Month: October 2017

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“Nighthawks” – by Edward Hooper + inspired various media

The remixes always intrigue me because a central tenet of the original painting, at least a generally accepted one, is urban isolation – these are strangers thrown together by chance, alone even in a city full of people, because of the time and the place and, implied, because of who they are. Even the man and woman, who could conceivably be there together, aren’t looking at each other. There’s a warmth to the painting but it’s the warmth of physical shelter, not of community. At least, not chosen community. 

But if you look at the remixes, many of them are specifically about community and intimacy. That second painting I believe is the date-night scene from That 70s Show, which means the man and woman are an older married couple. Most of the others are either intimately associated (Bogart, Monroe, Dean, and Presley all serve as an era-specific touchstone) or pre-existing quasi-family groups (CSI, Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers, Cowboy Bebop, Star Trek). The Simpsons characters I’m less familiar with but I don’t think they’re a “community” – though they are remixed to be seated in a facing configuration, which indicates more connection than side-by-side would. The lego remix is a bit constrained by its media, but the people in it are crowded together and smiling. The Tick remix is really the only one that retains the sense of urban isolation to its fullest.

I’m not trying to criticize anyone for “getting it wrong” because I don’t believe they did – the whole point of a remix is to add new meaning, and anyway you could debate Nighthawks forever, there is no one right meaning for art. The reason I point out the shift is that I think it shows our basic human yearning for connection – that we see this spectacular painting and its haunting image of solitude among the masses, and we rebuild it in the image of family.