Night Views

In 1942, an oil on canvas painting portrayed four people in a downtown diner late at night as the viewer gazes upon them through the diner’s large glass window. With the only light source being the diner itself, the neon hums in the foreground, illuminating the dark and deserted urban landscape. This nighttime street scene by Edward Hopper entitled Nighthawks is probably one of the most well-known paintings in American art, with its subject continuing to influence art today. When the artist was approached with questions of why he depicted loneliness, Hopper noted that the figures within the scene weren’t lonely but that the large city itself was. Night views tend to capture the human experience with the night, fewer people on the streets and relying on artificial light to meander through the city. Within Artsper’s own selection of works, the likes of Logan Hicks has the ability to exceptionally render nocturnal light in his work, losing realism (and oneself) to reach a deeply poetic dimension. In a way, the streetscape and its architecture at nightfall can seem like an entirely different world compared to that of the day. In Charly Desoubry’s black and white night views, she captures this feeling, a shift in how one experiences their surroundings void of light and its color. Maybe the night view isn’t a breeding ground for loneliness, but for stillness, a break from the bustle of everyday life.