Edward Hopper

by Sherry Marker, Edward Hopper, Jaerry Marker

Large hardcover book with dust jacket. The art of Edward Hopper, lots of color, some full page.

Genres: Art, Biography, Nonfiction

112 pages, Hardcover

First published July 3, 1990

Reviews

[Jesse Lawless · Rating 4 out of 5]

more a collection of Hopper's paintings than a thorough background, but still a great reference

[Bert Huisman]

19 bol

[Abe Spitalny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was immediately interested in Edward Hopper after coincidentally seeing the popular Nighthawks (1942). There is a certain serene objectivity about his paintings lent to it by their quiescent settings: green rolling hills, silent New York streets, and motionless houses. When a house or street lacks people, it allows one to appreciate the frequently unnoticed beauty in the curves and straight lines of its porticoes, gables, and bay windows. After all, is not one of the central themes in Art elevating and accentuating the commonplace? This line of thinking brings to mind the scene in the acclaimed film American Beauty (1999) with the plastic bag dancing in the wind. While watching the bag, one of the main characters in the film remarks on how much beauty there is in the world and how it can at times be overwhelming. Mr. Ball, the film's screenwriter, must have been perusing a Hopper painting when he wrote those lines.

Though many of Hopper's paintings are architectural, the figures that do feature in them are not wholly without interest. The people in his paintings portray a range of layered emotions from quiet equanimity to detachment betrayed by a hint of inner discord. Moreover, most of them are deeply contemplative sometimes to the point of being melancholic.

Finally, I will end with a list of my favorite pieces by Hopper: Automat (1927), Rooms by the Sea (1951), Rooms for Tourists (1945), Second Story Sunlight (1960), and Woman in the Sun (1961).