Shall we sunbathe with Edward Hopper?

SUNNY BEACH (2020) Painting by Sergey Sovkov. 

The invitation that resonates in my title will not surprise Edward Hopper aficionados, who will surely have noticed the accuracy by which the American master, by way of cinematic framing, skillfully arranges the light within his paintings, constructing different points of observation of the same masterpiece, which appears revealed in its essence precisely by these furtive entrances of the sun into the homes, or the most disparate places, in which the protagonists of his work are generally arranged. It is not necessarily the case, however, that, again the aforementioned connoisseurs, have noted that one can even construct a gradual narrative, aimed at gradually populating the luminous spaces of an increasing number of characters, starting from a partially sunlit view, but completely free of the human figure. To demonstrate when said I begin with Rooms by the Sea, a 1951 painting in which the architecture of an interior is revealed, illuminated through the presence of a wide open door, which lets in light and puts the viewer in contact with the external environment: the sky and the sea. It is precisely the latter constantly floating expanse of water that seems to surreally reach up to the threshold of the door, a boundary that allows us to enter the house also to discover the presence of a second, beyond the first and bare, furnished room, a space that conveys in the viewer the feeling of being able to move more deeply within the composition. Regarding the context of the work's creation, on the other hand, Rooms by the Sea re-proposes the view that the painter enjoyed from his studio in Cape Cod (Massachusetts), although, this view of reality would seem more like a metaphysical invention, exclusively dictated by the artist's soul and interiority. Finally, it is precisely this placement somewhere between the conscious and the unconscious that allows me to imagine the aforementioned space of the artist gradually becoming populated by the presence of characters, who, lost in contemplation of the sea, are also kissed and tanned by the summer sun. This reverie of mine is resolved, albeit in a decidedly different hillside context, in a solitary figure that the American master portrayed sun-kissed and revealed in full nudity, almost aimed at suggesting a desire to have even the "darkest" parts of our bodies take on light, despite the fact that, in this particular case, it would seem to be more the mysterious thoughts of the effigy than her now revealed genital areas. For those who are lost, I am proceeding with the description of A Woman in the Sun, a work from 1961 aimed at testifying precisely how Hopper, having reached maturity, began to leave out more of the visual details of his paintings in order to concentrate more on rendering the psychological datum of his subjects, which, in the case of this masterpiece, take the form of the aforementioned nude woman caught in the beam of light coming from a window in front of her. Such a decidedly voyeuristic setting, within which simple architectural components and few details of everyday life are discernible, allows the viewer to imagine the thoughts of the effigy, but also to reconstruct the preceding and subsequent events of this specific vision, aimed at capturing the features of the artist's wife, namely Josephine Nivison. Pursuing the intent of reaching a population climax within Hopper's paintings, I decided to proceed by imagining myself ideally dressing the aforementioned model, in order to enable her to join, at a later time, some of her fellow humans caught up in the beneficial contemplative action of the sun. Therefore, in order to prepare the woman for the exit, I first wanted to imagine her dressed in a peach-colored dress, while, intent on reflection, she enjoys the sun's rays, probably in order not to appear too white in public, because, at least here at my place in Italy, people are really used to competing on the amount of sun taken during the beautiful season. What has been described leads us to another masterpiece by the American master, Morning sun (1952), a painting actually conceived with the less optimistic intention of illustrating the experience of human isolation in modern cities, which is reflected in an effigy literally lost in her thoughts, placed within bare walls, taking shape within a single, desolate high floor. This isolated life ceases only when, probably precisely with the intention of enjoying some sunshine, the five characters of People in the Sun (1960) gather with comfortable deck chairs in front of an enigmatic rural landscape, a vision that the artist derived from observing the habits of the citizens of a New York park, replacing the latter urban context with a space surely suggested by the memory of the many trips spent in the Massachusetts resort. If the solitude seems to have faded, what persists is the sense of mystery that pervades the work, a recurring characteristic of the subjects treated by the artist, which, in this particular case, lead us to wonder: what view are the effigies admiring? What is the man with the book reading? Why dress so smartly to sweat in the sun? How do the characters relate to each other? To this last question, unfortunately and despite the crowded air of the painting, there is always only one, tragic and only one answer, namely that of a loneliness that is actually permanent, mainly derived from a deep sense of alienation, which determines the protagonists' eternal inability to communicate with each other, while, however, their faces become increasingly tanned. Finally, the link between art, sun and tan continues in contemporary paintings by Artmajeur artists, such as, for example, Beach by Roza Bronnikova, Lazy days by Angela Brittain and Arcachon lovers by Stan.

HOT CHILL 2 (2022) Painting by Stuart Dalby.

BEACH (2021) Painting by Roza Bronnikova.

Roza Bronnikova: Beach

Bronnikova's painting, depicting a sun-drenched landscape set in a tropical paradise equipped with a hammock, lacks nothing to accommodate within it a relaxed and enjoying figure, who, conspicuously absent, seems to remind us how the human presence on this earth is rather superfluous, as bather or not, the sun, in case it shines, will always do so, at most kissing landscapes and expanses of water, rather than a beautiful face. In addition to the aforementioned star, inaccurately visible to us from afar, the painting also harbors the silent presence of the wind, just as the artist's own statements suggest, revealing how the latter breath is devoted to sinuously moving the palm leaves and hammock bangs. A vision of similar "absence" is offered to us by the parallel narrative of contemporary art, well rendered by Snarkitecture's The Beach, a 2015 installation, which, before being filled by crowds of visitors, takes the form of a deserted bathhouse, which, placed in the Great Hall of the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., takes the form of a multitude of translucent balls of recyclable plastic, beach chairs, building materials such as scaffolding, wooden panels and perforated nets illuminated by artificial light. As a result, if the work of the artist from Artmajeur comes across as a kind of manifesto of a calm and authentic marriage of human elements and nature, the installation by the New York-based collaborative studio founded by Daniel Arsham and Alex Mustonen, comes across as a more dramatic reminder of the devastating impact of human activities on the earth, now largely invaded by artificial places, which have transformed the most authentic concept of the beach.

LAZY DAYS (2023) Painting by Angela Brittain.

Angela Brittain: Lazy days

On a not very crowded beach, a mature woman is busy combing the hair of a younger female figure, well seated sunbathing by resting her head on a towel, whose presence suggests, along with the lone bathing suit on the right of the stand, a just-completed bathing of the maiden. Despite the imaginative way in which the group of figures in the background in towels, the woman walking her dog, the man in a brown suit, mother and daughter, the figures in the sea and the boats are also described, the painting I am talking about, namely Degas' masterpiece titled Beach scenes was executed by the master in the studio, just as we can see from some of the French artist's oversights, such as, for example, the smoke from the ships going in different directions. In addition, the painter himself stated about the execution this masterpiece, "It was quite simple. I spread my flannel vest on the studio floor and made the model sit on it. You see, the air in a painting is not necessarily the same as the air outside the house." On the subject of tanning, however, it became fashionable only about fifty years after this painting was made, so much so that the little girl is equipped with a parasol and only the woman, probably a nanny from a lower social class, does not bother to dye her skin. Today, on the contrary, tanning is immediately associated with the dolce far niente of the rich, eternal vacationers who, instead of having identity crises at the office, roast in the sun like shrimps, whose thirst is preferably quenched by the season's most named cocktail, just as the redheaded protagonist of Lazy days does while, probably almost a little tipsy, she falls asleep embedded in a rock.

ARCACHON LOVERS (2023) Painting by Stan.

Stan: Arcachon lovers

In Stan's Pop painting, the passionate protagonists no longer think about sunbathing by making the mark of their costume tiny, because they are totally smitten with each other, from joining in a kiss that is consummated on an inflatable placed in who knows what expanse of water. They, however, should not be so carefree and busy, because if they forgot to put on protection they may, with a large percentage probability, "blush" like the protagonist of Nude Sunbathing, Roy Lichtenstein's 1995 masterpiece. In fact, the purpose of this latest work is to illustrate, by means of the personal Ben-Day technique, the American master's female narrative presented in its final version, that is, the one in which his heroine, or rather his ideal girl, a character often presented in the throes of drama or articulate stylistic renditions, appears in her purest form: that of the nude, in which she takes on a seductive, sensual and erotic connotation without restraint. In fact, the American artist came to celebrate the very essence of a femininity, which, now confident, languid, idle, magnetic and highly coquettish, is capable of bewitching and completely seducing the viewer, invoking, with her hand playing with locks of blond hair, a bolder interpretation of earlier masterpieces, such as, for example, Matisse's Draped Nude and Titian's Venus of Urbino.