Classroom use of the art print.

Classroom use of the art print. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Edward Hopper Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American painter and printmaker. His works represented light as it is reflected off of familiar objects. While most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in (American; 1882-1967). People in the Sun, 1960. Oilon canvas; 40.375" x 60.375". Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum is a museum in Washington, D.C. with an extensive collection of American art.Part of the Smithsonian Institution, the museum has a broad variety of American art that covers all regions and art movements found in the United States. ,Washington, D.C. THINGS TO KNOW Edward Hopper was born in 1882 in a small town just north of NewYork City New York City:see New York, city. New York CityCity (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. . He began drawing at an early age and knew that he wanted tomake a career as an artist. After he graduated from high school, heenrolled in commercial art school and took courses in commercialillustration. This course of studies was short-lived, and Hopper begancoursework in drawing and painting. One of his teachers, Robert Henri Robert Henri (June 25, 1865 - July 12, 1929) was an American painter notable for his teaching and leadership of the Ashcan School movement in art. Early lifeHe was born Robert Henry Cozad ,was a noted painter who founded a group known as The Ashcan School ashcan school:see Eight, the. . Thework of Henri and his followers was characterized by a gritty realismand subjects that depicted the modern realities of urban life.Henri's teachings would become a major influence on Hopper'sown artistic output. Hopper is considered the preeminent Realist painter in Americanart. He once said, "My aim in painting has always been the mostexact transcription possible of my most intimate impression ofnature." His choice of subject matter remained fairly consistentover the course of his career, and included Victorian houses, barns,trains, interiors of hotel rooms, offices and theaters, rural expansesand railroad tracks, city streets, and the facades of buildings. Thepeople in Hopper's work, whether alone or in a group, tend toappear isolated. His most famous canvas, Nighthawks This article is about the painting by Edward Hopper. For other uses, see Nighthawks (disambiguation).Nighthawks (1942) is a painting by Edward Hopper that portrays people sitting in a downtown diner late at night. (1942), depicts asmall group of people at the counter of a corner diner. The scene isviewed from the street and has a cinematic quality, as if it were amovie still. Hopper is also known for his dramatic depictions of light,often seen by juxtaposing light and shadow. Of his working method, heonce said, "It's to paint directly on the canvas without anyfunny business, as it were, and I use almost pure turpentine turpentine,yellow to brown semifluid oleoresin exuded from the sapwood of pines, firs, and other conifers. It is made up of two principal components, an essential oil and a type of resin that is called rosin. to startwith, adding oil as I go along until the medium becomes pure oil. I useas little oil as I can possibly help, and that's my method." Hopper was the focus of many museum exhibitions during hislifetime, and unlike many artists, he enjoyed popular, critical andcommercial success for most of his career. With the advent of AbstractExpressionism abstract expressionism,movement of abstract painting that emerged in New York City during the mid-1940s and attained singular prominence in American art in the following decade; also called action painting and the New York school. to the American art scene, his work became less relevant.After his death in 1967, his wife gifted his existing collection of workto the Whitney Museum of American Art Whitney Museum of American Art,in New York City, founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. It was an outgrowth of the Whitney Studio (1914–18), the Whitney Studio Club (1918–28), and the Whitney Studio Galleries (1928–30). . Since then, Hopper's outputis considered one of the most important, and relevant. bodies of work inAmerican art. THINGS TO DO * Primary. Show students this month's Clip & Save ArtPrint, People in the Sun, by Edward Hopper. Ask students to describewhat they see (people in deck chairs enjoying the sun, a large field, abuilding, bright light, shadows on the patio). Explain to them that theartist was very interested in light and spent his career as a paintershowing all different types of light in his painting. Ask students to come up with examples of different types of light(sunlight, morning light, the light at dusk, light from a streetlamp,light from a light bulb, etc.). As a group, write a description of thelight in the image. Next, pass out paper, pencils, crayons and colored pencils and haveeach student draw a picture of a group of people on a bright, sunny day.Help students brainstorm ideas for their pictures, such as people on apicnic, kids playing in a park, a family working in a garden, orvacationers at the beach. Give each student time to present and describehis/her work. * Elementary. Most of Edward Hopper's paintings that depictoutdoor scenes depict light dramatically through the contrast of lightand shadow. Show students this month's Art Print and point outthose areas where Hopper painted shadows. Plan to take students outside on a bright day when the sun is highin the sky. With their sketchbooks in hand, have students walk aroundthe school grounds to observe examples of shadow. Instruct students tospend time sketching a few of these examples in their sketchbooks. Toexpand this activity, have students choose one of the sketches on whichto base a fully realized painting or drawing. * Middle School. People in the Sun was painted toward the laterpart of Hopper's career, though before creating this work he hadpainted many pictures of people in bright light, both indoors andoutdoors. Give students time to research the work of Edward Hopper,focusing on how the artist depicted light. Instruct each student tochoose one image to analyze and present to the class. Following theresearch and presentations, have students create a drawing or paintinginfluenced by the work of Edward Hopper. * High School. In People in the Sun, the artist reveals his keeninterest in the depiction of light. He once said, "Maybe I am notvery human--what I wanted to do was to paint sunlight on the side of ahouse." And although there are people in this painting, one couldargue that it is the quality of light that is the true subject. There are many more examples of light-as-subject in the work ofEdward Hopper. Give students time to do an image search on the Internetto find additional examples of this idea in the work of Edward Hopper,such as Rooms by the Sea, 1951. (To view this image visitwww.artchive.com/ artchive/H/hopper/room_sea.jpg.html.) After studentshave familiarized fa��mil��iar��ize?tr.v. fa��mil��iar��ized, fa��mil��iar��iz��ing, fa��mil��iar��iz��es1. To make known, recognized, or familiar.2. To make acquainted with. themselves with a wide selection of Hopper'swork, challenge them to create a work of art, in color, in which thedepiction of light is the most dominant aspect. The following online image bases contain excellent examples ofpaintings by Edward Hopper: * www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hopper.html#images * www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/art.asp?aid=900 * www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/hopper/interior/-C.C. A&A online Goto artsandactivities.com and click on this button for hyperlinksto the Web pages mentioned in this article.