Daily News
In 1975, the artist returned to New York, city of his birth. He was 25 years old and had come to choose between a career as an artist or a stockbroker. Despite encouragement from a gallery, he followed a false lead from a brokerage firm. The only things which survived those 10 years as a broker are several boxes of slides. Several, including this, became subjects of paintings. Oil on gessoed paper mounted on panel and framed.
Responses (3)
July 06, 2022
That light at the bottom!
July 08, 2022
Jennifer, I have tried to render the reflected light from harsh industrial lighting on a metal floor at the approach of dawn, just before the news trucks go out. Thanks for your comment
July 06, 2022
Chaim Bezalel’s Daily News is a beautiful Edward Hopper-inspired painting that reveals what often goes unseen. Our society is powered by millions of people working jobs largely hidden from the rest of society. Without mail carriers, warehouse workers, garbage workers, bus drivers, newspaper deliverers (while mail trucks might be a bit of an anachronism in our digital-centric age, they can be substituted with many contemporary analogs), and a host of others, our society would cease to function. However, until recently, most of their jobs were hidden from the general public. Covid 19 has sightly changed the opaque approach to labor. For example, before the onset of the virus, the advertisements of certain large online stores always featured happy customers receiving their packages with shocking speed. Once Covid got underway, all the advertisements were suddenly about heroic warehouse workers and truck drivers (in probably unsafe and undoubtedly grueling working environments) bravely working through the pandemic. Suddenly, the cogs in the machine, supposed to be neither seen nor heard, were the main characters of every corporate advertisement.
There are several ways to read this change in events; as the reader will see, I err on the cynical side, but again this is only my opinion. Large companies will take any excuse to position themselves as altruistic. At a time when people might start to question their labor practices and feel bad for their employees who face the most danger, they must continue to justify overnight delivery. Even more importantly, they can claim to employ heroes (and by the association themselves) so that the public might ignore the company's culpability in creating unsafe working environments that provoke unnecessary heroism. But these odes to the bravery of hitherto unseen workers are propaganda. They approach the subject through a self-aggrandized lens, so it is up to artists to seek out these hidden segments of society and pay homage to them; celebrate them without an agenda; to bring people into public view who makes our world possible.
July 07, 2022
Thank you John for your insightful comments. Yes, I am a longtime fan of Edward Hopper. I even visited his childhood home across the Hudson River from where I was brought up. I am also influenced by the artists and photographers of the 1930's like Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans, who documented the lives and faces of the "forgotten people." I studied film with a pioneer in documentary studies which included propaganda, and it can come from both sides and be used as a took for good or evil. I try not to be didactic however. I prefer the questions to the answers and leave something to the interpretation of the viewer. Thanks again.
- Category
- Everyday Life, Historical and Political
- Type
- Painting - Framed
- Materials
- Oil, Wood Panel, Canvas
- Dimensions
-
30.00 inches wide
22.00 inches tall
2.00 inches deep - Weight
- 5.00 lbs
- Location
- STANWOOD, WA, US
