Analyzing the image
Nighthawks - Edward Hopper (1942)
Edward Hopper said that Nighthawks was inspired by "a restaurant on New York's Greenwich Avenue where two streets meet," but the image, with its carefully constructed composition and lack of narrative, has a timeless quality that transcends its particular locale. One of the best-known images of 20th-century art, the painting depicts an all-night diner in which three customers, all lost in their own thoughts, have congregated. Fluorescent lights had just come into use in the early 1940s, and the all-night diner emits an eerie glow, like a beacon on the dark street corner. Hopper eliminated any reference to an entrance, and the viewer, drawn to the light, is shut out from the scene by a seamless wedge of glass. The four anonymous and uncommunicative night owls seem as separate and remote from the viewer as they are from one another. Reworked and parodied countless times, Nighthawks has become an icon of American culture.
Artist: Edward Hopper
Completion Date: 1942
Style: Social Realism
Genre: cityscape
Technique: oil
Material: canvas
“unconsciously, probably, I was painting the loneliness of a large city.”
The four anonymous and uncommunicative night owls seem as separate and remote from the viewer as they are from one another. The red-haired woman was actually modeled by the artist’s wife, Jo.
A painting of Edward Hooper's Wife Jo
In order to help understand and interpret this image I wanted to look at how other people assess what they see and what they get out of looking at this image, so I found these two video's that I found quite helpful. It helped my get in to the right mind frame of this image and help identify key themes which I could then express through sound, such as loneliness isolation and silence.
My reaction to viewing the image
When observing the image I gain a sense of mystery and concern, It seems pretty late in the evening and you have these four individuals sitting in what appears to be a diner. What are they talking about? why is the man and the women sitting together and yet the other person is seated further away? These are just a few of many questions which rush through my mind when looking at this Edward Hooper painting. The colors used in this painting create a very dreary and depressing feel to it, perhaps the use of the greens and blues helps set the atmosphere and tone of the scene. And yet in the picture you have this one dash of red which catches your eye, with the young women seated beside you gentlemen wearing the navy suite. Perhaps there is a reason why she is in red, red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. One thing I can definitely say is that this image provokes thought and discussion, It forces you to create an opinion, the lack of information given in the image creates numerous possibilities of what could be happening in that image and why.
From this I intend experimenting with different sounds which I can incorporate and also explore different possibilities in which sound can manipulate emotion.
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