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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.
The numeric convergence begins. August 28, 2013, eleven years ago next month- – The last time I stood in front of the real thing- Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942, at Hopper Drawings at the old Whitney Museum. A moment later, a friend snapped a picture of me standing next to it. Would I ever get closer to it? Pictures in this piece are thumbnails. Click any for full size.
The Edward Hopper/NighthawkNYC Convergence, 1-
July 15, 2015, nine years ago this month, in my very first piece, “Welcome to the Night,” I mentioned I’ve always related to that figure sitting by himself with his back to the viewer in Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, 1942. The one that no one ever talks about. Why is he even in the Painting? Well, he’s really only half in it; his left side completely blends into the black background. So, what’s his deal? Did his date go bad? Is he worried about the recent outbreak of World War II? Is he waiting for the lady in red to lose her guy? (The couple are likely Edward & Jo Hopper stand-ins.1). Well, he’s there and I’m glad he is. He’s also a witness to everything going on inside, close enough to the other subjects to hear their conversations. In Nighthawks, he has THE ideal seat to see and hear everything that’s really going on, that the rest of us can only imagine.
I’ve been that guy too many times to count, out on my own late at night in Hopper’s Greenwich Village neighborhood. I relate to that “witness” aspect of him, too. After all, isn’t that what I’m doing here; being a witness to the Art, Photography, Music books I’ve experienced?. So, I named this site NighthawkNYC after him. Hopper’s Painting is titled “Nighthawks.”
But, what would it be like to be him?
Triple self-portrait, August 28, 2013. “That shape is my shade, there where I used to stand,” as I quoted Steely Dan’s “Deacon Blues” in my very first piece, “Welcome to the Night,” on July 15, 2015.
Convergence 2-
On July 29, 2019, five years ago this week, I published “My Search For Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks Diner,” chronicling my decades-long quest to find the iconic eatery/drinkery. It’s turned out to be my most popular piece thus far.
This past Sunday, July 21st, I finally found it!
It happened to be on a triangular corner- Check.
It happened to be in the West Village, not all that far from 3 Washington Square, where Edward & Jo Hopper lived for half a century- both key criteria the real deal has to fit- Check.
But, it was not where I’d looked for it as I wrote in the piece. It was out in the open! Without a roof!?
I let that slide. After all, in the Painting we really can’t see the ceiling, just the light coming down, and it’s a one-story building shown at night. Maybe there was no roof? Imagine that. “Maybe. Maybe not,” I hear you saying.
The famous “Only 5c Phillies America’s No. 1 Cigar” sign was up top- Check.
The outside was painted in that familiar green- Check.
Everything looked like it was supposed to. Am I dreaming? Then, a nice gent named Nilo beckoned me inside!
As I approached the counter, about to take “my”place- the only seat I was interested in taking, all the details long engrained in my memory were right in front of me.
It was empty. Wow. Perfect! I could look around and drink it all in without feeling self-conscious. Wait!…AM I conscious? A coffee will wake me up. I’m in the right place.
Living a dream…Kenn Sava, left, Lucas, right. July 21, 2024, Meatpacking District, NYC. Photo by Nilo for NighthawkNYC.com.
I could take the seat of my alter ego in peace, without that pesky couple, she in the flame-red dress, with her male companion, who for the past 82 years have gotten all the attention, in the room. I was free to finally chat with the counterman. His name was Lucas and I told him how long I’ve been looking for the place- and even wrote about just that, the nice weather, what else was going on this weekend. You know, small talk; the kind of stuff strangers talk about when they’re suddenly thrust together. But, we weren’t total strangers in the classic sense. We both knew why we were here. As he went back and forth to his duties, I just kept looking around, drinking it all in. Wow. I’m sitting inside of Nighthawks!
There’s the famous two large coffee urns.
There’s the yellow wall with that mysterious door.
The bar was the familiar brown.
The classic white ceramic coffee cups, glass salt & peppers, and napkin dispensers were all around giving me a feeling of familiarity and “home.” I guess that’s what happens when you’ve been looking at them for so long in Painted form.
So real, you could reach out and touch them. Of course, I did…
And, I got to experience it from THE seat, to see what “he” saw and ponder him anew. Maybe “he” was me in a prior life. If so, how many people have gotten to relive a moment from a prior life?
This MUST be the place! FINALLY! I can’t wait to rush home and tell readers I found it! What a scoop!
A close call with a bike running a Walk sign on the walk home snapped me out of it and back to reality. As I reviewed my pictures to make sure my phone was OK, it turns out I had come upon something called “Step Into Hopper.”
Convergence 3-
After nine years of “riffing” on Nighthawks in my Banner, it finally came to life! The Whitney Museum & the Meatpacking District got together to mount “Step Into Hopper,” along with fabrication by Theresa Rivera Design and an exceptional, welcoming, staff, to “recreate” Nighthawks, 1942, Early Sunday Morning, 1930, and his eternally mysterious Soir Bleu, 1914– within one mile or so of the original sites of two of them2.
“Early Sunday Morning,” a take-off on Hopper’s 1930 timeless masterpiece of a street in my neighborhood, a few blocks away, on Seventh Avenue between West 15th & 16th Streets. Notice the shadow from the barber pole goes the “wrong way,” as it does in the Painting. People who live there know the sun never shines in that direction on 7th & 15/16th!
Convergence 4-
It truly was a moment frozen in time. Something out of a dream… I ended “My Search For Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks Diner” with a quote from the song I chose as the Soundtrack for the piece, “I Saw You In A Dream” by Japanese House….
“I saw you in a dream
You had stayed the same
You were beckoning me
Said that I had changed”
How prescient.
Before I “changed.” Take away the side addition, and the former Rivera Cafe on 7th Avenue was my “Oh my gosh!” moment, as I wrote in “My Search…” Seen on July 23, 2018- convegently, six years ago this week.
In reading the mail that continues to come in on the piece, it seems that many people share my dream of unexpectedly coming across the Nighthawks Diner and having an “Oh my gosh!” moment of discovery.
Kenn Sava “inside” “Soir Bleu” (the Painting seen on the sandwich sign above) with the wonderful Tillie the Clown proving every bit as mysterious and stunning as the figure in the 1914 Painting done in Paris. Photo by Gregory for NighthawkNYC.com
A lot of folks seem to want to step inside, sit down at the counter for a bit, and just live in the Painting; experience it from the inside even for a few moments. As if that might help solve its mystery…On Sunday, I came as close as I’m likely going to to having my “Nighthawks” moment.
A few moments after the Photo of me and Lucas inside “Nighthawks” was taken, I looked around for him and couldn’t find him. Lucas disappeared.
Of course he did.
Convergence 142-
Today, as I write this on July 22nd is Edward Hopper’s 142nd Birthday. Happy Birthday, big guy (Hopper was 6’5″). Thanks for saving me a seat in Art heaven. A short visit is probably the best I can hope for.
*- As it was for “Welcome to the Night” 9 years ago, the Soundtrack for this piece is “Deacon Blues,” by Steely Dan (my “Forgotten Songs I Will Love Forever #2″, which remains the Anthem of NighthawkNYC.com, from their immortal album Aja, 1977. (I have no idea why the guy who made tihis video shows their album Gaucho. Ignore that- it’s Track 3 on Aja.)
“Sharing the things we know and love
With those of my kind
Libations, sensations
That stagger the mind.”
If the Nighthawks Diner had a jukebox, I like to think “Deacon Blues” would be on it.
Undying thanks to Kevin Callahan for the tip, the iconic Lucas for the coffee & the convo, Tillie the Clown for the Tillie Experience, Milo, Wendy, Alisa and Gregory for the Photos, their consideration and kindness in creating an experience I’ll never forget. A tip of the Fedora to the Meatpacking District, the Whitney Museum & Theresa Rivera Design for mounting Step Into Hopper. Push by Lana Hattan (9 years of NighthawkNYC.com– it’s ALL her fault!)
Be sure to see my 3-part series on the 2022-23 blockbuster Edward Hopper’s New York which begins here.
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