Thursday, October 21, 2010

"Q-Train" by Nigel Van Wieck

This is such a wonderful image by Nigel Van Vieck.. a moment that any New Yorker can relate to.. the loneliness of that city can be crushing, an irony about New York that is never lost on it's inhabitants. It's a perfect painting in my opinion. Thanks Dan Pinto for the ID.One of the many things I hate about bs hipster image blogs is their often lack of crediting artists. They just find images, and puke them up onto a blog, without even the slightest consideration of crediting anyone. punks. come on let's fight. ug.. that said.. I often visit those same sites. I respect that they put the time into finding artwork that I would otherwise not know about.. it's just sad they don't take the extra step by telling us the "who".. so I can view more of their work.

9 comments:

  1. "Q-Train" by Nigel Van Wieck

    A video of the painting coming together is here:
    http://vimeo.com/10120543

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  2. NICE dan pinto. thanks man, hope you're well.

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  3. I suggest you look at Edward Hopper's works. This artwork is very derivative of his genius (I still like this piece though too).

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  4. you're right. very similar. Hopper is the man!

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  5. To Anonymous: I suggest that you look at Q Train again. If the painting was derivative of Hopper, Q Train would look as if painted in another period and it's obviously a painting of now. What Van Wieck captures in Q Train is a loneliness that is Hopperesque, but that loneliness is also found in the paintings of Eakins and Homer, which is a mainstay in American realism.

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  6. @ Anon above : The only thing that makes the viewer believe the painting is of this era is the interior of the train .That does not remove the fact the technique is very Hopperesk- in the use of colour , shadow and the application of paint. Even the green floor makes the viewer think back to Hoppers painting "chair cars".

    Hoppers loneliness originates from our relations with the man made world. Often his people are dwarfed by architecture and settings of everyday urban life. This in my opinion creates a definition between him and that of Homer and Eakins whom I believe was showing the loneliness of humans in the setting of nature with less emphasis on technology and the urban landscape.There is different forms of loneliness shown in different ways, and Q-train was defiantly using one of Hoppers cards on this one.

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  7. Eakins work has little to with loneliness or alienation. It's (generally) about exceptional individuals striving for perfection.

    I imagine you're all thinking of "Veteran in a New Field" when citing the loneliness of Homer. The title alone precludes the isolation evident in Hopper. His landscapes are a far cry from Hopper and a large percentage of his paintings involve social scenes.

    I think the comparison to Hopper and this painting is a good one (in terms of content, at least). The framing is a little simple, though -central character at center. And it's impossible to say anything about technique or color from a crappy jpg.

    It looks like a pretty nice piece of work. Of course it compares unfavorably to Edward Hopper -that's a standard that's reached only a few times every hundred years.

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  8. the central composition works well in this case. I think the artist gives a certain feeling of power to this lonely character, and the centrality is probably the reason why. Also, the figure is large in the frame, despite being surrounded by empty space. These two elements make an interesting work, unlike anything i can think of off hand, a lonely, but self-empowered character. which, back to what i said, I think we can all relate to, especially in New York. It's a powerful place to live, but lonely as hell.

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  9. I see what your saying, Patrick, but my point is that when you compare it to Hopper you see how he achieved the exact same idea with more elegance and interesting point of view.

    It's not meant to be a knock at this painting/artist as much as praise of what constitutes a "master".

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