In his works, Hopper poetically expressed the solitude of man confronted with the American way of life as it developed in the 1920s. Inspired by the movies and particularly by the various camera angles and attitudes of characters, his paintings expose the alienation of mass culture. Done in cold colours and inhabited by anonymous characters, Hopper’s paintings also symbolically reflect the Great Depression. Through a series of different reproductions (etchings, watercolours, and oil-on-canvas paintings), as well as thematic and artistic analysis, the author sheds new light on the enigmatic and tortured world of this outstanting figure.
Оглавление
Gerry Souter. Edward Hopper. Light and Dark
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Emergence – a World of Light and Shadow
Paris, Impressionists and True Love
Turning points
Return, Rejection and Flight
On his Terms
Changing Times
Searching Afield, Finding New Tools
The Acid Etching Process and Dry Point Etching
Redemption in Black and White
Love, Marriage and Watercolour
New Victories, New Adventures
On the Road with Ed and Jo
Lives of a Grand Old Icon
Rise and Decline
Fame, Honour and Tears
Confrontation – 1940s
Personal Vision
The Comedians
Bibliography
Отрывок из книги
The author would like to thank specifically Ms Carol Rusk, the Benjamin and Irma Weiss Librarian at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10021 for her kind assistance in helping us locate Edward and Josephine Hopper letters and other writings from the Frances Mulhall Achilles Library, Whitney Museum of American Art.
Another source that must be acknowledged is Edward Hopper – An Intimate Biography by Gail Levin (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, 1995). Built primarily upon the diaries and letters of Josephine Nivison Hopper, accessible when Ms Levin was curator of the Edward Hopper Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art back in 1976, the book is a model of well-written scholarship. Its precise documentation of the artist’s life complements the many books written by Ms Levin about Edward Hopper’s work.
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One by one, Hopper carved out these studies and one by one they received Henri’s red daub of paint in the corner as a sign of approval. By 1905, Hopper had rejected Chase’s still-lifes, his showboating lectures to the entire class from a hapless student’s easel. Henri spoke quietly to each artist, his words to their ears. His demands that the students look beyond the confines of the studio to their own worlds produced some of Hopper’s most predictive works from 1904 to 1906. These vertical compositions showing snapshots of country scenes presage Hopper’s future minimalist approach, his high contrast use of light and deep shadow to block up masses and sweeten with eye-catching details. They lack, however, the maturity of his later work with these subjects.
Robert Henri’s style of intense and personal criticism of student work, his engaging the artists to use their intellect as well as their brushes and paints, and his ruthless culling of unsuccessful attempts with two slashes of paint across the offending work made his sought-after praise even more valued. As for Henri’s own painting skills, Hopper was a bit more sparing in his praise: “Henri wasn’t a very good painter, at least I don’t think so. He was a better teacher than a painter.”[4]
