Edward Hopper
Submitted by
Karen Raffel
May 5, 2003
| Hopper is one of my favorite artists. We are fortunate to have 3 Hoppers on display at the Hirshhorn. His works tend to have a feeling of isolation to them, especially his depictions of women. This is a earlier work, but this theme appears more often in his later works. Shown here is a woman gazing out of the window, naked except for her shoes. Hopper is a modern artist, who seems to emphasize the impersonalness of the modern urban world through the contrast of the implied intimateness of the naked woman and her austere surroundings. |
|
||
Among Edward
Hopper's favorite urban subjects were the theaters and movie houses
of Manhattan.
Hopper and his wife, Josephine Nivison Hopper--a painter and former
actress--frequently attended movies and theater performances. As
an illustrator early in his career, Hopper had occasionally produced
commercial illustrations on theatrical themes. While the performing
arts had long provided subject matter for modern artists (notably
Edgar Degas), Hopper most often chose to depict the audience rather
than the performers. For "First Row Orchestra" he selected
an oblique vantage point, accentuating the recession of the stage
and orchestra seats that seem to converge on the stylishly attired
couple at the far right. The tuxedoed gentleman and his companion,
wearing a fur coat, share a playbill--but the psychological distance
between man and woman is at odds with the intimacy of their action.
In his characteristically spare style, Hopper recast the public
sphere of the theater as the setting for a private drama of modern
life. More information is available at http://hirshhorn.si.edu. |
|||
