Weekend 3 of my remembrance and sharing of the artists who have influenced me over the decades. This week, Edward Hopper.
Edward Hopper – Woman in the Sun
Edward Hopper got my attention while I was still in High School. What grabbed me was first and foremost his incredible compositional skills. If you have ever heard me talk on my own work you know that in spite of me always having some emotional or psychological content in my work, while I am actually doing it I am overwhelmingly concerned with the visual composition of the piece. Without composition, content is diminished in my eyes.
Edward Hopper – Woman in the Sun – sketchbook record
I found this while looking for images for this post. I love the idea that he made a drawn and written record of his paintings, including who he sold the piece to. I wish I could get $15,000 for one of mine! Any takers?
Edward Hopper – Western Motel
Check out my napkins and often times you will see people inside with simple windows showing a distant landscape. Hopper frequently did the same thing and I always loved the emotional and psychological power it had in his images. Speaking of composition, note how every single item and element in this painting has its compositional as well as its story telling purpose.
Edward Hopper – New York Office
Another visual idea Hopper plays with often is the street or path disappearing into and behind the main subject of the piece. The juxtaposition of the brightly lit woman in the office, elegant and colorful, with the dark foreboding side street going who knows where is a powerful symbolic idea. Its the hint of a secret, the hint of all not being exactly as it seems, that there is something darker, scarier, going on, that I find so powerful. And once again, this idea would never have the power it does if Hopper didn’t know how to compose the image to perfection.
Edward Hopper – Chop Suey
I will admit, my main fascination with this image, besides the incredible composition, is the woman in green. Whenever I have looked at this painting over the years I am taken to that moment in time, wondering who she is and what she is all about. By the way, note the woman with the red hat and brightly lit profile on the far left. Why do you think he included her?
Edward Hopper – Night Shadows – Etching
Of course, with his focus on the power of composition you know he would find a way to use black and white. His etchings are as amazing as his paintings.
Edward Hopper – Room by the Sea
And finally, one usually does not see Hopper categorized as a metaphysical or spiritual artist. But I think of him that way, with his sparse lonely individuals lost in thought and his isolated buildings and homes placed in unlikely environments. This one is probably my favorite when it comes to that idea. It is not about a room by the sea, it’s about you taking a step into the unknown. I love this piece because, for me, it’s about courage – the single most important characteristic one needs to lead a creative life.
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Fall/Winter 2016
Winter/Spring 2015
Summer 2014
Winter 2012/2013
- Week #5 – Francisco Goya
- Week #4 – Robert Irwin
- Week #3 – Veruschka
- Week #2 – Albrecht Durer
- Week #1 – Roger Brown
Winter 2011/2012
- Week #10 – Coco Larrain
- Week #9 – Nina Levy
- Week #8 – Andy Goldsworthy
- Week #7 – Wayne Thiebaud
- Week #6 – Richard Diebenkorn
- Week #5 – Roy Lichtenstein
- Week #4 – Thomas Hart Benton
- Week #3 – Edward Hopper
- Week #2 – Henri Matisse
- Week #1 – Rembrandt
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Full of pathos!
Pauline, thank you very much for commenting on my blog entry today. I truly appreciate it when someone takes the time to do that. Thank you as well for your kind compliment about my style and humor, I am glad you like both!
Sidney, I love when I hear about people framing postcards and simple prints. My grandfather collected mid-century regionalist prints and drawings and I have some of those still. But he also had 4 inexpensive prints of Rembrandt etchings framed, worth nothing monetarily compared to the other originals he had. But I loved them just the same as a child and still have them to this day. It’s the surrounding yourself and those you love with art that matters, not if it is an original or not. Thanks!
Thanks, Marty, for sharing Hopper’s intriguing work and your insightful comments with us. Each of the pieces you featured would lend itself well to the writing of a story or poem about it.
I’ve appreciated your unique style and humor as an artist. Thank you!
I love, love, LOVE Hopper! Thank you for posting this, Marty. I used to receive a Hopper calendar each year and one year also received a postcard book of his prints. I now have sixteen of them framed and hanging above our sofa.
Additionally, one of my LEAST favorite / most creepy former beaux bought me a huge, beautifully-matted and framed print of “Office in a Small City.” Even once it was mold-damaged in an apartment leak, I kept it for years.
My favorite is “Room in New York.”
Thanks again.
Yes Agnes, Hopper was quite the master, wasn’t he. A professor of mine once said something along the lines of ‘You may not like great art, but if it really is great, you won’t be able to argue with it.’ What he meant was everything is so placed, so arranged, so communicated that you cannot imagine anything that should have, or even could have, been done to it to make it better. That is how I see Hopper’s work, and all the artists I am talking about in this series.
Wow Marty, I love these. the colors, the composition, everything.