Hopper's Places, Second edition
Product Description: In the acclaimed first edition of Hopper's Places, Gail Levin paired paintings by Edward Hopper with her photographs of the subjects of paintings done in New York and environs, Maine, Gloucester, and Cape Cod to demonstrate how Hopper made art of everyday scenes and how he sometimes made intentional changes from what he observed. For this new edition, Levin has added documentary photographs and Hopper's paintings of sites in Paris, where he painted for several years as a young man, Charleston, Mexico, and the western U.S. to give a broader view of the range of his work and the power with which he transformed his subjects while still remaining faithful to their essential features.
Subjects: History Of Art / Art & Design Styles, Photographs: collections, Art, Art & Art Instruction, American - General, Criticism, Art / General, Photography / Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions, General, 1882-1967, Hopper, Edward,, In art, Paris (France), Themes, motives, United States,
HOPPER-HOPPING WITH GAIL LEVIN
There's a TWILIGHT ZONE episode titled, 'A KIND OF STOPWATCH' which starred Richard Erdman & was first broadcast in October of 1963. The story is about a man who is able to freeze time by suspending the progress of the second hand on an enchanted stopwatch. He instantaneously stops time in order to rob a bank and accidentally breaks the stopwatch in the process, leaving him stranded alone forever in a timeless, lifeless world. I saw the episode as a child and it immediately captivated me, and something about that imagery has haunted me ever since. EDWARD HOPPER is my favorite artist and there's a "timeless isolationism" - a Twilight Zoneish quality - to his oeuvre that I really resonate to. (Don't worry! I don't intend to psychoanalyze myself here. Although my parents DID disenroll me from kindergarten when, because of my withdrawn nature, my teacher described me as "antisocial." They employed the obvious solution to that malady, right?)
HOPPER's works convey this intense internal aloneness by merely hinting at details in big spaces, depicting daytime shadows sparsely and yet placing almost everything in a serene (often golden) glow. His pictures rarely illustrate the sharp, mind-numbing dead of Winter or the harsh and draining dog days of Summer. Regardless of the time of year in which he worked, in Hopper's world it is perpetually Autumn. Dreamy. Quiet. Lonely. Sad. But how he captured that mood cannot be fully fathomed through mere observable techniques. It was Mr. Melancholy's inner vision that was his real "style", and this comes across so brilliantly in GAIL LEVIN's wonder-filled book, 'HOPPER'S PLACES.'
Having served as curator of the Hopper Collection at the Whitney Museum, and having written & compiled 'EDWARD HOPPER: AN INTIMATE BIOGRAPHY' and 'A CATALOGUE RAISONNE' (as well as many other Hopper-related titles), Gail Levin is probably the foremost expert on the man and his work, and eminently qualified to be our tour guide as we go Hopper-hopping through 3 countries in search of his subjects. Levin's photographs duplicating the sights & angles that Hopper put on canvas really highlight the unique "eye" for scenes that, via his singular process of artistic alchemy, the painter was able to transform into the HOPPER ZONE.
HOPPER'S PLACES records many of my favorites : EAST WIND OVER WEEHAWKEN (1934); SHAKESPEARE AT DUSK ('35); APPROACHING A CITY ('46); LIGHTHOUSE HILL ('27); ADAM'S HOUSE ('28); and the utterly fascinating, ROOMS FOR TOURISTS ('45). I can see how this bed & breakfast place depicted at night might elicit diametrically different responses from a variety of observers : "I ain't going in there; that's where Norman Bates lives!" or "God dwells there and He invites me to leave the darkness and come into the Light."
Unfortunately, because Levin was unable to provide comparative photos for them, a few really choice Hoppers were excluded from this book. Notably, DRUG STORE (1927); EARLY SUNDAY MORNING ('30); SEVEN A.M. ('48); and Edward Hopper's ubiquitous masterpiece, NIGHTHAWKS (1942). Incidentally, this shopping mall poster gallery & post card favorite was the inspiration for the title of the TOM WAITS "live" studio album, 'NIGHTHAWKS AT THE DINER', which in turn was the inspiration for one of Amazon's best customer reviews - Kippy Lanker's April 6, 2002 review called, 'IN THE OLDEST BAR IN NEVADA...'
Once upon a time, I had entertained the idea of a career in art (another fatality on my Boulevard Of Broken Dreams), but in discovering the work of Edward Hopper, I realized that my pictures had already been put on canvas, and better than I could have hoped to paint them. HOPPER'S PLACES is a "must own" book for any fan of the man's work, or for anyone who simply wants to SEE the definition of "art."
"MAMAS DON'T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE COWBOYS," Waylon & Willie sang in 1978, "BECAUSE THEY'LL NEVER STAY HOME AND THEY'RE ALWAYS ALONE, EVEN WITH SOMEONE THEY LOVE." But then of course, if your babies should happen to display an aptitude with pen & brush, you just might want to ship 'em off to art school.
Wonderful achievement, valuable tool for painters!
I loved this book! If the most important trait to have as an artist is to "see" like an artist, then this gives you insight into what one of America's greatest saw.
Anybody who has picked up my copy of the book has been fascinated, even if they aren't painters themselves. The only reason I gave this 4 stars instead of 5, was the analysis of some of Hopper's subjects. It seemed, after reading what the author wrote about the paintings, that she spent too much time in academia and not enough time painting. She attributes more complex motives to some of Hopper's compositions than he intended, I think. For instance, I suspect that the only reason he painted the dead tree in front of Libby House was that he found it artistically interesting. I don't think he was trying to show "past decay" against the present, but who knows?
In the end, I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves Hopper or the realist style.
Wonderful
If you are a fan of Hopper's art, and/or if you like to paint yourself, you will love this book. Hopper's ability to take the ordinary and turn it into an exceptional painting is amazing, and this book shows you exactly (well, almost) what he saw when he painted his scenes. Gail Levin went through a lot of hard work to track down these places, and seeing them side by side with Hopper's paintings makes it well worth her effort. It's my favorite art book, turned to time and time again.
