NETHERLANDS: FILM STAR DENNIS HOPPER VISITS HIS PAINTINGS EXHIBITION IN AMSTERDAM'S MODERN ART MUSEUM

Record ID: 390963

  • Title: NETHERLANDS: FILM STAR DENNIS HOPPER VISITS HIS PAINTINGS EXHIBITION IN AMSTERDAM'S MODERN ART MUSEUM
  • Date: 15th February 2001
  • Summary: SCREENING OF HOPPER'S SHORT VIDEO FILM 'HOMELESS'
  • Embargoed: 2nd March 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
  • Country: Netherlands
  • Reuters ID: LVADFDCK1UFHFQ87L8QLPQDBACI8
  • Story Text: Dennis Hopper might be a famous Hollywood star, but few people would know that he is a highly rated artist as well until that is, they visited his retrospective exhibition which opened this week in Amsterdam's modern art museum.
    Mention 'Easy Rider' and images of a scruffy-looking Hopper will pop into the mind of most people, but few know that the world-famous actor, who has a 40-year movie career to his credit, is now enjoying a new kind of celebrity: art-world recognition.
    This reaches a new height this week in Amsterdam when the prestigious Stedelijk Museum opens the first large-scale retrospective by the Hollywood actor/director.
    The show, which runs from February 17 through April 16, exhibits paintings, photographs and other art work from the mid-1950s to present.
    "Today is the greatest moment of my life," a tearful Hopper said at the opening of the exhibition.
    Hopper, now 64, started with painting and photography in the 1950s. Particularly in the 1960s, he was active as a photographer, making black and white shots of the streets in Los Angeles and of his fellow actors and artists.
    Then in 1969 came 'Easy Rider' and about a hundred other films followed, but Hopper's ambition to become a respected artist never died and in 1980s he again picked up painting, which he says gave him a wonderful free experience.
    "I think getting in a state where you are free of any preconceived ideas and attack a canvas with just source materials is a wonderful freeing experience. And at the end of it, after you have danced and watched the colours and watched the drips and watched the things, the layers, and so on, stripes and so and finish your work, you know that very little of it had to do with you at the end of it," Hopper said.
    Among the works shown in Amsterdam are assemblages from the 1960s and graffiti paintings from the 1990s. Hopper's fascination for graffiti followed the 1988 film 'Colors', a movie about gangs living in Los Angeles. Large stills of dramatic moments in the film, printed on linen in black-and-white, are linked with the canvas paintings.
    The exhibition also shows a number of recent billboards and wall assemblages. Two six-metre high images, - Mobil Man and La Salsa Man - and a short video film called 'Homeless' are also featured.
    For Hopper, the show is the highlight event of his life, topping even the landmark film "Easy Rider". "It is the most important thing that ever happened to me, to be here at this museum. That is serious, this is not about making Easy Rider, it is about making these paintings, and bringing them here to this museum. That is much more important to me than anything else that has ever happened in my life," he said.
    Despite his art world achievements, Hopper said he was not ready to abandon his acting and directing activities.
    "For the last four years I have been working on having this retrospective, and that is all I have done. I have done just a couple of movies just to keep some money in my pocket.
    "I have a movie coming out actually, next month in the States with John Malkovich called "Knock Around Guys", little mafia picture. But that is about it. "I have not been working as an actor. I am going to direct a movie shortly as soon as I get out of this," he said.
    ---ENDS---
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