The Elusive Everyday and the “Life” of Edward Hopper’s Painting

Abstract

The following paper focuses on the work of Edward Hopper and its interaction with the everyday. The everyday is discussed here in terms proposed by Maurice Blanchot as something that escapes, that is elusive and insignificant but acts, at the same time, as a source of significance. I propose to connect Blanchot’s notion of the everyday with the experience of Edward Hopper’s painting. The critics have often remarked that Hopper’s images are unexpectedly remembered in everyday situations outside the context of a gallery and for those familiar with his work, the world tends to look Hopperesque. I argue that his paintings activate the visibility of the everyday beyond its instrumental functionality at moments of apparent unimportance and generate unexpected dialogues between the actual object of perception and the remembered Hopper image. I suggest that such an ephemeral experience of different layers is akin to what Blanchot described as “the elusive everyday”.