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July 3, 2004
One of the great visual explorations of urban life was done by the American realist Edward Hopper.
I've always read Hopper in terms of the lived experience of the existential loneliness in the industrial city, or what this article calls lonely hearts in the modern city.
E. Hopper, Room in Brooklyn, 1932
It is not simply a case of being alone in the city eg., the solitary women in the cafe. Existential loneliness also exist within a relationship---a marriage, for instance:
E. Hopper, Room in New York, 1932
The loneliness from the emotional disconnection from other people is there even when sexuality is involved:
E.Hopper, Cape Cod Morning, 1950
As this review says Hopper "tells us things we already know about ourselves, and about the century we've just left....The way he paints is like plain speaking." A visual language that based on unforgettable visual images.
We have descended and become caught up in our own silences; ours is a subjectivity that is isolated, different and set apart from other bodies.
E. Hopper, Excursion into Philosophy, 1959
The silence is imprisoning.
Hopper's work are frozen moments from a narrative that stretches beyond the picture's boundaries.
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You have some great stuff on this site.
R.H.M.
iworkforagangster.blogspot.com