Art Market Monitor

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Hopper's Widow Wins Last-Minute Halt

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The Independent reports that 32 works from today’s sale of Dennis Hopper’s art collection were held back from the sale:

The actor’s estranged wife, Victoria Duffy Hopper, from whom he began divorce proceedings shortly before his death eight months ago, has succeeded in halting the sale of a significant portion of the actor’s art collection after lodging court papers in California.

The disputed works, which were supposed to be auctioned today at Christie’s in New York, include pieces by the American artists Bruce Conner and Sam Francis and the British portrait painter Jonathan Yeo. Their combined value is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“As a result of a title claim brought by Dennis Hopper’s estranged wife, Christie’s must withdraw 32 items from the sale until such time as the title claim is resolved,” said a spokeswoman for the auction house last night.

The Los Angeles Superior Court has granted Mrs Duffy Hopper an order against the Dennis Hopper Trust to halt the sale of the items from Hopper’s collection, according to court documents.

Hopper’s estranged wife pulls star’s art from sale (The Independent)

Hopper's Warhol Prints Pop at Christie's

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Reuters caught the big pops from two Warhol prints from the Dennis Hopper estate that sold well above the high estimates today at Christie’s during an Interiors sale:

An Andy Warhol portrait of Mao Zedong that actor Dennis Hopper shot two bullets through sold for $302,500 at Christie’s on Tuesday, more than 10 times its high estimate. […] Another iconic Warhol screenprint from 1967 of Marilyn Monroe fetched $206,500, or about four times the pre-sale estimate.

Hopper’s Bullet-Hole Warhol Sells for $302,500 (Reuters)

Hopper In Search of a Style

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Richard Woodward in the Wall Street Journal reviews the Dennis Hopper show at LA MoCA finding the actor a superior artist to the painter, he also has a few choice words to say about guest curator, Julian Schnabel:

Nothing hanging on the walls compares in startling originality with the demented photojournalist he played in “Apocalyse Now.”

The guest curator is Julian Schnabel, who knows a lot about making art across various platforms. It is hard to know if this successful painter-sculptor- filmmaker was afraid to exercise veto power over his friend—dying of cancer as they organized the show, Hopper passed away in May, a few months before the opening—or whether the painfully inept works of art here also reflect Mr. Schnabel’s convictions. Given that a number of the paintings and sculptures suffer from being elephantine and bombastic—that is, like Mr. Schnabel’s work in these media—he likely approves. Continue Reading

Dennis Hopper's Lost Collection

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Carol Vogel gives us a tantalizing reminder of the art collection Dennis Hopper might be sending to the auction block this Autumn had his personal life not been so chaotic. Even so, $10 million worth of art, mostly a Basquiat and Warhol, will be sold at Christie’s in November. Hopper had a talent for friendship and catholic desire to be an artist in the broadest sense. The brought him into contact with the persons and work of Warhol, Rauschenberg, Oldenberg, Baldessari and Schnabel:

“Dennis was passionate about art from Day 1,” recalled Bob Colacello, the writer who interviewed him shortly before his death for a story in this month’s issue of Vanity Fair. “He bought Ed Ruscha’s first Standard gas station painting, which is now in Sid Bass’s collection, and one of Andy’s Campbell’s soup cans for $75 in 1962.”Continue Reading

The Advantages of Being Overlooked

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Jori Finkel asks a simple question: how is Jeffrey Deitch putting the Dennis Hopper show together so quickly? Part of the answer lies in the fact that Hopper wasn’t taken seriously as an artist for most of his career:

It helps, Deitch noted, that many of Hopper’s works–including his famous 1961 “Double Standard” image (pictured)–are photographs done in editions, so there are multiple examples in existence.

It also helps, one could add, that Hopper was never an art-market darling whose work was snapped up by all the big collectors and museums. MOCA, for instance, does not have a single example of his work in its permanent collection.

How Jeffrey Deitch is Bringing ‘Dennis Hopper Double Standard’ to a Museum Near You So Quickly (Culture Monster)

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