Edward Hopper – Chair Car
A few years ago, during one of my in-law’s weekend visits, I noticed my father-in-law staring at the print of Edward Hopper’s “Chair Car” that I’d finally framed.
“There’s just something a little – off – about it isn’t there?” He made this observation with a smile that was part puzzled amusement, part honest curiosity. He was not being critical – he likes Hopper as much as I do. He and I spent the next few minutes trying to work out exactly what it was – about this painting in particular, and the rest of his work in general – that was off.
Was it the way he used light (or the lack of it) that often seems to give his scenes an eerie coldness? What is it about so many of his paintings that makes you feel an almost overwhelming loneliness? What is it that creates that emptiness that echoes off New York city rooftops, whispers through movie theaters, and hovers silently in Cape Cod back yards?
Not to mention, the biggest mystery, what is it about all of this eerie loneliness that we like so much?
We didn’t come to any firm conclusions that day, but our conversation stayed with me. Every time I saw a piece of art and thought, “Huh…that’s a little weird. But I like it!”, I thought about Hopper’s “Chair Car”, or his “House by the Railroad”, which, for no obvious reason, is so instantly menacing it gives me the shivers.
The first time I saw Andrea Kowch’s work it was so arresting I actually felt something like panic – in a good way. I simultaneously wanted to see everything she had ever created and had absolutely no idea what I was looking at.
Andrea Kowch – High Tide
Andrea Kowch – Dream Chaser
I mean – what the HECK?? Her work is so delightfully weird and just the right amount of creepy. It’s as is if Andrew Wyeth and L. Frank Baum (author of The Wizard of Oz) got together and had a little Goth baby – with a twist. But again, what is it about this weird offness that I like so much?
This past Winter I was listening to Bianca Bosker’s excellent book “Get the Picture” while running errands in town one day and had the thrilling experience of having a brain itch scratched in the best possible way when she explained why we like the weird stuff.
According to research from experimental psychologist Johan Wagemans, “Our perception of the world is only a prediction…shaped by our filters of expectation. And art…deliberately messes with those predictions. Artists create images that introduce incongruities…defy our expectations. Artists introduce unfamiliar experiences in an otherwise completely familiar setting…we’re drawn to artwork that subtly deviates from our predictions of the world.”
When I heard those words, I had to pull over on the not quite adequate shoulder, rewind, and listen to them again. That was it. Exactly. It explains why Hopper’s chair car looks more like some kind of Soviet bunker than East Coast public transportation, or why I find Andrew Wyeth’s work so bleak and comforting at the same time. It was such a thrilling moment I would have leaped out of the car and danced around a bit if not for the icy road and blind corner I was perched on.
Since then, it has been a new and wonderful process to appreciate the art that grabs me with that framework of understanding. Not everything I like is weird and creepy, but it’s nice to know that lusting after Andrea Kowch prints is not a sign of aberrant behavior. It’s just science.