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에드워드 호퍼(Edward Hopper) 회화에 나타난 소외의 표상 - 모더니즘과 필름 느와르와의 연관성을 중심으로

권주연 1

1홍익대학교 미술사학과

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Edward Hopper is a well-known American realist who consistently portrayed the motif of alienation in his art. His works depict deserted streets in the city or country, or people isolated in the midst of a city. These works represent the theme and sentiment of alienation and estrangement. Previously, studies on Hopper have centered on relating this alienation motif to the overall tendencies of American society during Hopper’s time, citing that he reflected the sentiment of the society of his era. This generated narrative-based interpretations, concluding that Hopper was a realist or a figurative painter. However, while viewing his works within social-cultural contexts remains dominant, there have been few remarks on Hopper’s interest in plastic features. This these aims to distinguish Hopper from other realism artists based on studies that discuss Hopper’s formalities. This these looks to emphasize his strenuous efforts in seeking plasticity and formative features. Furthermore, Hopper’s paintings will be related to Film Noir in the aspects of feminism, psychoanalysis and film theories. This will in turn give a new view of Hopper in contemporary discourse, and further expand interpretations of Hopper’s work by various perspectives. This these first examines the aspects of realism which were the mainstream in the American art world and society during Hopper’s time. In the early 20th century, American society greatly emphasized patriotism due to the drastic changes inside and outside of the country. These social and cultural aspects are commonly claimed to be what made Hopper a realist. However, when comparing Hopper’s works with those of John Sloan, Hopper’s interests in the plastic features of object forms and canvas composition can be traced. In this respect, this study will further discuss Hopper’s unique modernistic features in his realism paintings. His interests in formation of objects including architectural features, abstract expression of lighting, and multiple perspectives convey how deeply Hopper was interested in plastic features and his close attention to painting formality even though he was a realismpainter. The modernistic aspects of his works are defined here to emphasize Hopper’s creativity in the respect of merging realism and modernism. Going through modernism was a starting point to further develop multiple interpretations without simply regarding Hopper as a modernist. Based on this, this these extends the discussion toward the relevance between Hopper’s paintings and Film Noir. These two share an understanding of the social context of the 1940s and 50s, and various discourses are applied to interpret this link. Both depict the corruption and hypocrisy of city life (and cityscape) and gender discourses with the radical change in gender roles of the time. In this respect, this these highlights the inevitability that caused the visualization of these phenomena in Hopper’s works and in films. In particular, it is worth mentioning Victor Burgin, who expanded gender discourse in Hopper’s works as the gender structure issue in a capitalistic world, expanding previous gender discourse that was limited to a social context perspective. Furthermore, Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalysis theory was applied to analyze how Hopper’s paintings and Film Noir represent the gaze mechanism in city spaces and within the stream of gender discourse. The gaze mechanism theory was adopted here due to the aspect of the voyeuristic gaze and Lacan’s gaze. Laura Mulvey is the early Lacanian who insisted that the socially constructed gender differences are shown in films in the domain of gaze. She regards the male as the absolute visual subject and discusses the male voyeuristic gazes in films. Brian O’Doherty defended Mulvey’s theory and expanded his arguments to the difference in visuality in Hopper’s paintings based on gender difference theory. On the other hand, Mulvey’s arguments were criticized by Lacan’s theory itself that, fundamentally, the eye and the gaze are separated and are two different things. This provided a theoretical base for inducing the unseen gaze in Hopper’s works. The dark external window in Hopper’s paintings, in particular, proves Lacan’s theory that when a subject is viewing an object, the object itself is already gazing at the subject beyond the reach of the subject’s gaze. This in turn provides a post-modernistic conclusion that denies the ideology of an absolute subject. This these aims to provide multi-layered interpretations of Hopper’s isolation motif by applying various contemporary discourses. This these is an attempt to extend discussions on Hopper’s works with diverse interpretations of the post-modern world, without defining his works in the facet of certain ism.

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