The dream colony: the life in art of Walter Hopps
Held jointly with the Art History Research Seminar
An innovative, iconoclastic curator of contemporary art, Walter Hopps founded his first gallery in Los Angeles at the age of twenty-one. Soon, he opened the Ferus Gallery with Edward Kienholz, turning the spotlight onto a new generation of West Coast artists. In 1967, when Hopps became the director of Washington’s Corcoran Gallery of Art at thirty-four, the New York Times hailed him as “the most gifted museum man on the West Coast (and, in the field of contemporary art, possibly in the nation”). He was also arguably the most unpredictable, erratic in his work habits but never erratic in his commitment to art.
Deborah Treisman, Fiction Editor at The New Yorker, edited Walter Hopps’s memoirs for publication. Her reading will be followed by a discussion with the audience, chaired by Miguel de Baca, Terra Visiting Professor of American Art.
This event is open to the public.
To be followed by a wine reception.
