Monday, July 26, 2021

The True Story Behind Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks" Painting

Scholars of the art world have spent uncounted man-years seeking the meaning and message from Edward Hopper's iconic painting "Nighthawks." Hopper was a well known smoker, but he also consumed many cups of coffee.  And coffee is the key to understanding Nighthawks true meaning.


Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks" explained
Edward Hopper's Night Hawk's - An allegorical painting in which 'coffee' is the answer.



Hopper's Nighthawks is an homage to coffee. It shows coffee as the answer to the darkness in the surrounding world. 


When looking at the painting, the viewer's eye is drawn to the light of the diner and more importantly, the shining silver coffee urns. They are analogous to church tabernacles that hold holy scrolls or sacred relics.  But in this case, they hold the elixir of energy- coffee.  Hopper executed this as the country was heading into World War II. He knew there would be many late nights and that people would need to come together. And coffee would be a catalyst for that cohesion.

Now look at the server clad in white behind the counter who is the painting's focal point. He is hunched over as if he were bearing the weight of an angels wings. He is bathed in light  and his server hat is his halo. This is rightly so, as the server is delivering the answer to the lonely, bored and purposeless supplicants seeking fulfillment. He veritably glows and emanates purpose and activity. 

Note the door next to the urns. It represents a portal to the next chamber of life, a passage like the River Styx or the Pearly Gates of St. Peter. And to get to,  and through that key portal, one needs to pass the all important coffee urns.

Moving outward, the three characters at the counter are dark and lack vitality. We see the dark back of one, making the lonely figure all the more pathetic. And a couple together, but not really engaged. Are they waiting for coffee to add meaning to their lives? If they were truly excited to be with each other they would not be in a diner at this hour. Note that the woman has raven hair and is wearing a red dress. She and her partner are seeking something more than the typical pleasures of the night. That activity has left them tired, spent and empty; seeking something more... They are waiting for something transcendent- Coffee.

Finally, we look at the broader surroundings we see that the light comes from the diner. It stands like a beacon to the community; offering companionship, purpose and most importantly, hot water that has steeped ground coffee beans. The diner is the source of all light. It beckons. "Come to me. I will fulfill your spiritual needs. It is dark outside, but light here. I give you community. Drink of my goodness. My angel will serve you. Later, in the morning I will teem with people." This is a place of goodness, humanity, companionship and caffeine. 






I know this scholarly insight has nothing to do with Francis Quirk, but the painting  needed this clarification. BTW- Francis Quirk frequently had coffee receptions at the Lehigh University Art Galleries.   

Saturday, July 24, 2021

Mario Cooper Exhibits at Lehigh- Did Francis Quirk and Cooper Know Each Other Years Before?

In February of 1968 Francis Quirk organized an exhibit of the works of Mario Cooper and Sidney Gross. This post will focus on Mario Cooper perhaps the most influential artist/illustrator we have seen without a Wikipedia page. Ironically, Cooper does have a Wikipedia page in German


Mario Cooper
Mario Cooper Self-Portrait National Academy of Design


Mario Cooper was born in Mexico City in 1905. His father was a Californian, his mother a native of Mexico. When Mario was nine, the Coopers moved to California where the boy received his education. He studied art at the Otis Art Institute, the Chouinard School, and at Columbia University under sculptor Oronzio Maldarelli. 

There are three aspects to this man's career: illustrator, educator and serious artist.

Illustrator

Mario is known as an illustrator. He plunged into the professional world via engraving house, art service, and advertising agencies. He became an expert letterer and layout man. He studied drawing in night classes wherever possible and copied the work of Dean Cornwell, Harvey Dunn and Pruett Carter. His professional break occurred in 1930 when Collier's magazine, a leading general interest publication, first accepted his work. Watson mentions that Cooper's preferred media were colored inks and watercolor. However, we have discovered at least one oil painting. 

He would go on to illustrate many pieces including books by Agatha Christie.

Mario Cooper 1944

Mario Cooper 1947

Mario Cooper 1941

Mario Cooper 1944

Mario Cooper 1956


For completion we are including an oil painting by Mario Cooper below. We were unable to find any examples of his sculpture. 


Oil Painting "Portrait of a Red-Headed Woman" by Mario Clark


Educator 

Cooper clearly enjoyed sharing the art of working with watercolors. He belonged to several organizations including the Society of Illustrators, the Allied Artists of America, the National Academy of Design, the American Watercolor Society, and the Audubon Society. 

He was president of the American Watercolor Society (AWS) from 1959 to 1986.

He published four watercolor painting books, Painting with Watercolor, Flower Painting in Water Color (1962), The Art of Drapery: Styles and Techniques for Artists (1984) and Watercolor by Design (1980) that can still be found in online bookstores and some libraries.

Cooper taught at the Pratt Institute and Columbia University. The internet is littered with former students who are now artists who benefited from his demanding attention. These include Polly Wood, Linda Crawford, Lou Marek, Zoe Mac, Pat Percy and a host of others. 


Serious Artist

Please do not take the title of this section as being pejorative to illustration art. Illustration art can be extremely good and is frequently better than academic or serious art.  I can wax eloquent on the merits of the works of Rockwell, Homer and many others. 

In his later years, Cooper used watercolors to paint landscape and other studies, such as those exhibited at Lehigh in 1968. In his review write-up in the Brown and White, Mike Jeppson described the displayed works as multitudes, monuments and wall effects. The wall effects were close ups of objects such as a lock on a gate. Lehigh would purchase "The Rock Laguna Beach" which was part of the exhibition. The other two classes of paintings are designed to be viewed from afar and may have included paintings like San Travaso below.

San Travaso by Mario Cooper


Venice by Mario Cooper



London by Mario Cooper

He also participate in the US Air Force's History of Aviation Program. In 1953 Cooper would paint for the US Air Force receiving the courtesy rank of Brigadier General and a plane with seven men to travel the world painting. His work from this period is largely in the Pentagon or national collections. Later in his career Cooper would develop a relationship with NASA and serve as one of the onsite artists painting the space program


"The Glittering Hours" 1969 watercolor of Apollo 11 by Mario Cooper


Cooper's painting "Battle Dress" is now in the collection of the National Air and Space Museum along with works by Norman Rockwell, Andrew Wyeth and Peter Hurd.


The Quirk-Cooper Relationship

We don't know the details of the relationship between Francis Quirk and Mario Cooper, but we suspect that there paths may have crossed due to several similarities. Both had worked as illustrators selling commercial works. Both had won Tiffany Fellowships. Both worked in East Coast academia.  But the artist depicted in the 1944 Cooper painting below seems to have a striking similarity to Francis Quirk as drawn in the pastel self-portrait at the bottom of the page. 




Mario Cooper work from 1944 seems to capture Francis Quirk


Francis J. Quirk  Self-portrait in pastel  Undated