Since I’m on the topic of Edward Hopper I can’t resist talking about a book that a friend recommended to me a few months back and make the recommendation extensible to anyone interested in Hopper, hoping maybe that I can continue the chain of contagion of what gave me a much better understanding of Hopper’s paintings, and a renewed faith in those of us who struggle with the impossible task of writing about art.
I’d seen the book before, stacked in piles in the bookshop of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid during the Edward Hopper exhibition held there last year, and didn’t feel compelled to buy it. I wish I had.
Mark Strand is a poet I’m ashamed to say I knew little about until the day the same friend who gave me the tin of oil colours insisted that I read his book on Hopper. I offered some resistance but finally gave in to ordering a copy, and was struck by the most penetrating descriptions of Hopper’s compositions, insights into the true meanings of the paintings and evocations of feelings and states of mind that I couldn’t help finding familiar.
Before deciding on writing Strand studied painting at Yale under Josef Albers, and I’m glad he did because I’m sure this book wouldn’t be the way it is if he hadn’t.
You can read an excerpt and order a copy of ‘Hopper’ by Mark Strand here
Ya que estoy con Edward Hopper no quiero que se me pase la oportunidad de hablar de un libro que recomendó una amiga hace unos meses y hacer extensible la recomendación a cualquiera que le interese la obra de Hopper, con la idea de seguir la cadena de contagio de aquello que me ha dado un mejor entendimiento de las pinturas de Hopper y una fe renovada en los que nos empeñamos en la imposible tarea de escribir en torno al arte.
Había visto el libro ya, amontonado en perfectas torres en la librería del Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza de Madrid durante la exposición de Hopper que hubo el año pasado, pero no me sentí motivado para comprarlo. Ojalá lo hubiera hecho.
Mark Strand es un poeta del que avergüenza decir tenía pocos conocimientos hasta el día en que la misma amiga que me dio la caja de óleos insistió en que leyera su libro sobre Hopper. Ofrecí algo de resistencia pero al final cedí y encargué una copia y me encontré con las descripciones más penetrantes de las composiciones de Hopper, pistas sobre los significados reales de las pinturas y evocaciones de sentimientos y estados mentales que no dejaban de resultar familiares.
Antes de decidirse por la escritura Strand estudió pintura en Yale con Josef Albers, y me alegro mucho de que lo hiciera ya que estoy seguro de que este libro no sería como es si no lo hubiera hecho.
Puedes encargar un ejemplar en español de ‘Hopper’ de Mark Strand aquí
Edward Hopper, Pennsylvania Coal Town, 1947. Image: www.butlerart.com
Edward Hopper, Room in New York, 1932. Image: http: www.sheldonartmuseum.org
All schools should be art schools.
5 comments
Annunziata Alonso says:
jun 28, 2013
que me lo compro y lo leo.!Vamos que si!
Simon Zabell says:
jun 28, 2013
No te decepcionará Annunziata, ya lo verás.
Ru says:
jul 1, 2013
Me apunto a la sua lectura
Simon Zabell says:
jul 1, 2013
Gustarache Ru, xa o verás
Burak says:
ago 19, 2013
Samanth, I wasnt referring to the ststiylic aspects. What I intended to say was that the general atmosphere looks so very like within one of his paintings a place that you’d expect to be bustling with people seen shorn of the throng that you think is its primary characteristic. Places being left alone, all by themselves, which, at least to me were among Hopper’s primary motifs. Yes, the hazy lights make it look un-Hopper-y, but they also make it look so very different from what you expect it to be, and makes you long for return to such a state, where only you exist, unencumbered, unfettered. Hopper makes me feel the same way, da.I quite agree that it doesnt look like a Hopper painting, but it so very much feels like one. And oh, your first comment here am flattered, da!