(«Hopper bets
everything on composition, which, in his work, is almost as tautly considered as in a Mondrian,» Schjeldahl
wrote in his 2007 review, in which he also advised viewers to sketch Hopper's paintings in order to better
grasp them: «Just get the main shapes, including those of empty space, and how they nest together in the pictorial rectangle.»)
What I did not fully
grasp was how ultra-important first - year grades are, and how they have nothing to do with your intellectual mastery of the material, and have
everything to do with
writing an exam answer that the professor will find easy to read and easy to give a high grade.