Homage to Mr Edward Hopper
by Bruno Lavi
Edward Hopper (1882-1967) was an American painter, considered one of the most important among American painters. Best known for his realistic paintings depicting loneliness in contemporary American reality.
Hopper studied at the New York School of the Arts. The meeting with the teacher Robert Henri established Hopper's artistic concept, which will focus on the experience of the developing urban reality of the United States.
Hopper along with George Bellows, John Sloan, all students of Robert Andre, were referred to as the “Trash Can Cluster group”. The origin of the nickname stems from this group's focus on issues that describe the chaotic and biting urban experience of New York.
It is true that at the time of Hopper's work, Europe was at the peak of abstract cubism, which Hopper was very impressed by, but his artistic path was characterized by realism with influences from the impressionist currents.
In his works, Hopper dealt a lot with the loneliness of the city's residents within the urban reality.
His paintings depict scenes from the resident's life so realistically that sometimes it looks more like a photograph than a painting.
The scenes depict simple situations, service buildings, modest rooms, cityscapes, in which the person usually fits in solitude.
The look of the person appearing in his paintings evokes a feeling of isolation but also of hope.
Hopper’s paintings wonderfully describe "together but alone".
Couples at home who each have a different direction of gaze or occupation, customers in a cafe or bar who do not communicate with each other, meetings without communication on the city streets are just a few examples of the atmosphere of loneliness together.
When I shoot the urban landscape, I am often accompanied in my thoughts by Hopper's paintings.
In the streets of the various cities, I look for similar situations in which the element of urban loneliness is found in the tiringly busy environment.
I have always seen a challenge in emphasizing the urban isolation in the city streets and bringing in my work the dissonance between the busy tired city and the loneliness of a person who lives in the city or visits it.
Out of respect, love for his paintings and influence on my work, I bring here a concentration of photographs in the spirit of Edward Hopper's atmosphere.
