HOPPER AND STORY TELLING
I enjoy conferences with Claude Rocca and «Les Chemins de l’Art» but don’t go too often as the periods or exhibitions he presents are not always of interest to me. But we are about to have two conferences which I booked quite a while ago. One on the Art during the second world war period and the other on Edward Hopper. This is the first major exhibition and retrospective which is travelling around Europe. Laurent and Jerome had already seen it in Madrid - I had to be patient and to see it in Paris.
Claude gave us an hour’s presentation with slides. We were then given «quartier libre» to visit the exhibition which is on three floors and covering his life’s work. Some 128 paintings in all from water-colours to illustrations during the period where he worked before becoming famous,
engravings and paintings. In the latter period there are so many of his paintings which are known and used for advertisement of some kind or another that I was prepared to skip these. I’m glad I didn’t. Seeing the originals is always very different from seeing reproductions.
With Hopper you tell yourself a story. Sometimes a very personal one.
How you crossed a bridge,
worked too late at night
or chose that rather daring dress which we all wore in the 60's to seduce your boss.
...
Were you bored stiff or about to tell him something...?
Of course Nighthawks still haunts us......
There is no reason to close a window in a Hopper painting....Most of the time his women are seated high up in the sky, overlooking New York, his home town which he knew so well. They look down below them or perhaps straight out front, but never up. When we live high up in the sky, we look down and our neighbors don't seem to look up at us. So why close a window?.
Is this how Hopper saw the outside of a window?
Such melancholy where towns are empty or perhaps a lonesome pedestrian wandering along a very empty street.
A theatre devoid of all spectators. Another where there is a seated spectator. Is it before the show has not yet begun or is her shoe hurting so much that sitting is preferable to going out for the glass of champagne at interval?
American or European. France 1944-66. Or for that matter Abstract Expressionism which appeared in the States during the 40's with Pollock or De Kooning. Hopper is far too much of a minimalist for me. Practically surrealist in some of his work and very reassuring for those who are not attracted to abstraction and need something which they can identify with. Hopper is marvelous for that. A boat? A café? A Lighthouse, or just a window. Something to cling onto if a Jackson Pollock frightens you away.
The crowds in the exhibition were horrendous and dodging heads is not my idea of seeing anything. I rushed to the end and then worked my way back - having seen the slides before attacking the crowds and read a lot about his work, this was feasable. If I pass by the Grand Palais one evening and see there are less people, I’ll go back but even with my Icom card I refuse to juggle art and heads.....
 |
| couple buvant 1906-07 |
engravings and paintings. In the latter period there are so many of his paintings which are known and used for advertisement of some kind or another that I was prepared to skip these. I’m glad I didn’t. Seeing the originals is always very different from seeing reproductions.
With Hopper you tell yourself a story. Sometimes a very personal one.
 |
| From Williamsburgh bridge 1928 |
How you crossed a bridge,
 |
| Office at night- 1940 |
worked too late at night
 |
| New York Office 1962 |
or chose that rather daring dress which we all wore in the 60's to seduce your boss.
...
 |
| Room in New York 1932 |
Were you bored stiff or about to tell him something...?
 |
| Nighthawks 1942 - the couple |
Of course Nighthawks still haunts us......
There is no reason to close a window in a Hopper painting....Most of the time his women are seated high up in the sky, overlooking New York, his home town which he knew so well. They look down below them or perhaps straight out front, but never up. When we live high up in the sky, we look down and our neighbors don't seem to look up at us. So why close a window?.
 |
| Morning Sun 1952 |
 |
| Portrait of Orlean 1950 |
Such melancholy where towns are empty or perhaps a lonesome pedestrian wandering along a very empty street.
 |
| Intermission 1963 |
 |
| The Sheridan Theatre 1937 |
 |
| Sun in an empty room 1963 |
 |
| Ground Swell 1939 |
 |
| Lighthouse hill 1927 |
 |
| Roof tops in Washington ? |
 |
| Soir Bleu 1914 |
The crowds in the exhibition were horrendous and dodging heads is not my idea of seeing anything. I rushed to the end and then worked my way back - having seen the slides before attacking the crowds and read a lot about his work, this was feasable. If I pass by the Grand Palais one evening and see there are less people, I’ll go back but even with my Icom card I refuse to juggle art and heads.....
Commentaires