I remember places like this even after the interstate system was implemented. In the late 50s/early 60s, my father used to take the family on long cross-country trips during the summers. Since we were from California, long stretches of brand new interstate concrete were the norm out west. But once we got to the eastern states, we would venture off onto smaller highways. Even now, I have vivid memories of scenes very similar to this painting. Thanks for posting it.
Hopper is one of my three favorite painters (Richard Diebenkorn, Jackson Pollock). I love the quote attributed to Clement Greenberg: "Hopper simply happens to be a bad painter. But if he were a better painter he would, most likely, not be so superior an artist."
An interesting follow-up to my post...My wife and I made it down to DFW last year to see this painting in person at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art (a wonderful museum with a beautiful collection, btw). We toured the entire museum top to bottom but never came across this painting. Thinking we had managed to miss it, we asked several of the staff and one replied, "Oh, I think that's one of the few we've loaned out." We couldn't believe it! We drove nearly 1,000 miles and it wasn't there! We had to laugh at the absurdity of it all. One of the curators was kind enough to make some calls and found the painting had indeed been loaned to another museum....only a few miles away. After thanking them for tracking it down, we took a quick drive and were standing in front of the actual painting twenty minutes later. We still smile when we remember just how lucky we were to see The Fall Of The Cowboy in person.
From the point of view of an appreciator of art . . . nice mood (love the cross-hatching). From the point of view of an avid gardener . . . BAD PRUNING !!!
Tried my hand at painting a pic for my wife of the Eiffel Tower, then painted a few others for some friends. All are 5 x 7 miniature copies of my favorite paintings.
I first saw this as the abbreviated version that adorned Balaklava (1968) by Pearls Before Swine and was intrigued. It stuck with me through the years. It is now a favorite, and I have a large version hanging in my living room. He was an enormously gifted man.
As a bit of modern trivia, Seurat's wonderful painting was used by Playboy magazine for its May, 1976 cover photo. January, 1974 Playmate Nancy Cameron was added to it in a similar style. I have included it below, but have blanked out the "naughty" bits in deference to the forum. Additionally, although I couldn't find any mention of it on the Google, the Playboy bunny icon, which always appeared on their covers, but would sometimes be hidden, makes an appearance as one of the millions of tiny dots. I don't remember exactly where, but I seem to recall that it was somewhere near the bottom. The resolution on this image is not sufficient to find it unfortunately.
An artist that I found several years ago on DeviantArt was Leszek Kostuj. Love his whimsical surrealistic paintings. I have a print of this hanging in my home. If you like the style, you might have a look at his website: http://www.kostuj.com Or his DeviantArt page: Browse Newest | DeviantArt
There's a Hokusai exhibition at the British Museum in London. I'd love to catch it, but in the meantime: FRIDAY NIGHT BOYS: Hokusai at The British Museum Much as I love Wave, we've already had it, so here's 'Ejiri, Suruga Province' from 1831 Without being facetious or, worse, glib, there's a touch of la ligne claire, like Hergé's work about 100 years later.
Had my photograph taken with the original Seurat painting on Saturday, June 17th. Spent five exhausting hours at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Pedantic of Medway writes: This is a painting thread. The above image is a woodblock. I'll sod off now.
My favorite painting hangs in my bedroom-it's an Abstact my daughter painted back in middle school[not to brag but as an adult she could make a living as an artist,but she chose another road].
