Saturday, April 4, 2009

Banksy

To start things off, here is a parody by London based graffiti writer / street artist Banksy:



It features a man outside the window, possibly intoxicated, who looks as if he has just thrown two plastic chairs at the window and cracked it. The occupants inside are looking out but seem to not care much.

Banksy's website featuring other examples of his work can be seen here.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Welcome!

Welcome to "Nighthawks Forever"!

This blog will be providing you with all of the best parodies, spoofs, homages, tributes and re-dos of Edward Hoppers famous painting, "Nighthawks".

This is the original:


It was painted in 1942 and is currently on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. It is based off of a diner in Greenwich Village, Hopper's home neighborhood in Manhattan. The diner is now gone and the now-vacant lot is known as Mulry Square, at the intersection of Seventh Avenue South, Greenwich Avenue, and West 11th Street. The remaining wall of where the diner was still has tiles from the diner on it.

This is what the corner looks like now:



All of the little things you see on the fence are little tiles put there to remember the events of 9/11.

This image was taken from the painting perspective by the host of the blog "Walking Off the Big Apple". The image has the painting superimposed to show the diners exact location. Apart from the first story shops, the brown building in the background remains the same as it was when Hopper painted it.



The cities data file for the location says nothing about a diner ever being there though. Check this page here and see all the lot info.

Hopper began painting Nighthawks immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor when there was a widespread feeling of gloominess across the country and he intended to show that in this painting.

The painting has become a cultural icon, and with others like the Mona Lisa, Scream, Dogs Playing Poker etc, it has become one of the most parodied paintings of its time. It now hangs on display at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Stay tuned as there are LOTS of images to post! I will be limiting it to just a few every day or when I can get time. This is in order to let the viewer appreciate each image individually instead of weeding through a sea of many every time I post.

I will attempt to give the original creator or site where I found each work its proper credits and perhaps a link to the artist's home page etc. In no way am I trying to profit from anything here. I simply feel it is necessary to have a database of homages to Hopper's beatuiful painting, all in one place for other fans to appreciate!

If you are more interested in the actual painting itself, THIS DVD about Edward Hopper would be highly recommended!