Excursion into Philosophy 1959

Edward Hopper, sometime in the twentieth century, gave us “Excursion into Philosophy” in oil on canvas. What a title, right? It’s like Hopper is needling us, or maybe himself, about the highfalutin’ and the everyday. Look at how the light pools on the floor: such a simple shape, but it defines the whole room. It's a kind of geometry, but it's not cold. There’s a kind of warmth in the way he builds up the paint in layers, the way he lets the brushstrokes show. You can feel the painting being made, the hand moving, the eye seeing, and the feeling felt. The paint isn’t trying to hide anything. Hopper reminds me a bit of Giorgio Morandi, that Italian painter of bottles and jars. Both of them find something profound in the mundane, something almost spiritual in the way light falls on a simple object or a bare room. They remind us that art isn't about answers, it's about asking questions, and maybe finding a little beauty in the process.