This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Hopper beyond the commonplace EDWARD HOPPER BEYOND THE COMMONPLACE. A review of his work under the light of Walter Benjamin´s concept of poverty of experience. Ana Pardo García 1 Hopper beyond the commonplace Abstract The title of this dissertation —Edward Hopper beyond the commonplace— alludes to the fact that, although the work of Edward Hopper is widely acknowledged in the history of the twentieth century art, critical literature focused on it has resorted to a number of labels (Americanness, alienation, loneliness and the like) which, over time, have become clichés with very little critical insight and with very weak theoretical and visual foundations. My first aim is, therefore, to develop a different critical framework which is up to the task of analysing the indisputable visual relevance of Hopper’s work. I shall argue that this critical support can be found in Walter Benjamin’s concept of “poverty of experience”, which I shall re-examine in the Part I of the dissertation. But my main aim is to test this framework in the analysis of Hopper’s oeuvre, and to show that not only the notion of poverty of experience can enrich this analysis, but also Hopper’s works can enrich the concept coined by Benjamin. So, in the rest of the dissertation, besides reviewing the existing literature, I shall construct an interpretative hypothesis to account for the interactions between technology and tradition underlying the development of American painting (Part II), the complex relationship between painting and technological reproducibility in Hopper’s artistic project (Part III), and the emotional meaning of Hopper’s pictures (part IV). I hope that this critical approach improves the understanding of Hopper’s work and can be useful to a wider treatment of modern art history. 2 Hopper beyond the commonplace Contents EDWARD HOPPER BEYOND THE COMMONPLACE. A review of his work under the light of Walter Benjamin´s concept of poverty of experience. INTRODUCTION: EDWARD HOPPER AND THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF EXPERIENCE……………………………… 6 1. WHAT IS KNOWN (AND UNKNOWN) ABOUT HOPPER….… 6 Three critical discourses ………………………………………………. 9 2. POVERTY AND EXPERIENCE ……………………………… 14 Benjamin’s work as a two way street ………………………………...… 16 PART I: ART AND THE POVERTY OF EXPERIENCE ……………………………………………… 22 CHAPTER 1. THE IMPOVERISHMENT OF EXPERIENCE………….. 24 1.1. REFLECTING ON EXPERIENCE…………………………………… 26 1.2. FROM ERFAHRUNG TO ERLEBNIS ………………………………. 29 1.2.1. The falsification of experience …………………………………………….. 31 1.2.2. A plea for Erlebnis ……………………………………………….……. 35 1.3. MODERN TIMES ………………………………………………..…. 39 1.3.1. Modern beauty: a general view ………………………………………..…. 43 1.3.2. Modern beauty: a conflict of interpretations ……………………….……..... 47 CHAPTER 2. ABOUT CULT AND EXHIBITION VALUES……….…. .. 50 2.1. BENJAMIN AS AN ART HISTORIAN……………………………….. 52 2.1.1. Cult and exhibition in ancient times………………………………….…… 53 2.1.2. Cult and exhibition in early modern times…………………………………... 54 2.2. INTERRUPTION OF ART HISTORY………………………………. 56 2.2.1. The reduction of distances as a second feature of the poverty of experience ……………………………………………… 56 2.2.2. Surpassing the opposition between cult and exhibition………………………… 58 2.2.3. The masses and avant-gardism…………………………………………… 60 2.2.4. The social function of art………………………………………………... 62 2.3. THE “OBLIGATORY MISUNDERSTANDING” …………..……… 65 2.3.1. Reinterpreting the poverty of experience ……………………………………. .66 2.3.2. Art’s autonomy and the opposition of form and content in the artwork as an expression of the tension between cult and exhibition values: the question of realism………………………………. 70 2.3.3. The loss of words as a third feature of the poverty of experience ………..…….. 73 3 Hopper beyond the commonplace PART II: HOPPER’S AMERICA…………………………… 77 CHAPTER 3. THE IMAGE OF AMERICA……………………………… 79 3.1. THE MANY FACES OF AMERICANISM……………………………. 80 3.2. A LANDSCAPE OF CONTROVERSY………………………………. 85 3.2.1. From the cult value standpoint……………………………………….……. 87 3.2.2. An excursus on the representational impoverishment in the abstract artwork………………………………………….………… 92 3.2.3. From the exhibition value standpoint……………………………… ………. 95 3.3. HOPPER’S PLACE…………………………………………………….. 108 CHAPTER 4. A HOUSE BY THE RAILROAD………………………….. 117 4.1. HOUSE BY THE RAILROAD………………………………………… 118 4.1.1. A dominant interpretation…………………………………….………….. 119 4.1.2. Back to the painting…………………………………………….………… 122 4.1.3. The dynamic tension between the house and the railroad………………….……. 126 4.1.4. Railroads and reduction of distances……………………………….……….. 129 4.2. THE HOUSE IN THE WINDOW……………………………….……... 134 4.2.1. A dark aura………………………………………………………..……. 141 PART III: NIGHTHAWKS AND PAINTING IN THE AGE OF TECHNOLOGICAL REPRODUCIBILITY…………….... 149 CHAPTER 5. NIGHTHAWKS: THE SEQUELS……………………….… 150 5.1. NIGHTHAWKS AND TECHNOLOGICAL REPRODUCIBILITY……………………………………………..………… 151 5.2. HOPPER AND FILM NOIR: TELLING AND SHOWING…………... 155 5.2.1. The criminal plot…………………………………………………………. 157 5.2.2. Night Shadows………………………………………………………….. 160 5.2.3. The end of naïve poetry…………………………………………………… 164 5.2.4. A circular argument? …………………………………………………….. 166 5.3. WHY PAINT REPRODUCIBILITY?............................................................. 172 5.3.1. An inner cinema…………………………………………………………. 174 5.3.2. Reasons for re-contextualization…………………………………………… 181 CHAPTER 6. NIGHTHAWKS: THE PAINTING……………………….. 185 6.1. THE SCENE…………………………………………………….…….. 186 6.1.1. Actors without aura……………………………………………………... 186 6.1.2. Light and Space………………………………………………………… 193 6.1.3. Wollheimian interlude………………………………………………….… 195 6.2. SPECTATORS AND EXPECTATIONS………………………….…… 203 6.2.1. A gaze without eyes………………………………………….…………… 203 6.2.2. Eyes without a gaze…………………………………………………….… 207 6.4. AN EXTENDED HYPOTHESIS ON NIGHTHAWKS………….…… 213 PART IV: HOPPER’S TIMES ……………………………... 221 CHAPTER 7. THE FADING OF THE ARGUMENT…………………… 222 7.1. CRITICAL READINGS OF MORNING SUN………………………... 224 4 Hopper beyond the commonplace 7.1.1. The loneliness thing………………………………………………… 226 7.1.2. Isolation, voyeurism………………………………………………..... 230 7.2. ON NEWS ITEMS………………………………………………….. 236 7.3. PERCEPTION AND NARRATION IN HOPPER………………… 241 7.3.1. Any-place-whatever………………………………………………… ...241 7.3.2. Any-instant-whatever…………………………………………….…. 245 7.4. IN THE FILM SET………………………………………………..….. 254 CHAPTER 8. A LITTLE THEORY OF WINDOWS …………………….260 8.1. CRITICAL READINGS OF SUNDAY……………………………….. 263 8.1.1. An excursus on Alienation……………………………………………….264 8.2. IMAGES OR STORIES……………………………………….………..269 8.2.1. A man in the sun……………………………………………………….. 274 8.2.2. The empty storefronts…………………………………………………… 280 8.2.3. The city-on-display……………………………………………………… 284 8.3. NAMING THE UNNAMED EMOTION…………………………… 290 CONCLUSIONS: AN INSTANT IN TIME, ARRESTED ...296 1. The ambivalence of the historical artwork……………..……………….. 299 2. Between caricature and decoration: Hopper and American art………………..…………………………...301 3. About Hopper’s realism ……………………………………… ……. 304 4. The rivalry between painting and photography………………...………….307 5. Three remarks on Hopper and technological reproducibility…………… . 310 6. Art as photography? ………………………………………………. 313 7. “With the utmost intensity”………………………………………… 318 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………. 324 LIST OF REPRODUCTIONS…………………………… 338 WORKS CITED NOT REPRODUCED IN THE TEXT……………………. 342 5 Hopper beyond the commonplace INTRODUCTION: EDWARD HOPPER AND THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF EXPERIENCE 1. WHAT IS KNOWN (AND UNKNOWN) ABOUT HOPPER Perhaps one of the main paradoxes about Edward Hopper is the fact that he is at the same time all too familiar and quite unknown. Familiar, firstly, because the valuable cataloguing work and biographical research of Gail Levin1 outlines a complete historiographical map of Hopper’s life and work (LEVIN: 1980; LEVIN: 2007, LEVIN:1995)2 . Hopper is also familiar because of his considerable influence in contemporary art history: his inspiration is not only present in Pop art, but in works by recent sculptors, filmmakers and photographers [Figs. 1-2] His pictures have become part of the collective imagination worldwide, and they have been reproduced countless times 1Gail Levin (1948), an American art historian specialized in the work of Edward Hopper, has written numerous monographs about him, including biographical essays and the Catalogue Raisonné of his works; she has also edited Hopper’s prints and illustrations and a book about the places depicted by Hopper. Her main works are listed in the Bibliography. 2Born in Nyack (Rockland, New York) in 1882, in a Baptist prosperous family of Dutch descent, in 1899, following his parents’ advice, Hopper entered the Correspondence School of Illustrating. Then he studied engraving