Edward Hopper is a special artist for a
lot of us I've always thought of him in
a sort of aromatic way because his
paintings evoke the same kind of
feelings and memories in me that I get
from the sense of smell as if he was
channeling directly into my limbic
system excavating moments that were
stored deeply away a stubborn realists
throughout the many changing and often
abstract currents of modern art in the
early and mid 20th century his canvases
are clean smooth and almost too real not
real like his contemporary Andrew Wyeth
for example who strived for detail and
photo realism but pulled back by one
degree into depictions slightly more
generalized slightly more detached from
place history and person in this way
there's just enough room to put your own
life into hoppers work but once inside
it's impossible not to be closed in and
see that life along his themes nearly
all those themes are present in
Nighthawks unquestionably the artists
most famous work themes of loneliness
alienation voyeurism quiet contemplation
and more the scene depicts four people
in a New York City diner at night it's
meant to be somewhere in Greenwich
Village where Hopper lived but decades
of exhaustive searching have concluded
that it was never a real place there is
one waiter and three patrons whose
relationships are all ambiguous
seated so close together in an empty
diner at night it's likely that these
two know each other somehow but though
their hands overlap they don't touch and
they're in different phases suggest that
they could be strangers if not just
momentarily estranged the main character
of the piece seems to be the diner
itself an island of light in the outer
darkness its diagonal lines are strong
accentuated by the counter and the
stools and we're seeing the diner at an
odd angle as if from the vantage of
someone crossing the street it's
triangular corner juts into the frame
like the prow of a boat this is no
coincidence not only was Hopper obsessed
with the imagery of boats but he
repeatedly situated his buildings
angles like this and the point of that I
think was to achieve an effect in which
his subjects were both behind and in
front of Windows of course windows are
the place where the separation between
outside and inside becomes complicated
not because we can physically move
through them but because our sight does
because our gaze invades these private
worlds indeed and hoppers work the
windows often appear as if they're not
even there as opposed to someone like
Norman Rockwell who had a talent for
giving glass a texture hoppers windows
vanish they invite that voyeuristic look
knowing that houses like people can be
penetrated with a gaze copper was a very
slow very deliberate painter he took
months to finish a canvas and made
several sketches and studies before
embarking on the final piece in these
sketches for Nighthawks we can see
Hopper out on the street looking for the
right back angle for this man modifying
to find the perfect effect
here's his sketches of Josephine his
wife who modeled for the woman in the
painting
here's her right hand holding a
cigarette which he eventually
transplanted to her partner Hopper
wanted his devotion to each work to be
mirrored by our appreciation as slowly
and deliberately as he painted he wanted
us to look really look to be made
vulnerable as a viewer always is whether
he or she is crouching in the dark in
the building opposite or simply crossing
the street there's no door to the diner
in Nighthawks
no way in except by way of sight that
sight enters the fluorescent light of
the establishment passes through the
three patrons in their ennui and
loneliness and exits into the dark
forbidding night behind them you know I
I wonder about that darkness Hopper
tried very hard to unmoor his work from
the historical moment he didn't want
only to be judged in the context of his
time and place but it's worth noting
that this painting was completed in the
weeks and days following the bombing of
Pearl Harbor when everyone in New York
City was paranoid about another attack
the city held blackout drills a way to
practice hiding the city in darkness if
an aerial assault ever came
but hopper didn't care his studio lights
stayed on as his wife wrote in her diary
edy refuses to take any interest in the
very likely prospect of being bombed
this was the atmosphere in which
Nighthawks was born did it have an
influence on the painting I don't know
the future was very uncertain at this
moment in time as uncertain as the
darkness that frames the patrons of the
Steiner a darkness there launched into
by hoppers composition and our gaze the
artist was obsessed with light how it
fell on houses on people through windows
the colors had made copper seemed to
disregard the chaos in the world around
him but is it a coincidence that like
his studio the light of the Nighthawks
diner seems to be the last light still
shining in the city for this reason I
think you can find a slightly more
optimistic reading of this painting what
is there to do in the face of great
disquiet and doubt but work and live on
all of hoppers people seem to be huddled
up against the present moment lonely yes
waiting maybe a little bored the people
of Nighthawks are no different but
boredom is exactly when we feel time and
being the most acutely it can inspire a
profound mood maybe that's what these
people are feeling alone together in
their lighted ship sailing against the
darkness of all that was yet to come
the yellowish greenish florescent light
in this scene like the light and hopper
studio is a meager substitute for the
brilliance of the Sun
but it can through giant windows still
illuminate the world hey everybody
thanks for watching Nighthawks is one of
my favorite paintings ever so that was
just a lot of fun to make so two big
announcements one we are about to hit a
hundred thousand subscribers on the
nerdwriter channel might be a hundred
thousand by the time this video goes out
I don't know what to say that's amazing
I've been doing this for over four years
and it's been amazing and fun and
exciting and fascinating from the very
start so thank you to everyone who's
been with me from the beginning who's
come on recently and everything in
between
the nerdwriter is it's you know it's my
profession it's my career and it's
everything that I want to do so there's
gonna be a lot more of it um the other
big news is that we crossed $1,000 on
the patreon this week and I just have to
thank you so much for that you know
we're right at the beginning now of
what's making this financially feasible
for me so thank you for pledging on
patreon to the nerd writer if you
haven't already I'd love for you to
pledge this project and help me keep
making these videos because there is so
much more stuff that I want to do more
painting analysis and film analysis and
understanding art but a lot of other
cool stuff too that will be coming your
way soon so thank you again and I will
see you guys next Wednesday