Walter Hopps, renowned art dealer and museum curator, dies at 72
Associated Press, San Jose Mercury News-California & the West
Posted on Tue, Mar. 22, 2005, 2005b, 1999, 1965, 1964, 1950s
Los Angeles-Walter Hopps, an art dealer and museum curator who brought international fame to the first generation of Los Angeles artists and was most remembered for his 1963 exhibition that featured the works of Marcel Duchamp, has died. He was 72.
Hopps, who had pneumonia and several broken ribs that contributed to fluid buildup in his lungs, died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said a longtime friend and artist, Ed Moses.
In what became a seminal event in modern museum history, Hopps staged the 1963 exhibition of Duchamp's works at the Pasadena Art Museum, now known as the Norton Simon Museum. The retrospective became a symbol of a more freewheeling artistic climate in Southern California that was less bound by tradition.
During the show, Hopps arranged two chess matches with Duchamp-one for himself and one for writer Eve Babitz, who played nude against the impish artist.
Hopps' first exhibition was in 1954, when he rented the merry-go-round at the Santa Monica Pier for $80 and hung nearly 100 paintings by 40 artists, including Richard Diebenkorn, Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still. Not a single painting was sold.
Hopps and his wife, Shirley, also held exhibitions in their Brentwood apartment.
In 1957, he and artist Ed Kienholz opened Ferus Gallery, the first professional space in Los Angeles devoted to the Southern California avant-garde. It became the most adventurous and influential contemporary art gallery west of Manhattan and featured blooming artists, including Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, Craig Kauffman and Robert Irwin.
Though talented as a curator, Hopps was known for his chronic lateness. During his tenure at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., the staff made lapel buttons that said, "Walter Hopps will be here in 20 minutes."
"He didn't like museum bureaucracies," Moses said. "All his files at the Pasadena Art Museum were kept under the carpet. When he left there, he didn't let anybody know about the files. Later, when they rolled up this giant carpet, they found very careful files and letters."
His seven years at the National Collection of Fine Arts, now the National Museum of American Art, also were marked by chronic absenteeism, prompting the museum director to pay Hopps only for the time he was inside the building.
At the time of his death, Hopps was curator of 20th century art at the Menil Collection in Houston and an adjunct senior curator at New York's Solomon R. Guggenheim
Hopps once estimated that he organized more than 250 museum shows.
He is survived by his second wife, Caroline Huber. A memorial service was being planned.
Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com