a few weeks ago, they asked for me to compose an essay about the work of Hopper as well as the Nighthawks, and I, as a good researcher, went to learn more. Since it is generally known, or at least is learn by experience, that to comprehend a painting one must know its history, the author and most importantly the context in the context in which Hopper painted it. Art is definitely something universal, transversal to the space and time, making it readable over the course of hundreds of years. The meanings change, along with how society and the world change and what was once able to be clearly seen, perhaps years after, is not as obvious. What was not considered before, today could reveal our work in a completely different way.

Re-defining a work over time

This is a bit like the scene I see when you view Hopper’s ” Nighthawks” that was shut at the bar late in the evening, and in the window, which resembles the inside of a fish tank, in the same position as the characters he observed.

I believe that , in this painting, Hopper wanted to give space for the viewer to allow viewers to take in the quiet tranquil, precise and serene scene given to us by the dark night.

The space, designed to be a place for active viewing could be the keystone, which allows the painting to be reinterpreted in the course of time, and to remain timeless, eternal, modern, even very modern.

The painting, made in 1942, cannot be immediately attributable to a precise time period, but it seems that its dating is changeable depending on the changing viewer, depending on the exact time at which the work is observed.

My opinion is that this is the most important aspect of reading, the space that is occupied by the observer that Hopper wanted to create.

I’ll explain.

While researching information and news on Hopper’s ” Nighthawks” I was able observe how many describe the film by highlighting these aspects:

“[…] the loneliness, the sense of emptyness of a world whose shimmering patina starts to lose its luster. […] The uniquely commercial essence lies, the myths rip off their masks and reveal a displaced reality, without any valid reference points in the face of uncertainty and lack of conscience. ”

Night and transformation

I think this interpretation is not complete and, therefore, it is an interpretation given from the socio-cultural context as well as by the date associated with the work: The United States between the 40s and 50s, in the period of economic growth that was redefining the cultural and social assets that were a part of the life of people in a society that was even a bit bourgeois in which nightclubs are seen as places of isolation or despair.

It’s true in a certain degree, and slightly not.

When I first came across this painting, without having studied it, it brought me lots of joy and peace, with its bright contrast and nocturnal stillness.

Maybe, coming from a large busy and noisy metropolis, the night is one of the moments that I am able to enjoy the city in a more peaceful way there are fewer people more cars, less noise, more spaces between the streets to make the most of, and the best place to be, beneath the starless urban sky. The night has a very different meaning for me from those who went to bars in America. United States during the 40s as the sun’s path down and the city is transformed into its face, the streets become more free and simple.

We must not forget how society has transformed itself over the course of more than half a century of social and cultural changes, in between Pop as well as Rock culture, between psychoedelic movement and the 2000s.

As a girl in the 90s, I grew up also at night and by that I mean all the “formative” experiences that the night gave me. For me , it’s normal to go out after dark, often walking around the neighborhood, and on Saturdays , looking for the perfect nightclub, dancing till dawn and riding around on a motorbike or driving around in search of the last open bar where to grab the hot pizza or croissant and where you can drink the last glass and smoke the last puff before dawn was set. From the 80s and afterward, the night no longer from frightening those who stayed home (let’s take a look at the jazz movement, anti-prohibitionism and even the cursed Poets all of them perfect evening owls) and it has become the place where the majority of people of society find the comfort and peace of other nightclubs.

Hopper’s contemporary realism

Nowadays Hopper’s painting reminds me of many scenes of real contemporary life, and make me feel satisfied and compassionate, especially with the final three characters, who exchange with the bartender as he cleans the bar to close the bar and begin a new. Those nocturnes seek rest in the solitude of their nightly companions. They contemplate their lives, watching them through a glass and form a group of the night, welcoming all and not judging anyone. It’s no accident that in the oldest primitive civilizations like the Indian one, the time between midnight and dawn is known as Brahmamuhurta or the time of Brahma the most ideal time to dedicate oneself to prayer, meditation as well as study and reflection. In this time, the energy levels are higher and intense, but they are of an ethereal, spiritual focus.

I don’t see any solitude or empty space in Hopper’s painting. what is malding found it among the gentrified streets of the night quarters, as even the right-thinking folks started going out in the evening.

In other words, the oldest and most popular areas had to be turned into showcases for the consumer as the spontaneous gatherings of people who gathered in the square were required to arrange themselves in line waiting to get their turn to be seated; and the beat of the drums on the the street was drowned out by police sirens. That scares me today, that the night is shattered by its mystical, timeless ambience as an occasion of aggregation for individuals, and by becoming an additional uncovering tool of the system that demands clarity and respectability even in the darkest parts within the cities.