Quotes about Edward Hopper: link to Burchfield on Wikipedia
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=== 1911 - 1940 ===
=== 1911 - 1940 ===
==== ''Notes on Painting'' Edward Hopper (1933) ====
==== ''Notes on Painting'' Edward Hopper (1933) ====
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''Notes on Painting'' Edward Hopper (1933), for
for
catalog of his exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art - later published in Reality magazine in 1953 (the statement is read aloud by Hopper himself as start of an interview, 17 June 1959, conducted by John D. Morse, for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institute,
Doherty
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''Notes on Painting'' Edward Hopper (1933), for
the
catalog of his exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art - later published in Reality magazine in 1953 (the statement is read aloud by Hopper himself as start of an interview, 17 June 1959, conducted by John D. Morse, for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institute,
* My aim in painting has always been the most exact transcription possible of my most intimate impressions of nature. If this end is unattainable, so, it can be said, is perfection in any other ideal of painting or in any other of man's activities. The trend in some of the contemporary movements in art, but by no means all, seems to deny this ideal and to me appears to lead to a purely decorative conception of painting. One must perhaps qualify this statement and say that seemingly opposite tendencies each contain some modicum of the other. I have tried to present my sensations in what is the most congenial and impressive form possible to me.
* My aim in painting has always been the most exact transcription possible of my most intimate impressions of nature. If this end is unattainable, so, it can be said, is perfection in any other ideal of painting or in any other of man's activities. The trend in some of the contemporary movements in art, but by no means all, seems to deny this ideal and to me appears to lead to a purely decorative conception of painting. One must perhaps qualify this statement and say that seemingly opposite tendencies each contain some modicum of the other. I have tried to present my sensations in what is the most congenial and impressive form possible to me.
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* Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world… …The inner life of a human being is a vast and varied realm.
* Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world… …The inner life of a human being is a vast and varied realm.
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** 'Statements by Four artists', Edward Hopper, in 'Reality' 1., Spring 1953, p. 8
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**
In:
'Statements by Four artists', Edward Hopper, in 'Reality' 1., Spring 1953, p. 8
* Partly through choice, I was never willing to hire out more than three days a week [making illustrations for the magazines to support himself, c. 1912] I kept some time to do my own work. Illustrating was a depressing experience. And I didn’t get very good prices because I didn’t often do what they wanted.
* Partly through choice, I was never willing to hire out more than three days a week [making illustrations for the magazines to support himself, c. 1912] I kept some time to do my own work. Illustrating was a depressing experience. And I didn’t get very good prices because I didn’t often do what they wanted.
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* [Jo, his wife, remarked on Hopper’s painting ‘Cape Cod morning’, 1950: ‘It is a woman looking out to see if the weather is good enough to hang out her wash’. Edward Hopper reacted:] 'did I say that? You’re making it Norman Rockwell. From my point of view she’s just looking out the window, just looking out the window'.
* [Jo, his wife, remarked on Hopper’s painting ‘Cape Cod morning’, 1950: ‘It is a woman looking out to see if the weather is good enough to hang out her wash’. Edward Hopper reacted:] 'did I say that? You’re making it Norman Rockwell. From my point of view she’s just looking out the window, just looking out the window'.
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** [[w:Josephine Hopper|Jo, his wife]] and Edward Hopper together
,
quoted in 'Gold for Gold', Time,
May 30, 1955, p. 72
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**
In: 'Gold for Gold', Time, (
[[w:Josephine Hopper|Jo, his wife]] and Edward Hopper together
interviewed)
May 30, 1955, p. 72
* Just to paint a representation or design is not hard, but to express a thought in painting is. Thought is fluid. What you put on canvas is concrete, and it tends to direct the thought. The more you punt on canvas the more you lose control of the thought. I’ve never been able to paint what I set out to paint.
* Just to paint a representation or design is not hard, but to express a thought in painting is. Thought is fluid. What you put on canvas is concrete, and it tends to direct the thought. The more you punt on canvas the more you lose control of the thought. I’ve never been able to paint what I set out to paint.
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* They are in a high key, somewhat like impressionism or a modified impressionism. I think I’m still an impressionist.
* They are in a high key, somewhat like impressionism or a modified impressionism. I think I’m still an impressionist.
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** In an interview in the late 1950's, Katherine Kuh and Avis Berman ed., in 'My Love Affair With Modern Art', New York 2006, p.276; as quoted in 'The Artist’s Voice', Katharine Kuh, New York and Evanston 1962, p.135
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** In
:
an interview in the late 1950's, Katherine Kuh and Avis Berman ed., in 'My Love Affair With Modern Art', New York 2006, p.276; as quoted in 'The Artist’s Voice', Katharine Kuh, New York and Evanston 1962, p.135
** Hopper qualified his early Paris sketches, by adding that these sketches were direct, about the 'immediate impression', while being very much concerned to represent with representing depth
** Hopper qualified his early Paris sketches, by adding that these sketches were direct, about the 'immediate impression', while being very much concerned to represent with representing depth
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* Well, I have a very simple method of painting. It's to paint directly on the canvas without any funny business, as it were, and I use almost pure turpentine to start with, adding oil as I go along until the medium becomes pure oil. I use as little oil as I can possibly help, and that's my method. It's very simple.. .Yes, linseed oil. I used to use poppy oil, but I have heard that poppy oil is given to cracking pigment too, so I use it no longer.. .I find linseed oil and white lead the most satisfactory mediums.
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**In: 'Oral history interview with Edward Hopper' (1959, June 17), conducted by John Morse; 'Archives of American Art', Smithsonian Institution
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* [about his painting 'Approaching a CityWell' Hopper painted in 1946:] I've always been interested in approaching a big city in a train, and I can't exactly describe the sensations, but they're entirely human and perhaps have nothing to do with aesthetics. There is a certain fear and anxiety and a great visual interest in the things that one sees coming into a great city. I think that's about all I can say about it.
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**In: 'Oral history interview with Edward Hopper' (1959, June 17), conducted by John Morse; 'Archives of American Art', Smithsonian Institution
* Though I studied with [[w:Robert Henri]], I was never a member of the Ash-Can School. You see, it had a sociological trend which didn’t interest me. [Hopper then proceeded to inform Kuh that his work contained no social content whatsoever]
* Though I studied with [[w:Robert Henri]], I was never a member of the Ash-Can School. You see, it had a sociological trend which didn’t interest me. [Hopper then proceeded to inform Kuh that his work contained no social content whatsoever]
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** In 'Edward Hopper', Katherine Kuh, in 'The Artist’s Voice: Interviews with Artists' New York: Harper and Row, 1962:140
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** In
:
'Edward Hopper'
(1962)
, Katherine Kuh, in 'The Artist’s Voice: Interviews with Artists' New York: Harper and Row, 1962:140
* It’s probably a reflection of my own, if I may say, loneliness. I don’t know. It could be the whole human condition.
* It’s probably a reflection of my own, if I may say, loneliness. I don’t know. It could be the whole human condition.
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* Ninety percent of them [artists in general] are forgotten ten minutes after they’re dead.
* Ninety percent of them [artists in general] are forgotten ten minutes after they’re dead.
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** In a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in "Edward Hopper", Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984
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** In
:
a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in "Edward Hopper", Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984
* In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.
* In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.
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**
Quoted in
'How Edward Hopper Saw the Light', by Joseph Phelan, at Artcyclopedia
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**
In:
'How Edward Hopper Saw the Light', by Joseph Phelan, at Artcyclopedia
online
** Hopper quotes here from Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self Reliance", the book he loved throughout his life
** Hopper quotes here from Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self Reliance", the book he loved throughout his life
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== Quotes about Edward Hopper ==
== Quotes about Edward Hopper ==
* The element of silence that seems to pervade every one of his [Hopper’s] major works.. ..can almost be deadly, as in [his]’Room in New York’ [painted in 1932]..
* The element of silence that seems to pervade every one of his [Hopper’s] major works.. ..can almost be deadly, as in [his]’Room in New York’ [painted in 1932]..
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**
Quote
of his friend and fellow painter
Charles Burchfield
, in: 'Hopper,: Career of Silent Poetry', Charles Burchfield, Art News’ 49 – March 1931, p. 14-17
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**
[[w:Charles Burchfield]] (quote
of his friend and fellow painter
)
, in: 'Hopper,: Career of Silent Poetry', Charles Burchfield, Art News’ 49 – March 1931, p. 14-17
* I got over there [to show her watercolors in the Brooklyn Museum, in Fall of 1913] and they liked the stuff and I started writing and talking about Edward Hopper, my neighbor [the museum accepted six of him for the exhibition where they hung next to Jo’s watercolors]) .. ..they knew him as an etcher, but they didn’t know he did watercolors.. ..he carried my stuff when the time came.. ..didn’t have me hauling them through the subway – what a sorry sight I’d have made.
* I got over there [to show her watercolors in the Brooklyn Museum, in Fall of 1913] and they liked the stuff and I started writing and talking about Edward Hopper, my neighbor [the museum accepted six of him for the exhibition where they hung next to Jo’s watercolors]) .. ..they knew him as an etcher, but they didn’t know he did watercolors.. ..he carried my stuff when the time came.. ..didn’t have me hauling them through the subway – what a sorry sight I’d have made.
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**
Quote of
[[w:Josephine Hopper|Jo [Josephine Verstille Nivison] Hopper]], in an interview together with Edward by Arlene Jacobwitz, at the Brooklyn Museum, April 29, 1966; as quoted in "Edward Hopper", Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 46
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** [[w:Josephine Hopper|Jo [Josephine Verstille Nivison] Hopper]],
her quotes
in an interview together with Edward by Arlene Jacobwitz, at the Brooklyn Museum, April 29, 1966; as quoted in "Edward Hopper", Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 46
* Hopper is simply a bad painter, but if he were a better one, he would probably not be such a great artist.
* Hopper is simply a bad painter, but if he were a better one, he would probably not be such a great artist.
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* [http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/hopper/index.html Edward Hopper scrapbook, compiled by the Smithsonian American Art Museum]
* [http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/hopper/index.html Edward Hopper scrapbook, compiled by the Smithsonian American Art Museum]
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* [http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2007/hopper/index.shtm images of Hopper's painting art in the National Gallery of Art]
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[[Category:Painters|Hopper, Edward]]
[[Category:Painters|Hopper, Edward]]
[[Category:1960s deaths]]
[[Category:1960s deaths]]