Artist Feature - Edward Hopper

While in Boston we stopped at the Museum of Fine Arts and saw the Edward Hopper exhibit. Great exhibit and I finally got to see Nighthawks, having missed it at the Art Institute in Chicago. Good overview of his work. I especially liked his journals where he kept little sketches of his work...it was a lovely comparison (or companion) from the small sketches to the large pallet. His early work has an illustrator really comes through in these sketches. I think as an artist it is crucial to get this quick look-see.

Hopper's colors and geometric paintings is very appealing. Very clean, very stark. Perhaps this starkness is what draws Hopper to me. Whereas I enjoy Monet and Hassam because of the color and the imagination. Much like the impressionist Hopper uses colors to his advantages but he also has that structure to his paintings like Magritte.

The most appealing aspect of his work his is people. Who knows why they look so lonely, so detached. They are the still life of his structured painting. The stark, rigid people are very stoic in their poses and I can't help but think that Hopper was either a loner or an only child! Two of his more famous "people" works: