Let's talk!

The Brad Pitt Approach To Learning To Malding

  • click to rate
    a few weeks ago, they asked me to write an article on the work of Hopper, the Nighthawks and I, being an excellent researcher, went to learn more. Since it is generally known or at the very least, learned from experience, that in order to appreciate a painting one must know its history as well as the artist and, most importantly, the context within which he painted it. Art is certainly an universal thing, that transcends both space and time making it accessible even in the midst of hundreds of years. The meanings alter, as does the way society and the world evolve and what used to be seen clearly, possibly years later, is no longer so obvious. What was unthinkable before now could be revealing our work in a completely different way.

    Re-defining a work over time
    This is a bit like the scene I see when you look at the work of Hopper's " Nighthawks" that was shut at the bar late in the night, in that window that resembles the inside of a fish tank, in the location of the characters that are who were observed.

    I believe that , in the painting Hopper would have wanted to provide space to the viewer, allowing viewers to take in the quiet, detailed and calm scene presented to us by the night.

    This particular space, created to be a place for active viewing may be the most important element that allows the work to be reinterpreted throughout time and, consequently, to remain timeless, eternal contemporary, and modern.

    The painting, made in 1942, cannot be immediately linked to a specific time period However, it is believed that the date of its creation can change with the change of the viewer, according to the exact time at the period in which the work is viewed.

    In my opinion this is what is essential to reading, the time and space occupied by the observer that Hopper was hoping to create.

    I'll explain.


    In my research for information and news about Hopper's " Nighthawks" I was able be aware of how many people have described it , highlighting the following elements:

    "[...] the solitude, the feeling of emptyness of a world whose shimmering patina starts to lose its luster. [...] The distinctly commercial character, the false myths take off their masks to reveal a displaced reality, without any valid reference points , immobilized by uncertainty and a lack of morality. "

    Night and transformation
    I am of the opinion that this interpretation is partial which means that it's a interpretation provided from the socio-cultural context as well as by the dates that is attributed to the work: The United States between the 40s and 50s, during the boom in economics that was redefining the social and cultural values in the life of people in a society that was even a bit bourgeois, where nightclubs are viewed as places of isolation or despair.


    malding meaning in a certain degree, and it's not the whole truth.

    When I first came across this painting, and without having studied it, it gave me a lot of happiness and peace with its bright contrast and nighttime stillness.

    If I'm from the midst of a huge, noisy and bustling metropolis, the night is one of the times that I am able to enjoy the city more calmly: fewer people around more cars as well as less noise. There are also more open spaces to choose, and the best place to be, beneath the starless urban sky. The night has a very different meaning for me than the people who drank in bars across the United States during the 40s: when the sun goes down the city changes its face, the streets become more free and simple.

    It is impossible to ignore the way society has evolved through more than a half century of cultural and social shifts, between Pop as well as Rock culture, and between the psychedelic movement as well as the decade 2000.

    Personally, as a child of the 90s, have also grown up at night and by "growing up" I mean every one of the "formative" experiences that the night brought me. It is for me common to be out in the evening usually walking around the neighborhood, and on Saturdays , looking for the most memorable party, dancing until the early hours, riding a motorbike or car to find the last bar that is open to get the croissant or hot pizza and where you can drink the last glass and smoke the last puff before dawn came. Maybe from the 80s onwards, the night stopped in a way that scared those who stayed home (let's keep in mind the anti-prohibitionism movement and jazz movement and even the cursed Poets all of them perfect nights owls) and has since become the place where many of the prominent personalities of the world find comfort and peace of other night hawks.


    Hopper's modern realism
    The painting of Hopper today reminds me of a variety of scenes from contemporary life, and makes me almost proud and in any case compassionate, especially with the three main characters who engage in a chat while the bartender cleans the bar to close the bar and begin a new. Those nocturnes seek rest in the quiet of the nocturnal company, meditate on their lives observing their surroundings through a glass, and form a group of the night, accepting everyone , and never judging anyone. It is no coincidence that in the oldest civilisations, such as the Indian one the half hour before dawn is known as Brahmamuhurta which is also known as the time of Brahma which is the ideal time to devote oneself to prayer, meditation studying, and contemplation. In this space of time the energies are more acute as well as intense but with an ethereal, spiritual focus.

    There is no solitude nor empty space in Hopper's painting. I also found it among the streets that were gentrified in the night quarters, as even the right-thinking folks started going out at night.

    In other words, the oldest and most popular areas had to be turned into consumer showcases as well as the spontaneous aggregations of people in the square had to arrange themselves into lines waiting to get their turn; and the music of the drums that played on the other side of the street was silenced by police sirens. This is what worries me today that nighttime is degraded by its sacred timeless atmosphere, by its being an occasion of aggregation for lone wolves, and becoming an unintentional and productive element of the system that demands transparency and respectability in the darkest parts within the cities.