Art curators of the XX.century - Walter Hopps

Walter Hopps was one of the greatest art curator. He founded his first gallery at the age of 21. He made exhibitions for Marcel Duchamp or Joseph Cornell and wa a friend of Rauschenberg.

Walter Hopps was a museum director and curator of art. He founded the Ferus Gallery, leaving that in 1962 to become the director of the Pasadena Museum of Art.

Hopps was a master at "curating outside the box." In 1979, Hopps became a consultant to the Menil Foundation, helping select the architect Renzo Piano to design the Menil Collection and becoming director in 1980. He was the director of the museum when it opened in 1987, but was demoted to curator of 20th-century art. He joined the Washington Gallery of Modern Art in 1967.

Hopps played an important role in championing Pop art and shaping local and national institutionsHe identified and endorsed modern artists, such as Gene Davis, street art from L.A.

An eccentric personality, nearly every person who worked with him remarked he would disappear for hours or days at a time, sometmes later being found in contemplation of art. Walter had a good sense of what modernism. Los Angeles was practically without modern art. Hopps tapped into indigenous southern-Californian modernist art movements, exploiting them to the fullest and developing a serious contemporary art presence in L.A. Walter Hopps was the undoubtedly a genius.

His commitment to art was his most remarkable and commendable quality. He achieved great things at a mere age of 21. His vision was far more greater than anyone’s, only that is why he was one of the greatest art curators. He appreciated good work. Mr. Hopps was famous for the best exhibitions, inspired installations and founding of living artists, many of whom he helped push to the front of the art industry, such as Ed Ruscha and Edward Kienholz.

Throughout his career Mr. Hopps was also known for his bizarre work habits, his disappearances and an autocratic manner that caused divergence with museum boards, even while his imagination inspired loyalty in many of his friends. But critics and fanatics alike agreed that the quality of his curatorial work rarely stalled.

Walter Hopps made a huge impact on the world of art. He encouraged artists to get out of their shells. He was a gem to the modern art world.

Walter Hopps died,72, on 20th March 2005 due to pneumonia.

Interview with Hopps

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