Galocha Cultural

domingo, 2 de maio de 2021

Obelisco Mausoléu aos Heróis de 32, 1969, São Paulo, Brasil

Obelisco Mausoléu aos Heróis de 32, 1969, São Paulo, Brasil
São Paulo - SP
Fotografia

Propaganda "Puma AM3, Mais Fera do que Nunca", Puma AM3, Puma, Brasil

Fotografia

Meio-Dia (High Noon) - Edward Hopper

Meio-Dia (High Noon) - Edward Hopper
Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Estados Unidos
OST - 1949

Edward Hopper’s figures are often alone, staring out of a window, sitting at a café table or standing on the porch of a New England house looking out at the ocean. High Noon is such a picture: an anonymous woman is seen in the doorway although we have no idea why. Is she waiting for someone? Or simply looking out on the day? There is no sense of any activity; she is still and surrounded by a large house that is struck by sunlight, leaving dramatic shadows on the roof and walls. The sky beyond is large and empty. Life, Hopper seems to say, is intense—the sunlight is strong and the sky open—but still we are alone and waiting. High Noon is a typical painting for Edward Hopper: in it, he explores patterns of light and dark color that are almost abstract, but he also tells a subtle story about modern living: we may have a large house and time on our hands, and yet still have nothing to do.

Conferência à Noite (Conference at Night) - Edward Hopper

Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, Estados Unidos

OST - 70x101 - 1949

Conference at Night pulls the viewer into a story: the setting is in a large open room whose beamed ceiling is supported by columns, a stark, mostly dark space furnished by four sturdy wooden tables upon which three bolts of colored cloth have been casually laid; the action is comprised of a bald man in shirt sleeves, seated casually on one of the tables, gesturing with raised hand and seemingly speaking to a man and a woman standing side-by-side before him; the standing man, whose figure is seen from the back, is dressed in outdoor street clothing of overcoat and fedora pushed casually back off the forehead; the woman, who wears a straight black dress with narrow white collar and plunging v-neckline, stands rigidly at attention, her strong features and sleekly styled blond hair seen in sharp profile. This tableau of three figures is illuminated by a bright, cool-toned shaft of light streaming in from a window located behind the seated man. Conference’s inexplicable yet palpable urgency grips the viewer, but even after extended contemplation, denies resolution.
Numerous critics and exhibitions have documented the influence of stage sets and popular American cinema upon Hopper’s depictions of the urban scene, often citing this image as a prime example. Film historian Peter Wollen identified Conference at Night as one of many Hopper paintings that look like scenes in movies that one has come in on in mid-screening. The viewer feels that the vignette must have a before and after; it feels like a momentary flash in an on-going mystery. Writer and Hopper’s close friend Brian O’Doherty noted that Conference directly referenced the hallmarks of the era’s popular gangster movies, or film noir, in its lighting, bleak urban setting and hard-faced characters.
This painting is classic Hopper in its theme of voyeuristic glimpses of the city at night and its masterful exposition of such favored compositional devices as an open window, a near-empty room in a utilitarian structure, strongly-directed light from an unseen source, and anonymous figures engaged in some undefined yet intense social exchange to create an arresting psychological drama. Conference at Night furnishes one of the four superb examples of work in the Wichita Art Collection by an artist who is one of the greats of twentieth century painting.