Onto-Historical World

Hoppers World: Edward Hopper lived through some very turbulent times in American life. He was growing as an artist through both World Wars, atrocities no one in the world could comprehend, and the Great Depression, which no doubt affected American Life in a way that would forever influence the modern art movement in both visual art and literature. The painting was created immeidietly following the attack on Peral Harbor, a truly sobering moment for Americans. In the wake of the first real foreign attack on American soil, the paintings character is true to the feelings of the decade. Hopper's obsession with American loneliness and melancholy was no doubt deeply rooted in these tragic times; urban America of the forties is very well represented in Nighthawks.

His combination of American realism and impressionism is the perfect blend to represent this time period, a combination of a reality and the surreal too intense for a people to handle. Turning to the night, the streets could never be as empty as Hopper portrays, and yet, it seems right to make them so.

A podcast about Hopper and his work, also where I drew many of my references from, can be listened to here.

Today's World: I can understand his movement from the sub-urban life in the Hudson Valley to life in the big city, I experienced a similar move in my own life. Urban life can be very lonely, even in today's world. I visited Greenwich Village, the area of Hopper's influence and the supposed location of the infamous diner. The diner has since been demolished, and the feeling of the neighborhood Hopper inhabited so many years ago has changed dramatically. Walking the streets at night, people flooding in and out of bars cheerfully, I don't see the empty feelings of the 1940's resonating in today's streets of New York.

Hopper's work became infamous in the decades after it's creation, and has been imitated and referenced in countless numbers in popular culture, especially in today's world. TV shows like the Simpson's and That 70's Show have built on this tradition.