Many, many years ago, El was hanging out with good friend Edward Hopper when Ed mentioned that he wanted to do El's portrait. El was thrilled and already had visions of dramatic shadows... El posing in is best dictatorial garb! Or perhaps, El would be in a scene like Nighthawks. El always liked Nighthawks... but no, Ed, bastard that he was, had other ideas.
It seems Ed wanted El stripped down. He wanted El Unplugged and suggested a time of day when El was not quite one with the world, but lost in his thoughts. Thoughts of grandeur no doubt! El could see it, he would be propped up on his resplendent Deco bed... in his comfy silk jammies. Sure El would do it.
But no, Ed felt this was not stripped down enough. He wanted El to be isolated... stripped of any comfort he knew. El swears that Hopper went through this damn isolation phase for approximately 3/4's of his career! People got it Ed! We're together, but we're alone!
Still, Ed never really painted anyone, but that wife of his so El consented. El does have an ego after all and being painted by Hopper was still a coup... and dictators can rarely resist a coup. Off they went. El suspected he'd be at Ed's studio, but alas, Ed took him to some fleabag of a motel in Brooklyn! There were no silk jammies to be had, merely a nasty, used frock that somewhat resembled a large man's undershirt. El thought he might be able to wear his hat, but no... there was to be no hat, no medals, only El with the weight of the world on his shoulders and the unbearable loneliness that being a snack cake dictator can bring. El had it all... and yet he was utterly alone... it's lonely being at the top...
El was happy with the outcome and imagined it one day hanging in a museum alongside other famous tributes to El, but no... Hopper decided he wasn't happy with El... he wanted someone else, someone more familiar... and when El saw it, hanging in front of an adoring crowd... who did he see, but that damn wife.
Oh well, she deserved it. Ed really was a bastard...
10 comments:
Sure it's nice, but it is no Thiebaud...
... and dictators can rarely resist a coup.
Ain't it the truth!
But watch out El, sometimes the coup isn't for you...
~
Thiebaud did El as well... for obvious reasons, but El hasn't located it yet. It's somewhere in the back of the vault.
El is sure there will be those who say Thiebaud is no Thiebaud as well...
Thunder- point taken.
Also... El needs to take a better photo of the Hopper. That one sucks.
El looks sad. And hungry. Maybe El would like to go to a diner? Perhaps he needs some comfort food?
(Awesome painting!)
Ms. Blue Girl- El was very sad. El was also irked, but was sad when Hopper, aka The Bastard, kept pointing out how lonely El must be... no one to understand him.
Plus... look at what El was made to wear!!! El has never worn such common threads.
El doesn't need to go to a diner, but El would like to be painted in one!
Classic.
Are you absolutely certain this isn't actually Snag in a hotel room?
Hopper would have loved Snag...
This is the warmest I've ever seen Hopper- and it still makes the world feel empty.
Poor El!
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