Nighthawks - an Analysis

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¬Nighthawks – an analysis The first thing that I notice about this picture is that the mood is tense, as if the picture was a snapshot of a moment before chaos breaks loose. The silent tension is deafening. Uncertainty hangs in the air. This may indicate that the artist wanted to show people, through his painting, that many different things could occur. For instance, the people in the bar could all quietly leave, and get about their business. Another thing that could happen is that the lone man at the bar could pull a gun out, which of course leads us to another wide array of possibilities. The tense mood is supported by the artists’ choice of colors, which are all tinted as if they were aged and rusty. Isolation is another theme that is encountered when looking at the picture. The bar could be representing a fishbowl in which the people within are alienated from the outside world. This is enhanced by the fact that the street behind them, including the building, is deserted. The color contrast between the bright bar and the gloomy street makes the bar jut out of the photo, attracting most of the viewer’s attention, thus further separating it from the rest of the picture. The remote bar gives a queer, depressing quality to the picture, to give the theme in the picture a mysterious backdrop. Also, if you look carefully at the picture, there is no visible entrance or exit, suggesting that they are perhaps confined within. Loneliness is a major theme that was conveyed through the picture. The artist captures the depressing atmosphere wonderfully by using a dull assortment of colors, which shrouds the picture in a gloomy mist. The theme is portrayed through a variety of features in the painting, such as the mysterious man who is seen sitting alone at the bar (and could be a character who, among other things, was meant to represent this particular theme in the
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