Chicago Weekend Fun!

I went to go see the Art Institute of Chicago’s Exhibit featuring Edward Hopper about a week ago. It was fantastic (despite some logistical issues) and I wanted to post about it here to let everyone know that this exhibit is only here in Chicago until May 10.  The tickets were $20.00 each for regular admission to the Art Institute and the special Edward Hopper Exhibit. If you decide to go on a weekend like we did (Saturday) it pays to get there early. There was a line down the front steps of the Art Institute and around and down the sidewalk to buy tickets. Apparently the line of people showing up for a day with art is more than they can handle. We got there just about 2 pm.

When we finally got through the 1/2 hour line out front, got our tickets and were inside, we couldn’t find the exhibit. We asked for directions and they pointed to keep going all the way to the back of the museum, so we did. And after walking through a long hallway with punctuation printed all over it’s walls we came to the line for the audio tours for the Edward Hopper Exhibit. Not what we wanted. I hate audio tours. It’s just another way to make money off of people and I didn’t come there to hear other people’s ideas about the art. I came there to form mine. So, we cut around the line and try going up the stairs where it was open and were promptly directed to go back and through the original headsets and audio tours line. So, we had to say “no” again to the people with the audio tours, and then wait in line to get in. The same confusion happened at our way out because nothing is labeled, and they have people telling you where to walk only after you go through there.

So, finally (!) we got to the actual exhibit. They took Edward Hopper’s most well known painting, Nighthawks and blew up a print of it in high resolution to fill the first wall of the exhibit when you walk in. It was striking. It makes me think that wall decals (blick graphics) and wall paper are just the beginning. Why not sell full wall prints of art too? The exhibit starts off slow with early drawings, self portraits and etchings that Edward Hopper did early in his career. It struck me as interesting that he had the intent to be a serious artist from the beginning and not to become a 20th century pop-culture artist at all, which is what I think more people know his work from and what keeps his Nighthawks print posters popular for dorm rooms.   

After producing serious art for many years, getting married and working in advertising to make a living Edward Hopper was able to start selling paintings and finance his work. In later years he finally did gain wide acclaim and there was a brief movie narrated by Steve Martin (who is also an avid art collector) about his life and aspirations. Edward Hopper never did like the modernist or abstract movements in the 50′s-60′s and always said he just wanted to paint light coming in a window and hitting a wall. That was the subject of some of his last paintings, and although the subject matter is simple, they are beautiful.

I like that Edward Hopper had certain things he looked for in a scene or landscape to paint. He looked for dramatic light and shadows, real views that were from an angle a person may see every day (rather than front on posted pictures) and he captured the industrialism, landscape and architecture of America at that time. He also was happy to use bright colors that really brought the scenes to life. There is a lot made of the ambiguous expressions or situations he paints with people as the subject. I think they are ambiguous so they can apply to anyone, not because they are particularly somber or lifeless.

The paintings have been gathered from all over the world, and are grouped in somewhat of a chronological order. the exhibit starts with etchings and paintings from his early career and ending with the last painting he completed before he died in 1967.

The artwork Edward Hopper created always has a dramatic realism to me. I look at the paintings of apartment buildings and wonder about the people living in the windows. I see the lighthouses and think it looks like I might have looked up on a walk up a hill to a lighthouse. It’s like Edward Hopper learned all the traditional methods and techniques to creating artwork and paintings and just applied it to regular urban and suburban life that was handy at the time.

They mentioned that after one of his first few paintings sold he bought his first car, which meant he could travel farther to paint new scenes. He also painted in the car when it was cold, dark or raining outside. They mention some paintings were done under the dome light of the car at night. How awesome is that for adaptation?

I also appreciate that he tries to represent things as they really are in the paintings. Edward Hopper did not embellish or make things surreal or fantasy in any way. The perspectives and shadows were dramatic because they were real and they give us a window into the past and into ourselves.

After we saw the Edward Hopper Exhibit we tried to look at a contemporary 20th century photography exhibit in the basement area near the kids section (which was cool) and then the Art Institute was closing. I am now thinking I should get one of Edward Hopper’s prints for my home just because they capture moods and light that are interesting to look at again and again.

If you are in Chicago check out the Edward Hopper exhibit at the art Institute of Chicago until May 10, 2008.