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Inspiration from Artists Week 76 : Chris Neale and Edward Hopper.
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Posted
I hadn't seen the landscapes before, they offer a very different slant. I love his architectural paintings - the stark, sharp lines of those buildings appeal to me very much. I've seen his most famous painting too often to really have an opinion on it, it's become part of my visual furniture ... for the same reason, I find it hard to get excited about Constable's The Cornfield, or The Haywain: even though I know and it's obvious that they're great paintings.
Whether he painted loneliness or solitude, alienation or distance, is very much open to subjective opinion, but I can see why the impressions he leaves could in themselves be alienating - they are, some of them, quite disturbing: the lone woman with her cup of coffee in that large, empty space; the diner painting, with the bartender interacting with the couple, while the other man seems oddly excluded, the painting in the theatre ... they do seem to me to suggest exclusion, but an exclusion that is as much chosen as imposed. You can certainly see the structure of film, and staging - whether he influenced them or they him I don't know; possibly both.
This doesn't make him necessarily a painter that one likes or feels easy with, but then that's his strength - he makes you ask what's going on here: what is REALLY going on; and those are questions which one can't answer, so he's never less than interesting.
As for the ones I like - to the extent that's a different thing (which it is!): the Coastguard station painting is stark, and harsh, and wonderful; the landscape eighth down, in the first selection, is empty of all human and animal life, and for me all the more remarkable because he's let that landscape speak for itself without any embellishment other than the light cast on it; and I know well, and have always liked, what I've called the Psycho House - it isn't, of course, this is no Bates Motel building, but it's in a typical US Gothic style; it's the fifth one down in the first selection, and I think it's beautifully painted.
The coastal scenes appeal, too - a very good selection, and if anything my opinion of Hopper has been enhanced by it.
Posted
Hello all - have been reading this with interest. I really like Edward Hopper's land and seascapes - I love the clear light in them. I used to work in an Arts library and we had a lovely book on his watercolours, which you don't often see or hear about. Apologies - I am not technical enough to insert any examples but they are well worth a look at online.
Posted
That is very striking Tony. I can see why that one attracted you.
Here are a few more that I like and I found some of his drawings in preparation for paintings. I read that his wife was also an accomplished artist and that if he needed encouragement to paint, she herself would start a painting which would trigger him because he was very competitive.
Posted
I always find that when I look at an artist’s work in paint I seem to end up seeking out their drawings Dixie. Maybe it’s realisation of the preparation that goes into the finished article, and we don’t necessarily think of that. Anyhow it’s good to see some of Hoppers work that I hadn’t seen before.
Posted
The more I see - and I've seen a lot I hadn't seen before now - the more I respect this artist; don't want to bang on about it, because I've already said a lot, but he was SO much more than the standard, well known, even done-to-death images. The sheer depth of colour in the painting Tony showed - the uncertainty of the image (is the yacht actually sinking, or is it about to? Is there actually someone on board?) just disembodies it from individual concerns and makes it an eternal vision. I'm sure that was entirely intentional - instinctively or by design.
Posted
I think that’s one of the real values of this series of discussions, that we explore further and find more than the very commercial and well known paintings especially of an artist like Hopper.
There is a very interesting bio of Hopper on the website of the Whitney Museum of American Art which has over 3000 of his preparatory sketches including these. The first is of his wife Jo on one of their travels around the US, and a self portrait.
The more I look, the more I like!
Edited
by Tessa Gwynne