Edward Hopper has his place in movie history. For starters, the house in "Psycho" and several of the shots in "Pennies from Heaven" (the one with Steve Martin, not Bob Hoskins) come straight out of his paintings. It's nowhere near the place of Dennis Hopper in movie history, of course. The imbalance between them in art history is a lot smaller. This would seem counter-intuitive, to put it mildly. Edward is a vastly more important figure in art than Dennis, who died in May, is in film. That said, Dennis was a very good photographer (that's his photo above, "Double Standard"), an astute collector, an uneven if enthusiastic painter, and he dabbled in sculpture and assemblage. This week a major retrospective of his art, "Dennis Hopper Double Standard" opened at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, part of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. It's curated by Julian Schnabel (another man with a hand in both film and art) and runs through Sept. 26.
Here are three more examples of his work.
| Dennis Hopper Florence (Yellow with silver spray paint) 1997 ilfochrome on metal 20 x 16 in. © The Estate of Dennis Hopper, courtesy of The Estate of Dennis Hopper and Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York |
Paul Newman
1964
gelatin silver print
24 x 16 in.
© The Estate of Dennis Hopper, courtesy of The Estate of Dennis Hopper
Bomb Drop
1967-68/2000
Plexiglas, stainless steel and neon
48 x 123 x 48 in
© The Estate of Dennis Hopper, courtesy of The Estate of Dennis Hopper
