Nighthawks
After Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World, my favorite painting is Edward Hopper's Nighthawks. I borrowed from the title when selecting my CB "handle" in the 1970s (Arkansas Nighthawk).
Hopper didn't like to discuss his art. He said, "The whole answer is there on the canvas." Some things don't need explanations (although what he does with angles, lines, light, color, and a perfectly understated story is amazing). Even so, I really came to appreciate the painting after all the times we would head to a greasy spoon for a late night / early morning breakfast or cup of mud after playing dances. Hopper has the mood down cold.
Actually, Hopper did discuss this painting a little bit. He said that it isn't about loneliness (nor, I hasten to add, is it about "aloneness", which is a different thing altogether, and a key to understanding Andrew Wyeth's work). It's about predators in the night. Bear in mind that he painted it not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Predators in the night. Considering some of the guys in our band, he's got it down cold alright.
In the 1990s I framed a small jigsaw puzzle spoof on the painting, which until recently was at my desk at work. Rabbits replaced the people in the painting, making it a Genuine Hopper (well, someone had to say it). Who says you can't buy class at Walmart?
And of course the painting, or aspects of it, keep showing up in homages and spoofs, from Win Wender films, to The Sting; from The Simpsons to The Matrix (where Nighthawks' "woman in the red dress" makes an appearance); from Steve Martin's Pennies from Heaven to Glengarry Glen Ross, Hard Candy, Ralph Bakshi's American Pop, Blade Runner (Ridley Scott kept bringing out a copy of Nighthawks at all his meetings with the art director), the surreal horror movie, Deep Red, Joyce Carol Oates' poetry, Tom Waits' songs, CSI, That 70s Show, and the once popular poster Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
And, of course, there's that influence again in Polar Express. And how.
Hopper, with his body of work, especially Nighthawks, was, and is, one of the dominant influences on later film noir and future noir styles. Who says political conservatives aren't cool (oh, did I forget to mention that he was a conservative?).
Speaking of cool, a Christmas card I received last year was yet another spoof on the Nighthawks painting, with Santa and his tired reindeer having coffee at the counter, snow on the ground outside, and Christmas decorations across the street. A clock on the wall shows 4:00, so they're probably done after a loooong night. The painting, by Hudson Talbot, is Santa Café, from his New York Series 5 (hover over first painting, upper left).
"The whole answer is there on the canvas." Perhaps. But someone keeps changing that darn question.
Hopper didn't like to discuss his art. He said, "The whole answer is there on the canvas." Some things don't need explanations (although what he does with angles, lines, light, color, and a perfectly understated story is amazing). Even so, I really came to appreciate the painting after all the times we would head to a greasy spoon for a late night / early morning breakfast or cup of mud after playing dances. Hopper has the mood down cold.
Actually, Hopper did discuss this painting a little bit. He said that it isn't about loneliness (nor, I hasten to add, is it about "aloneness", which is a different thing altogether, and a key to understanding Andrew Wyeth's work). It's about predators in the night. Bear in mind that he painted it not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Predators in the night. Considering some of the guys in our band, he's got it down cold alright.
In the 1990s I framed a small jigsaw puzzle spoof on the painting, which until recently was at my desk at work. Rabbits replaced the people in the painting, making it a Genuine Hopper (well, someone had to say it). Who says you can't buy class at Walmart?
And of course the painting, or aspects of it, keep showing up in homages and spoofs, from Win Wender films, to The Sting; from The Simpsons to The Matrix (where Nighthawks' "woman in the red dress" makes an appearance); from Steve Martin's Pennies from Heaven to Glengarry Glen Ross, Hard Candy, Ralph Bakshi's American Pop, Blade Runner (Ridley Scott kept bringing out a copy of Nighthawks at all his meetings with the art director), the surreal horror movie, Deep Red, Joyce Carol Oates' poetry, Tom Waits' songs, CSI, That 70s Show, and the once popular poster Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
And, of course, there's that influence again in Polar Express. And how.
Hopper, with his body of work, especially Nighthawks, was, and is, one of the dominant influences on later film noir and future noir styles. Who says political conservatives aren't cool (oh, did I forget to mention that he was a conservative?).
Speaking of cool, a Christmas card I received last year was yet another spoof on the Nighthawks painting, with Santa and his tired reindeer having coffee at the counter, snow on the ground outside, and Christmas decorations across the street. A clock on the wall shows 4:00, so they're probably done after a loooong night. The painting, by Hudson Talbot, is Santa Café, from his New York Series 5 (hover over first painting, upper left).
"The whole answer is there on the canvas." Perhaps. But someone keeps changing that darn question.
Tags: red, the, 70s, aloneness, american, andrew, angle, answer., art, bakshi
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