Art Paints True

One of my favorite artists is Edward Hopper.  This might be surprising to you if you are familiar with his works.  So many of them are rather bleak and depressing.  His subject matter is often empty cityscapes, abandoned, run-down homes, or disengaged men and women, isolated and alone even when in public places such as cafes or trains. His most famous painting is Nighthawks, in which three people at a diner’s counter appear to be lost or perhaps even overwhelmed by their thoughts.  Recently developed fluorescent lights create a harsh, cold atmosphere, and from the viewer’s perspective, there is no visible door, conveying the idea of entrapment, as if the patrons are animals enclosed in a terrarium.  Recurrent in many of his paintings is a shade of green that has the effect of absorbing any warmth in the scene that would have been present if not for this color. 

You may be wondering at this point, why I, or anyone for that matter, would enjoy such paintings.  To begin with, like mostuch art, they are cathartic, and can act as healing agents through their resonance with our troubling experiences.  But beyond that, in my opinion, the works of Hopper viscerally communicate the human condition. They depict man as he really is: lost, stumbling through life, and grappling with purpose and meaning.  In essence, Hopper is painting truth, pictorial philosophy if you will. And most importantly, his works prime the soul and heart to receive the remedy for man’s bleak condition.   

When the incarnate God became man and walked among us, he likened man to a lost sheep without a shepherd.  Jesus declared his mission when he said, “I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly.”  The point is that we can only receive the cure for our condition when we realize our condition, and Hopper’s art does just that.   It reflects our own soul’s desperate search for hope, meaning, and most especially, life.  And when we cry out for these, He hears and offers them in abundance. 

Why do I believe this?  My life was once tinged with the very same green as many of Hopper’s paintings.  I too was lost, stumbling through life, and grappling with purpose and meaning.  It was from this state of desperation I cried out.  The terrarium was shattered and a life set free.

Today, I encourage you to peruse some of Hopper’s works, but don’t stop there.  There’s much more beyond the paintings waiting for you.