Edward Hopper: Poet of Loneliness or Master Colorist?

-

Edward Hopper, Burly Cobb's House, South Truro, oil on canvas
1930-33

Every since I saw his paintings of bright sunlight and long, soulful shadows I've been a little obsessed with the work of Edward Hopper. It had such an impact on me when I was struggling as an abstract painter as an undergraduate at Oberlin College that I abruptly switched to painting realist oils. 

I know how we see art is profoundly personal- I tell my wife Alice that arguing about art is about as useful as arguing about whether of not artichokes taste good (though for the record, Alice is wrong and they taste bad). Still I'm puzzled about what art writers choose to say about Hopper. One thing they're sure comment on is loneliness or isolation. Well, I can see that, but for me his work resonateswith what I'd call solitude. But we project what we want to see onto his art. 

Hopper as a young man.


Almost nobody seems to want to write about how Hopper uses color. He's one of the best- right up there with Monet. Color in nature isn't always sweet. It's far more valuable to employ colors that surprise the viewer's eye. 

On his first summer on Cape Cod Hopper stood on a hill in South Truro and looked down at an array of the cool grays of roofing shingles. What transfixed his eye was how these grays played off against the warm world of oranges, ochres, and yellow greens of the surrounding fields and hillside.  These warmer earthy tones  make our eyes see the gray roofs as silver and lend them an unexpected icy shimmer.

There's not a lot of detail in this Hopper oil. Yet he found new combinations of hues and made them seem that they are the only possible colors to describe the particular subject. 

By many accounts in person Hopper could be cold and remote, and probably that lends weight to the "Hopper painted loneliness" view. But for me his subtle but lush worlds of color show a deeper side to the artist. Beneath the surface there was a real talent celebrating sensual chromatic beauty. I believe we are so intrigued by the emotional themes we find in his work because he was so good at telling his story with extraordinarily skilled visual elements- high among them surprising color and unexpected compositions. 

 He labored hard to share his warm vision with us- that's the mark of a generous man.



Popular posts from this blog

Edward Hopper- Looking Out

-
Image
Edward Hopper, Cape Cod Morning,   oil on canvas, 1950,  Smithsonian American Art Museum Above is a painting I've loved for some forty years. I'm fortunate to be able to see it often as it lives in the SAAM in Washington, D.C. . This painting contains a real clue to Hopper's art. I visit there often as it helps me learn how to see better. Often writers will talk about the loneliness of Hopper's paintings or how his figures feel isolated and rarely interact with one another. While there is some of that in Hopper's painting, it begs a question- why is Hopper's art so widely loved? I'd offer a couple of answers. First, he's one of the most talented painters and was able to invent visual equivalents for strong emotions we humans experience as we live our lives.  He saw color combining in unexpected ways and offered up generous servings of the most delicious color combinations. Yum. Usually, as in the SAAM's Cape Cod Morning above, when he paints
Read more

Ever Wonder What's in the Next Room in Hopper's Rooms by the Sea?

-
Image
Edward Hopper, Rooms by the Sea , oil on canvas, 1951, Yale University Art Gallery One of Edward Hopper's best known paintings is Rooms by the Sea that was based on his studio in Truro, MA. Its mysterious doorway leading to the ocean captivates our eye.  Did you ever wonder what the room through the painting's other doorway looked like? Last week a collector asked to see some of the drawings I made during my residencies in the historic studio so I photographed this drawing. Philip Koch,  Edward Hopper's Truro Bedroom: Afternoon  Sunlight , vine charcoal, 9 x 12 inches, 2012. To make the drawing I set up my French easel in the bedroom Hopper shared with his wife Jo for the three decades they lived in the studio. One of the room's two small closets centers the drawing. At the right is the doorway leading into Hopper's big painting room with his studio easel in the distance.  What inspired me to make the drawing were the intense patterns the afternoon sunlight made ove
Read more

Edward Hopper's Poetry of Empty Rooms

-
Image
I've just been invited by Rachael Solomon who is the Program Director of the  Edward Hopper House Art Center in Nyack, NY to have a mini solo show in one of their galleries.. We'll be showing some of my paintings of the interior of Edward Hopper's Cape Cod studio where I've had the great pleasure of enjoying 13 residencies since 1983. The Edward Hopper House Art Center is the boyhood home of the famous American realist artist. So much of what Hopper became stemmed from his early years there. So I'm excited to do the exhibit. It will be coming up in March through May of 2012.   Hopper didn't teach. Yet I learned more about how to become a good painter by studying his work than by any other single thing. Art after all is visual. Words, even beautifully and aptly spoken can get in the way. And Hopper was legendarily tactiturn. I suspect had someone asked Hopper how to paint an empty room, his terse reply would have been "Don't!".  Above is one of h
Read more