor apartment looking across at a woman bending over in the room opposite, might be superficially considered voyeuristic, but it is better understood as a meditation on the need for connection, and the difficulty of reaching out and connecting with others. Perhaps this is why “voyeurism” is an overused term in Hopper criticism. The lack of details invites the spectator to complete the image by speculating on past and impending events, on the relationships between the characters, and on the desires and anxieties provoked by our own need to examine these characters’ lives. He turned iconic American spaces such as diners, drug stores, hotel rooms, gas stations and movie theatres into spaces reflective of the artist’s interior realm, spaces of mood, feeling, contemplation of one’s position in the world.īehind the apparent simplicity of the paintings lies great complexity and depth. The haunting power of Hopper’s art derives from his particular brand of realism, one which is sparse, disinclined toward extraneous detail and, ultimately, characterized by what the painting seems to omit rather than what it represents. Hopper’s cultural reputation was surely cemented when the same diner from Nighthawks was reinvented as Moe’s Bar in Episode 18 of Season 8 of The Simpsons. Nighthawks is perhaps Hopper’s most referenced work in popular culture, influencing Tom Waits’ 1975 live album, Nighthawks at the Diner. Despite the melancholy and longing that haunts Hopper’s paintings, his popularity and influence endure. We are all created equal, and yet what makes us equal is our absolute, inviolable uniqueness and individualism. At the heart of Hopper’s urban vision are the paradoxes of the foundational democratic myth. Like Hopper, the creators of noir and detective texts were concerned with the negative effects of urbanisation and increasing economic disparities. In this regard his work can be considered alongside the film noir of the 30s and 40s, and the work of writers such as Raymond Chandler. In a transforming America of the 20th century, his brand of Americanism offered a counterpoint to American optimism. Hopper continues to be regarded as an important painter of the “ American Imagination”, a phenomenon which his urban paintings capture. His works depict urban loneliness, disappointment, even despair. In Hopper’s works, even a buzzing city doesn’t remedy isolation, but heightens it.īorn on July 22 1882, Hopper later became a prolific artist. The images of lone individuals in impersonal spaces, with hollowed and dark eyes gazing from windows or down at their drinks, are combined to remind spectators that the default state of humanity is isolation. The vivid colours of Automat (1927) and Nighthawks (1942) against the contrasts of light and shade were sharp, suggestive and familiar. Walking through the rooms of the exhibition was both exhilarating and dispiriting. What is it about Hopper’s brand of melancholy that has struck a chord with so many? It is now 50 years since Hopper died and his popularity hasn’t waned. Up to that point, only the acclaimed duo of Matisse and Picasso had beat this record. When Edward Hopper’s retrospective at Tate Modern in London closed in September 2004, more than 420,000 tickets had been sold.
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