HOPPER-HOPPING WITH GAIL LEVIN

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HOPPER'S PLACES
by Gail Levin
published: 1985
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There's a TWILIGHT ZONE episode titled 'A KIND OF STOPWATCH' which starred Richard Erdman and was first broadcasted in October of 1963. The story is about a man who is able to freeze time by suspending the progress of the second hand on an enchanted stopwatch. He instantaneously stops time in order to rob a bank and accidentally breaks the stopwatch in the process, leaving him stranded alone forever in a timeless, lifeless world. I saw the episode as a child and it immediately captivated me, and something about that imagery has haunted me ever since. EDWARD HOPPER is my favorite artist and there's a "timeless isolationism" -- a Twilight Zone-ish quality -- to his oeuvre that I really resonate to. (Don't worry! I don't intend to psychoanalyze myself here. Although my Mother DID disenroll me from kindergarten when, because of my withdrawn nature, my teacher described me as "antisocial." My Ma employed the obvious solution to that malady and took me out of school!)
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HOPPER's works convey this intense internal aloneness by merely hinting at details in big spaces, depicting daytime shadows sparsely and yet placing almost everything in a serene (often golden) glow. His pictures rarely illustrate the sharp, mind-numbing dead of Winter or the harsh and draining dog days of Summer. Regardless of the time of year in which he worked, in Hopper's world it is perpetually Autumn. Dreamy. Quiet. Lonely. Sad. But how he captured that mood cannot be fully fathomed through mere observable techniques. It was Mr. Melancholy's inner vision that was his real "style", and this comes across so brilliantly in GAIL LEVIN's wonder-filled book, 'HOPPER'S PLACES'.
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Having served as curator of the Hopper Collection at the Whitney Museum, and having written and compiled 'EDWARD HOPPER: AN INTIMATE BIOGRAPHY' and 'A CATALOGUE RAISONNE' (as well as many other Hopper related titles), Gail Levin is probably the foremost expert on the man and his work, and eminently qualified to be our tour guide as we go Hopper-hopping through 3 countries in search of his subjects. Levin's photographs duplicating the sights and angles that Hopper put on canvas really highlight the unique "eye" for scenes that, via his singular process of artistic alchemy, the painter was able to transform into the HOPPER ZONE.
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HOPPER'S PLACES records many of my favorites: EAST WIND OVER WEEHAWKEN (1934); SHAKESPEARE AT DUSK ('35); APPROACHING A CITY ('46); LIGHTHOUSE HILL ('27); ADAM'S HOUSE ('28); and the utterly fascinating, ROOMS FOR TOURISTS ('45). I can see how this bed & breakfast place depicted at night might elicit diametrically different responses from a variety of observers: "I ain't going in there; that's where Norman Bates lives!" or "God dwells there and He invites me to leave the darkness and come into the Light."
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Unfortunately, because Levin was unable to provide comparative photos for them, a few really choice Hoppers were excluded from this book. Notably, DRUG STORE (1927); EARLY SUNDAY MORNING ('30); SEVEN A.M. ('48); and Edward Hopper's ubiquitous masterpiece, NIGHTHAWKS (1942). Incidentally, this shopping mall poster gallery and post card favorite was the inspiration for the title of the Tom Waits "live" studio album 'NIGHTHAWKS AT THE DINER', which in turn was the inspiration for one of Amazon's best customer reviews -- Kippy Lanker's review titled [link> 'IN THE OLDEST BAR IN NEVADA...'
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Once upon a time, I had entertained the idea of a career in art (another fatality on my Boulevard Of Broken Dreams), but in discovering the work of Edward Hopper, I realized that my pictures had already been put on canvas and better than I could have hoped to paint them myself. HOPPER'S PLACES is a "must own" book for any fan of the man's work, or for anyone who simply wants to SEE the definition of "art."
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"Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys," Waylon & Willie sang in 1978, "because they'll never stay home and they're always alone, even with someone they love". But then, of course, if your babies should happen to display an aptitude with pen and brush, you just might want to ship 'em off to art school.
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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