Hopper to it
Dennis Hopper
Before the exhibition leaves the building.
When Dennis Hopper gave La Cinémathèque Française carte blanche to curate an exhibition of artworks drawn from his private collection, he admits that even he was surprised with the result.
"There are paintings there I'd never shown, that I would never have exhibited," he said in a recent interview with The Age. "Stills - I don't know where they got them. A portrait I took of Jane Fonda: no idea where that happened, must have been in a blackout".
Hopper's own photography stands alongside original artworks by the likes of Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jenny Holzer and Ed Ruscha in Dennis Hopper and the New Hollywood, an expansive exhibition that celebrates the life and times of a Hollywood rebel who witnessed an extraordinary period of American history.
Best known for his film work as an actor and a director, Hopper was also at the heart of a radical counter-cultural movement that questioned and provoked the establishment. He acted in experimental films by Warhol (and bought an early Warhol canvas for a mere $25) and collected works by Roy Lichtenstein before everyone else jumped on the bandwagon.
The exhibition, Hopper says, "is about a time, a place, and my work ... I live and have lived at an exceptional time with exceptional people. We changed the direction of things as impermanently as possible".
If you haven't checked out Dennis Hopper and the New Hollywood yet, get in quick before the exhibition closes this Sunday. Please note that on ANZAC Day (Sunday 25 April), the exhibition will open from 1pm, instead of the usual 10am. For more info click here.
Plus, check out Mad Dog Morgan, Philippe Mora's Ozploitation flick in which Hopper plays the titular Aussie bushranger, when it screens in Australian Perspectives over the next two weekends. For screening times click here.
Published Thursday, 15 April 2010
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