Excursion into Philosophy

You must already know that Hopper is one of my favorite artists. In "Excursion into Philosophy," a man sits on a bed, whilst behind him a woman naked from the waist down lies in the fetal position, with her back towards him. Her desolation is shouting at us. On the bed lies an open book (a Bible? a textbook?). The man's face is collapsed with desolation, as if his whole spirit has died. What had happened between them? As always, Hopper is the master of pain suffered in silence — mysteries of the everyday life. 

And what about the title? Jo, Hopper's wife, noted cryptically that "The open book is Plato, re-read too late," leaving one to consider the dilemma puzzling this man who stares into an almost abstract patch of light on the floor. And the reference to Plato makes one wonder if the man is contemplating the meaning of reality and abstraction, which was certainly important to Hopper. Since Plato praised the realm of ideas as the ultimate form of reality and relegated physical manifestations of those to a lower realm, the man in the painting seems to be questioning the idea of light versus an actual beam of it, and the idea of beauty versus the presence of the voluptuous female on the bed beside him. One wonders if Hopper has attempted to condense the question of light, which occurs in so many of his works, into the Platonic argument. In his story about Socrates and the cave, Plato compares works of art to the shadows cast by ordinary objects that in themselves are only pale reflections of the true reality which is the realm of ideas. In "Excursion into Philosophy," Hopper counters Plato's mere shadows with a block of light which pictures itself and which symbolizes the potential of understanding. 

See you tomorrow with a magnificent classic piece from Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna :) .