Hopper Drawing
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Individual Artists
Hopper Drawing Details
From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Directing attention to the drawings and sketches of Edward Hopper, an artist known for his indispensable impact on oil painting, this catalogue is flush with keen and surprising insight. Little critical attention has been given to the artist's drawings, in part because he often discredited them himself. Reproduced here in generous number and with liberal detail, the work is contextualized as a fundamental aspect of his process and his overarching vision. Fans of Hopper will be familiar with his subtle, otherworldly manipulation of light and shadow and his seemingly innate ability to transform the commonplace into moments of poetic awe. By tracking the many sketches and revisions of some of his most iconic works (Nighthawks, Office at Night, and Early Sunday Morning get particular attention), the essays in this catalogue make evident the intimate links between method, imagination, and craft that allowed this singular style to emerge. The breadth and depth of these studies equal the expansive selection of sketchings, and while the exacting detail of the analysis goes further than many readers might expect, the recurrent moments of acuity alleviate any sense of academic tedium. In text and image that are truly useful, the catalogue manages to make new one of the most familiar artists of the past century. Color illustrations. (June) Read more Review Whitney Museum of American Art(05/23/13–10/06/13) (Whitney Museum of American Art 2013-10-06)Dallas Museum of Art(11/17/13–02/16/14) (Dallas Museum of Art 2014-02-16)Walker Art Center(03/15/14-06/22/14) (Walker Art Center 2014-06-22)“Directing attention to the drawings and sketches of Edward Hopper, an artist known for his indispensable impact on oil painting, this catalogue is flush with keen and surprising insight.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review (Publishers Weekly)“The essays reveal what artistic success entails. . . . They should be required reading for students learning to draw and to see.”—Choice (Choice)Winner of The Alice 2014 sponsored by Furthermore grants in publishing. The Alice winner is selected from books that have previously been awarded a Furthermore grant and carries a $25,000 award. (The Alice Furthermore grands in publishing 2014-09-25) Read more See all Editorial Reviews
Reviews
I had the opportunity to see the Hopper drawings show at the Whitney Museum this past summer and information about some of the drawings and paintings were on the walls near the works of art. This book is packed full with this information and much more. As in the museum show, we learn that "New York Movie" was based on the Palace Theatre and that "Nighthawks" was inspired by the old Crawford Lunch restaurant of which there is a photo as well as by the angle of the Flatiron building, also shown in an old photo. The paper is very high quality and the reproductions are excellent. There are many Hopper books out there but this is packed with new information and analyses and is definitely worth having.
