Thursday Thoughts...

… Looking at “Nighthawks,” I sense an invisible fifth participant who hovers on our side of the street. A passerby like us, he observes the action from the dark, and in through the plate glass, with appreciative and yet rather terrible detachment. Darkly shimmering, mercurial, and soon gone again is the artist’s self, the actual nighthawk.” 

Alexander Eliot

I like how Eliot has not simply described what is in the painting, what is there to be viewed, but rather he has taken us outside the painting and created a sense of perhaps who is viewing the scene (rather than simply viewing the painting).  

Oftentimes with art we look at we see and we examine it. We move around it, we peer more closely, we hold it if we can, we turn pages if allowed.  We focus so very much on the the object. We sometimes step away from pure observation and consider the why? We ponder motivation and drive, we read the artist statement or descriptor and ask what was the catalyst for this work? 

Far less frequently do I feel as if I completely step out and pretend I am an unobserved participant. Of course a painter paints from a perspective and you feel you can see what they were looking at say, as they painted; but I like the suggestion here that one is an invisible participant in the scene - not simply viewing it from the point at which the painter stood.

Rather, feeling as if you are a passerby looking into that well-lit room and wondering about the individuals as you pass on by.

Nighthawks by Edward Hopper.