Edward Hopper, 50 years later: influence and inheritance
Edward Hopper, 50 ans après : influence et héritage
Published on Monday, November 14, 2016
Abstract
Ninety per cent of artists are forgotten ten minutes after they’re dead”: this statement Edward Hopper made in 1965 fortunately proved wrong as far as he is concerned. As the year 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of his death, his legacy is still growing through the increasing number of references to his painting in different art forms. This call for paper is intended for all researchers and is not restricted to scholars working on the United States. We will explore the question of Hopper’s worldwide legacy in fields including art history, philosophy as well as social and intermedial studies. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the artist’s death, this conference will welcome papers that address the notions of influence and inheritance applied to Edward Hopper’s art.
Announcement
This Conference will be organized by Centre Interlangues TIL (Texte, Image, Langage) at Université de Bourgogne, April 7, 2017
Argument
“Ninety per cent of artists are forgotten ten minutes after they’re dead”: this statement Edward Hopper made in 1965 fortunately proved wrong as far as he is concerned. As the year 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of his death, his legacy is still growing through the increasing number of references to his painting in different art forms. With more than 800,000 visitors from its opening in October 2012 to January 2013, the exceptional attendance of the Edward Hopper exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris showed to what extent the French general public feels attracted to Hopper’s realism. As an avid reader in both English and French, a poetry lover and a fervent moviegoer, Hopper developed an art which bears the mark of these artistic mediums and was, in turn, to leave a print on them. Intricately related to the impact Hopper’s art had on filmmakers, writers, poets and playwrights, this circularity of influence has often been noticed but remains little studied. We will try to distinguish between Hopper’s direct legacy and what has been previously assimilated and reappears as a Hopperesque echo. Triggering a feeling of deja-vu, Hopper’s images have been “transmitted by incorporation” and, as such, they are“ surviving images” according to Georges Didi-Huberman’s definition.
Contributions may also focus on the trivialization of Hopper’s paintings which are used to illustrate anything that is more or less closely tied to America. As Pierre Fresnault-Deruelle pointed out, Hopper’s art is massively reproduced for book covers, English school books and decorative items. Can the multiplicity of echoes end up emptying the original paintings of their significance, giving the impression that they are mere clichés of an imaginary America? What does the retelling of Hopper’s supposed narratives in recent novels, poems, films and performances aim at, considering that the artist himself expressed his doubt as regards the power of words: “If you could say it in words there would be no reason to paint”? Is Hopper’s aesthetics so incomplete that it necessarily leads to an urge to write? These issues will also pose the problem of the relation to reality Hopper defended at a time when realism was ousted by abstraction. Now that figuration is being reinvigorated, we can examine the inspiration taken from XXth century American realists among whom Hopper had a central position.
This call for paper is intended for all researchers and is not restricted to scholars working on the United States. We will explore the question of Hopper’s worldwide legacy in fields including art history, philosophy as well as social and intermedial studies. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the artist’s death, this conference will welcome papers that address the notions of influence and inheritance applied to Edward Hopper’s art in the following themes:
- Influence
- circularity of an art influenced by different mediums (cinema, photography, drama, poetry and literature) which inspired them in turn
- origins of the narrative potential of Hopper’s painting in literature and cinema
- paradoxical aspect of a realist considered as marginal from the end of 1940s but who gradually imposed his influence
- Inheritance
- genesis and contribution of the texts and images derived from Hopper’s painting
- impact of the intermedial exchanges on the work itself
- aesthetics of incompleteness needing completion in other art forms
Guest speaker: Jean Kempf, Professor of American Studies, University Lumière Lyon II
Submission guidelines
Please send a 250/300-word abstract (in French or in English) and a short bio/résumé
before December 18th 2016
to the following addresses: helene.gaillard@u-bourgogne.fr, isabelle.schmitt@u-bourgogne.fr
Speakers will be notified by mid-January 2017.
The program will be finalized in February 2017.
Organizing and scientific committee
- Hélène Gaillard, Université de Bourgogne, MCF
- Isabelle Schmitt, Université de Bourgogne, MCF
Subjects
- America (Main category)
- Mind and language > Representation > History of art
- Mind and language > Representation > Heritage
- Mind and language > Representation
Places
- Maison des Sciences Humaines, 6 Espl. Erasme
Dijon, France (21)
Date(s)
- Sunday, December 18, 2016
Attached files
Keywords
- peinture, arts visuels, cinéma, littérature, États-Unis, XXe siècle
Contact(s)
- Hélène Gaillard
courriel : helene [dot] gaillard [at] u-bourgogne [dot] fr
Information source
- Hélène Gaillard
courriel : helene [dot] gaillard [at] u-bourgogne [dot] fr
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Edward Hopper, 50 years later: influence and inheritance », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Monday, November 14, 2016, https://doi.org/10.58079/w2s