Hopper

Now in rich color, thirty of American painter Edward Hopper’s masterpieces with critiques from acclaimed poet Mark Strand. Strand deftly illuminates the work of the frequently misunderstood American painter, whose enigmatic paintings—of gas stations, storefronts, cafeterias, and hotel rooms—number among the most powerful of our time.
 
In brief but wonderfully compelling comments accompanying each painting, the elegant expressiveness of Strand’s language is put to the service of Hopper’s visual world. The result is a singularly illuminating presentation of the work of one of America’s best-known artists. Strand shows us how the formal elements of the paintings—geometrical shapes pointing beyond the canvas, light from unseen sources—locate the viewer, as he says, “in a virtual space where the influence and availability of feeling predominate.”
 
An unforgettable combination of prose and painting in their highest forms, this book is a must for poetry and art lovers alike.


From the Hardcover edition.

Mark Strand was born in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada, and was raised and educated in the United States. He has written nine books of poems, which have brought him many honors and grants, including a MacArthur Fellowship and, for Blizzard of One, the 1999 Pulitzer Prize. he was chosen as Poet Laureate of the United States in 1990. He is the author of a book of stories, Mr. and Mrs. Baby, several volumes of translations (including works by Rafael Alberti and Carlos Drummond de Andrade, among others), the editor of a number of anthologies, and the author of two monographs on contempory artists. He teaches in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.