The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock

The University of Manchester The Whitworth Art Gallery

It was Edward Hoppers work that I initially wanted to see at this exhibition as I have been looking at his work for my current project, and how he along with other practitioners look for the psychological drama with moments.

The American scene being a concept that during the 1920s and 1930s came to be applied to urban and rural subject matter.

Fig.1 Night in the Park

Fig.2 Night on the El train

Fig.3 The Hall

The Character in Hoppers Night in the park, as with my character in The Hall, creates a mood of calmness within a domniating landscape, their relaxed casual manor overpowers the overpowering precence of their surroundings.

Edward Hopper and the American scene

Hopper was concerned with the psychological drama inherited in his scenes, rather than base his etching upon observation, Hopper would draw from recalled experiences.

In Figure.1, Night in the park, Hopper uses dramatic lighting by isolating the figure within a pool of light and therefore introducing the foregrounds shadows. Using heavy hatching and cross hatching to produce the tone of this night scene Hoppers etched lines contrast with the brilliant white paper.

Fig.4 Martin Lewis, Spring night Greenwich Village. 1930, Drypoint with sandpaper ground.

Fig.5 Lewis, Little Penthouse, 1931, Drypoint

Martin Lewis (1880- 1962)

Lewis includes many anecdotal vinettes such as the lovers bracing in the dark doorway and the illuminated shop interior with a cobbler at work. Lewis was particularly concerned with the positioning of the shadows cast on the pavement.
Lewis used dry point and sandpaper to create specific tonal effects and also sanded over areas of hatched and cross-hatched lines to produce softly graduated shadows. In Lewis's Little Penthouse, evinces parallels of film noir in it's depiction of nocturnal cityscape and the use of exaggerated lighting effects contribute to the sense of impending drama.

Lewis started to make etchings in 1915 and taught the technique to his friend Edward Hopper. Lewis insisted that all the effects of the plate were to be obtained from work on the plate its self and not through the manipulation of the inking.

Louis Lozowick, New York, 1925, Lithoraph

The book was published to accompany the exhibition, put together by Stephen Copper, with the assistance of Jerzy Kierkuc-Bielinski and published by the British Museum Press.

Stephen Copper is the curator of the modern collection of prints and drawings at the British museum. Jerzy Kierkuc-Bielinski is currently curator at Soane’s Museum, London and also obtains a doctorate on Polish and American Conceptual art of the 1970s.

This book contains 162 illustrations by more than 70 artists, including a concise biography of each artist and commentaries on their work. Other information that is included in the output is a substantial introduction presenting a historical overview of American printmaking up to 1960. At the back of the book you will find a glossary, copyright credits, an index, a list of websites for the museum and artist and other books published by The British Museum.

The British Museum believes their print collection covering the first sixty years of the twentieth century is the best outside of the United States itself. The collection covers the whole century, right up to the present day, but concentrating on the years that are hardly known or showed in Europe.

Outlet format: book – The American Scene prints from Hopper to Pollock. Stephen Coppel, The British Museum.