Clip & save art notes.

Clip & save art notes. ABOUT THE ARTIST Edward Hopper (1882-1967), the American painter, printmaker andwatercolorist best known for his iconic painting, 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. (view thepainting at: www.artic articNounBrit informal an articulated lorry .edu/artaccess/ AA_Modern/pages/MOD_7.shtml), wasborn in Nyack, N.Y., a picturesque town on the Hudson River. Hedemonstrated a gift for drawing in his youth, and by the time hefinished high school he knew he wanted to pursue a career as an artist. Steered by his practically minded parents, Hopper began studies incommercial illustration, but soon left to enroll in the New York School New York schoolPainters who participated in the development of contemporary art, particularly Abstract Expressionism, in or around New York City in the 1940s and '50s. of Art, where he studied under Robert Henri. This founder of the AshcanSchool would have a profound influence on Hopper's work, andencouraged the young artist to paint subjects that capture the realitiesof modern life. In 1906, Hopper followed the lead of many young American paintersand traveled to France, but instead of being awed by the avant-gardeworks of artists such as Matisse and Picasso, he was left feelinguninspired. In describing his time in Paris, Hopper remarked,"Paris had no great immediate impact on me." Nevertheless,Hopper returned to Europe three more times, and was ultimately impressedand influenced by the works of Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas. "Fromlooking at the works of these nineteenth-century artists, Hopper learnedabout form and design as well as how to place figures in architecturalsettings to create mood." (Text excerpted fromhirshhorn.si.edu/collection/ indepth_artist.asp?ID=21). Back stateside state��side?adj.1. Of or in the continental United States.2. Alaska Of or in the 48 contiguous states of the United States.adv. Informal1. , Hopper took commissions in commercial illustrationto pay the bills, but he never cared for this line of work. Periodicallyhe sold etchings and watercolors, and his paintings were included insome exhibitions, including a solo show in 1920. Still, his work failedto generate buzz in the New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of art world. In 1924, Hopper married a former art-school classmate, Jo Nivison,and soon after his professional fortunes began to change. His next soloexhibition sold out, and, as the saying goes, he became an overnightsuccess. In 1929, he was included in an exhibition of contemporary Americanpainters at the Museum of Modern Art in New York 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. , and in 1930, theWhitney Museum bought his oil painting Early Sunday Morning (view thepainting at: www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2007/hopper/fullscreens/urbanpictures/229-010.jpg), one his most well-known and critically acclaimedcanvases. When Hopper was 51, the Museum of Art mounted a retrospective ofhis work, followed by a larger show at the Whitney Museum in 1950. Edward Hopper's work has been described as haunting, detached,stark, bleak, nostalgic and cinematic, to name just a few commonadjectives often attached to his style. He is known for his interiors ofhotel rooms, office buildings and movie theaters, his depictions ofVictorian architecture, and expanses of rural countryside dotted byreminders of modern life, such as a gas pump or a section of railroadtracks. The common denominator in all of his works, whether they depictinteriors or exteriors, is light. Hopper often juxtaposed natural lightwith artificial light or played up the relationship between light andshadow to create angles, form and drama. Indeed, many of Hopper'smost successful works are those that convey a mood, often of melancholyor loneliness. "The scenes he created are still and tense, and often just theslightest action--a gentle breeze rustling a curtain or an absent-mindedstroke of a piano key--takes on an unspecified profundity."(Excerpted from www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2007/hopper/timeline/timeline.shtm.) His friend and fellow artist Charles Burchfield (see Arts &Activities March 2008 Clip & Save Art Print) once said, "WithHopper the whole fabric of his art seems to be interwoven in��ter��weave?v. in��ter��wove , in��ter��wo��ven , inter��weav��ing, inter��weavesv.tr.1. To weave together.2. To blend together; intermix.v.intr. with hispersonal character and manner of living." With the arrival ofabstract expressionism to the American art scene in the 1950s and'60s, Hopper's brand of realism fell out of fashion, yet hisimpact on the history of American art is enormous, as evidenced in thework of artists such as Richard Diebenkorn, George Segal and EricFischl. Hopper died in New York City in 1967. He was 85 years old. ABOUT THIS PAINTING To this month's Clip & Save artist, Edward Hopper, lightwas the essential ingredient in his art. In a 2007 New York Times reviewof a recent Hopper exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston For other places with the same name, see Museum of Fine Arts.The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, and contains one of the largest permanent museum collections in the Americas. ,journalist Holland Cotter wrote, "A certain slant of light wasEdward Hopper's thing. And he made it our thing, hard-wired it intoour American brains: white late-morning light scraping across astorefront; twilight, plangent plan��gent?adj.1. Loud and resounding: plangent bells.2. Expressing or suggesting sadness; plaintive: "From a doorway came the plangent sounds of a guitar"with heat and regret, settling over acity; slabs of late-night lamplight chilling the walls of Lonely HeartsHotels everywhere. Indeed, Edward Hopper once said, 'Maybe I am notvery human--what I wanted to do was to paint sunlight on the side of ahouse.'" This month's Clip & Save Art Print, People in the Sun(1960), is a late example of Hopper's fascination with light. Inthis image the artist depicts a group of people lounging on a patio,their faces upturned toward the brilliant light of the sun, save for onefellow, who appears engrossed in a book. As is typical in Hopper'swork, the light creates strongly angled shadows. The following Web sites are excellent sources of information on thelife of Edward Hopper and contain images of his work: * www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2OO7/hopper/index.shtm * www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/10024641.html? page=3