Talking Hopper

So now I've spent the past few weeks reading about Edward Hopper as he was everywhere. Though he did make a welcome switch from Henry Darger, who I have been living with awhile as part of a project, (God knows I love Darger, bless his twisted soul, but one does occasionally need a break from little hemaphroditic little girls. I did have some fun imagining a mix of the two-the Vivian Girls at the restaurant in Chop Suey for example) I can't say I feel I received any giant message from the art gods. The main thing that has come to light is that apparently I view Hopper differently than other people.

I know. I know. Me? with a wildly different opinion than the majority? That hardly ever happens.

All the books say that Hopper is about the isolation of the individual which, compositionally, I get but his work doesn't make me, as the viewer, feel lonely and it's always been that way even before this present melancholy. In fact, I frequently feel just the opposite. I, too, like to peek into windows and witness litle scenes unfolding and so to see that in a painting is comforting. In subjec matter and in form what I take away is I am not alone.

Take Nighthawks. It's not my favorite (I keep looking for Elvis and Bogie) but I like it. It's not a bad place to be. It may not be the place any of these people would have chosen if they could be anywhere but there's coffee and light and company. There's far worse places to wash up.

The other two conclusions I've come to seem fairly obvious.

1) Hopper is evocative in that you have to bring the story. Unlike someone like Rockwell (the anti Hopper perhaps?) who supplies everything, Hopper makes you fill in the blanks. I think imaginative people like him for just that reason.

2) Despite the best efforts of TCM's animation, Hopper is about extreme stillness. Even in a painting like Ground Swell, which portrays an activity (sailing in this case) there is stillness. It goes beyond capturing a single moment in time, it imbues the people in them with a kind of hyper awareness. Take the woman in Eleven AM. She is still but, I imagine, acutely aware of where she is, who she is waiting for, the way her shoes feel on her feet and the air on her naked body. I think it's part of Hopper's genius that this stillness is never frightening, it only draws the viewer closer.

I'll keep looking as I'm in deep now but that's what I have so far.