with love, edward hopper
I welcome the month of June with open arms!
Finally, some damn sun after 6-7 months of lacking it.
Lets celebrate the start of summer 2024 with artworks that remind me of this season by one of my favourite American artists, Edward Hopper (1822-1967). I absolutely adore his paintings because of their heavy ’americana’-esque feel to them. He really managed to capture a time and an era in human history in a (for me) foreign country that I wish I could experience.
But I love them more for the heavy isolated feeling they convey. They really make you feel like a spectator. A voyeur as the French would say, but without the sexual part of it. Back in September 2023, I wrote about one of my favourite paintings of his and I mentioned the loneliness and void that are present in each of his paintings. I don’t know how to begin to explain just how nuch I love it.
Edwards pieces always makes me feel like there has to be more to the painting presented in front of me. But what?
I’m always intrigued by them. They’re so secretive yet, it’s all there. They force you to ask questions and feel feelings that has no answer. There’s something missing but also nothing is missing, Empty and rich at the same time.
So simple, yet so complex.
The painting ’Early sunday morning’ really reminds me of my early 20’s when partying every weekend was a must and a lifestyle. It reminds me of the very early saturday and sunday morning when I was on my way home in the summertime at 4-5 am. I remember the first breath of fresh air when I left the club and the shock to my whole system when I went outside to light my cigarette, realizing that the sun is coming the fuck up. The scrambling of friends who were busy talking to strange guys. The marching to McDonalds while drunkely singing loud and off-key to buy plenty of cheeseburgers to eat in the bus on my long way home. Feets hurting, tired but happy as hell. And drunk.
Early sunday morning, 1930
New York Movie, 1939
Rooms by the sea, 1951
Summer evening, 1947
Summertime, 1943
Sunday, 1946
The long leg, 1935
Rooms for tourists, 1945
ALL PICTURES ARE FROM EDWARDHOPPER.NET
Other artworks that I’ve written about: Lover of art
René Magritte
Pope makes love to lady Mary Wortley Montagu
The fallen angel
Judith beheading Holofernes
The swing
