Dennis Hopper exhibit to open at LA Museum

The American actor Dennis Hopper, who died May 29 at age 74, was also a respected photographer and artist who enjoyed exhibits around the world from Russia to Australia.

He recently participated in mounting an exhibition of his work, "Dennis Hopper Double Standard," at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, July 11-September 26.

The show will present a survey of 200 works by Hopper, spanning from 1961 to the present, including his paintings, sculptures, films, photographs, and assemblages. It will also include selections from his private collection of contemporary art, such as works by Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jenny Holzer.

Hopper's own artwork includes examples of Abstract Expressionist paintings and Pop Art assemblages. Some of his best-known images are portrait photographs from the 1960s of celebrities such as Paul Newman, Tina Turner and Jane Fonda.

As the first exhibition from MOCA's new director Jeffrey Deitch, it was assembled within five months in order to include Hopper in the process, during his battle with cancer. 

It is curated by the painter and filmmaker Julian Schnabel, who directed Basquiat and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. The exhibit will be shown at the museum's Geffen Contemporary center.

In April, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image closed ‘Dennis Hopper and the New Hollywood,' curated by the Cinematheque Francaise. Items from that show will be included at MOCA.

The LA exhibit will show a "sculptural installation" that projects Easy Rider with two other of the actor/artist's movies. Hopper's dozens of other films include Apocalypse Now and Blue Velvet.

http://www.moca.org

RC