Choosing Edward Hopper

He was most succesful and highly paid commercial illustrator in New York even before he began making art destined for gallerys. Nevertheless,

At the start of his career he was influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement and then painted in a manner that could be compared to those of John Sloan, Edward Hopper, Edouard Vuillard or Utrillo.

I visited the Bakersfield Museum of Art this weekend and it was a great experience. The museum had different exhibits. Each exhibit had its own significance and had beautiful artwork. The first exhibit I visited was in the Chevron Gallery. This gallery was filled with oil paintings of landscapes, still life, and abstract paintings. The best thing about this exhibit was how it was prepared by the summer art camp program called “A Fresh Look”. The summer art program is where a group of children, ages 7 to 12, study major elements of art and the process of putting together an exhibition. Once they have become familiar with the art elements and exhibition construction, they choose a

Success came late for Wood who spent his life in his native Iowa where he found his inspiration and subjects. At the start of his career he was influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement and then painted in a manner that could be compared to those of John Sloan, Edward Hopper, Edouard Vuillard or

As he was uttering all this, I wrote it all down, trying to make it fit into the significance behind the discovery of his signature style. He went on to tell me big part of the story follows the departure from his parents’ side. He said he went on to travel the globe, he studied art in Paris, found the love of his life. He commented that the sheer joy of just living life the way he wanted to steer it, allowed him to collect a bundle of memories and that it all has inspired his art. Life itself is a ceaseless source of inspiration and it morphed into his primary artistic influence: “I didn’t just sit one day and said ‘I’m going to have my own distinguished style.’ My art depicts aspects that are part of our normality—we just aren’t aware of

In order to fully understand the meaning of Edward Hoppers paintings we must under-stand a little about him and his past. Edward (as we will call him from now on) was born to an art loving middle class family in New York in 1882. Edward’s family fostered his love of art and his desire to pursue it as a career. He came to love fine art, over the illustrations he had seen as a child, while he studied at the New York school of art for six years. Upon completing his schooling he made several trips to Europe. The majority of these trips found him in France, more specifically Paris, where he discovered and fell in love with Impressionism. He was inspired by and greatly admired several Impressionist including Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet, and

(Halperin, 2000). While playing on 52nd street, Edward used his G.I. Bill to enroll at the Workshop School of Advertising Art. He had a desire to draw nudes, as many of the most well known illustrators did, but was advised to quit by his drawing instructor. Instead, thought, he persisted, and ultimately landed his first job in illustration as a Cleavage retoucher for a movie magazine. Although, interestingly, he was not adding bust to the images, but removing the cleavage, as it was a more conservative era. The movie industry was cracking down on obscenity in film, so his job was to “cover-up” the models that were exposing too much skin. Once he finally realized that illustration was not his strong suit, he switched gears and began working in layout, design, typography, and calligraphy. (Halperlin, 2000). In these fields, he became a prodigy. Once school was over, Edward had established an impressive career working for a number of small publishing houses, studios and agencies, and before long opened up his own firm, Enter Photo-Lettering Inc., saving him financially as his new title became Art

His father’s and his own dreams for college came true when he enrolled at the Carnegie Institute of Technology after high school. Carnegie Institute is more commonly known today as Carnegie Mellon University. Andy decided to study art of course, and participated in many art-related extra-curricular activities. He took on an important role of the student created art magazine of campus, being the art director and drawing a cover and several interior illustrations. Andy graduated from Carnegie by 1949 with a Bachelor’s degree in art. It was after college that Andy ventured out on his own as a young adult and aspiring professional artist. He went on his way and decided that New York City would be a good place to get started, moving there soon after graduation. He started out illustrating and designing for magazines, and got a job working for the well-known Glamour magazine. It was around this time that Andy made the decision to leave the last letter of his name off, making it “Warhol.” During his time in New York City, he knew that he would spend most of his time living and creating art there. During the 1950’s, Andy’s fame and success grew tremendously. The public became more increasingly impressed with his style that was unique and different than anything they had ever seen before. He started out doing ink drawings, using blotted lines and stamps in shoe

He imagined himself first as a minister but later on as a pharmacist. While in the U.S. Marines, he discovered his love for drawing and became interested in art. After leaving the Marines he studied art in Paris, but moved away from the European ideas of art. He focused on abstract and pop art and was also involved in Expressionism. He rejected the seriousness of the Abstract Expressionists and searched for a new way of painting and finally decided not to focus on just one medium and instead used many different ones. His work had many lines that created shapes and forms along with the use of bold colors. Many different famous figures and people were included in his artwork and depicted

Born in the state of Wyoming in 1912, to be later deemed as the, “Most powerful painter in contemporary America”, Jackson Paul Pollock, the “action painter”, was born. (1). Though Pollock had a rough childhood including an empty upbringing and numerous changes in residence across the United States, in the end, it all in the influenced his style of art. After moving to New York City in the 1930s, Pollock worked with numerous surrealists, muralists and others who influenced and shaped Pollock’s mature style and an era he opened the audience’s mind to, an era called, Abstract Expressionism.(2). Abstract Expressionism was an era that embraced a variety of individual styles, freedom of techniques, use of large canvases and a

The well-known Impressionist painter Edward Hoppers is famous for the way he uses light in his paintings. Although, in order to understand Edward Hopper’s paintings we must first understand a little about him and his past. Edward Hopper was born to an art loving middle class family in New York in 1882. Edward’s family fostered his love of art and his desire to pur-sue it as a career. He came to love fine art, over the illustrations he had seen as a child, while he studied at the New York school of art, for six years. Upon completing his schooling, he made several trips to Europe. The majority of these trips found him in France, more specifically Paris, where he discovered and fell in love with Impressionism. Surprisingly, his career and sales were mostly un-effected, until the end, by the incoming style at the time being Cubism. He was in-spired by and greatly admired several Impressionists including Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet, and Edouard Manet. His wife greatly encouraged him in his work and exploring different styles of art in his works. No matter which style he explored in his art work at heart he would always

photography skills and that he created a photo style that was both dynamic and direct. His later photos

Hopper is a great choice for the 20th Century! While he is a popular Early 20th Century painter, he was not interested in the limelight. Many painters became popular public figures. Hopper was more like the figures in his works. There tend to be a few figures, but they all seem isolated or disinterested in those around them. Isolation and alienation were two ideas that were explored by Hopper. While this work suggests there is something of interest outside the canvas, we do not know what it is. In addition, whatever it is, the women is alienated from it by the window. At some point, we all feel this way, and I think that is why we connect with Hopper's work.

“Edward Hopper said that Nighthawks was inspired by ‘a restaurant on New York’s Greenwich Avenue where two streets meet.’” (About This Artwork, Nighthawks, p.1) Hopper had many inspirations for this painting, however, through events in his life, such as venues he had visited, and the era of art for which he was involved. Hopper was born in 1882, and he studied at the New York School of Art from 1900 to 1906, and he studied and worked in the fine arts. During the first part of his art career, Hopper was an illustrator who traveled around Europe, gaining inspiration from the areas he visited, as well as gain more knowledge to increase his skills in creating artworks. At first, he struggled to sell his artwork and create a name for himself so he could become more popular; even after he returned to the United States he had difficulties.

Vincent van Gogh was an incredible painter who was a part of the post-impressionism movement of art. Many believe his artwork and style shaped 20th-century art and many artists incorporated his painting style. Van Gogh is often regarded as on of the fathers of post-expressionism. Sadly, critics only appreciated his work after his death, by a self-inflicted gunshot, in 1880.