Photographs by Dennis Hopper
Gagosian Gallery is pleased to announce the exhibition Scratching the Surface: Photographs by Dennis Hopper.
Hopper established his reputation as a cult film director with Easy Rider (1969) and played many important roles in blockbuster films such as Apocalypse Now (1979). He initially became interested in photography during the 1950s with the encouragement of James Dean, whom he met on the set of Rebel without a Cause (1955). During the 1960s, photography became his main tool in recording the American culture of the time, documenting icons such as Martin Luther King, John Wayne and Andy Warhol, as well as the landscapes of his numerous road trips.
Gagosian Gallery Rome presents almost 80 Hopper’s vintage prints, together with photography from Taos, New Mexico. Hopper moved to Taos, in the late 1960s / early 1970s, capturing his surrounding in an expressive and spontaneous photographic series. In accordance with his wishes, Dennis Hopper was later buried there following his death in 2010. Hopper’s photographic work is currently on show at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Dennis Hopper (Dodge City, Kansas 1936 – Venice, California 2010) was an American photographer, actor and film director. His photographs are included in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, (New York), The Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles), Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), and Carnegie Museum of Art, (Pittsburgh). Major exhibitions include: “Dennis Hopper: Black and White Photographs,” Fort Worth Art Center Museum, Texas (1970), traveled to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (1971); “Dennis Hopper: A Keen Eye; Artist, Photographer, Filmmaker,” Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2001); “Dennis Hopper: A System of Moments,” Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna (2001); “Dennis Hopper: Double Standard,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2010); and “The Lost Album,” Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (2012); “On the Road,” Museo Picasso, Malaga (2013); “The Lost Album”, Royal Academy of Arts, London (on show till October 19, 2014).