loneliness is difficult to communicate through empathy; even those who have felt lonely in the past try to shut out the experience from memory, out of self-protection.
Hopper went to school for art in New York, studying under Robert Henri and the Ashcan school ("gritty urban realism"). he later moved to Paris, where his style evolved:
[In Paris, Hopper learned] to meddle with perspective, to make small impossibilities in his scenes: a bridge reaching where it couldn't, the sun falling from two directions at once. People stretched, buildings shrunk, infinitesimal disturbances in the fabric of reality. This is how you unsettle the viewer, by making a not-rightness, by rendering it in little jabs of white and grey and dirty yellow.
some of his paintings have this tension, this expression of unmet intimacy, e.g. in Room in New York.
on how difficult painting was even for him:
[He describes painting as] the tricky business of trying 'to force this unwilling medium of paint and canvas' into a record of emotion, a process he characterized in a famous essay title 'Notes on Painting' as a struggle against inevitable decay: "I find in working always the disturbing intrusion of elements not a part of my most interested vision, and the inevitable obliteration and replacement of this vision by the work itself as it proceeds."
Hopper's paintings offer some sort of relief from loneliness by expressing just how shared of an experience it is.
how when you lack intimate connections, minor interactions with strangers can be difficult:
The irony is that when you are engaged in larger and more satisfactory intimacies, these quotidian exchanges go off smoothly, almost unnoticed, unperceived. It is only when there is a paucity of deeper and more personal connection that they develop a disproportionate importance, and with it a disproportionate risk.
an example is ordering coffee at a cafe. it can be a painfully vulnerable interaction if you're already feeling isolated, like an outsider.
Warhol was generally socially awkward, and especially had trouble in his love life:
What Warhol most wanted was to be accepted by the art world and to be desired by one of the beautiful boys on whom he developed serial crushes: a breed exemplified by the poised and wickedly glamorous Truman Capote. Adept despite his shyness at maneuvering himself into social proximity, he was hampered by an absolute belief in his own physical abhorrence. 'He had an enormous inferiority complex,' one of these love objects, Charles Lisanby, later told Bockris [Warhol's biography writer]. 'He told me he was from another planet. He said he didn't know how he got here. Andy wanted so much to be beautiful, but he wore that terrible wig which didn't fit and only looked awful.' As for Capote, he thought Warhol was 'just a hopeless born loser, the loneliest, most friendless person I'd ever met in my life.'
Warhol's pop art celebrated sameness; this sameness was a protection from isolation and rejection. he applied the same principle to himself: being duplicatable, being a machine relieved him of having to meet the needs of a human—being cherished and unique. Warhol developed a detachment over his life as a result of never being able to get close with people. he leaned into this loner persona later in adulthood (starting in the 60's), using machines (like a TV, a camera, a tape recorder) to replace human connection. despite not wanting deeper connection, he did enjoy company while he worked at his Silver Factory.
discusses his novel a, a novel, which is just a transcription of hours of dialogue with one of Warhol's friends. Warhol's strength in just listening to people, without reaction or judgement, allowing them to express all of their hurt and ugliness.
a testifies to the importance, the beauty even, of what people actually say and how they say it: the great jumbled inconsequential endlessly unfinished business of ordinary existence.
describes the story of Valerie Solanas, who was a radical feminist and became a collaborator of Warhol's before their relationship turned sour and she attempted to murder him. unfortunate that the attempted murder ended up damaging both of their lives irreparably.