Posted on May 31, 2010 – 08:00 in Features | Steven
Dennis Hopper. May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010.
I am not a big fan of writing public eulogies of people I don’t know. I find the public adoration of deceased stars often similar to dung flies flying to the warmest pile of cow dung. Not now though. I was away this weekend when through an email I was told that Dennis Hopper died and it moved me. I only met Dennis Hopper once, very briefly in Miami, during the Art Basel show. We exchanged a few lines on why Lichtenstein was the best pop artists ever and that was that.
On a personal level his early work, starting from Easy Rider to his commune life and his at the time consider anti-American opinions, to his role in Apocalypse Now and Blue Velvet as well as all the unnamed yet great low-budget art house productions here in Europe, had a profound effect on my life. Not necessarily directly on me, because I was too young, but on my father and his friends. The impression Mr. Hopper left on them, the story he told them and the life they chose because of films like Easy Rider, had in turn a huge profound effect on my life. Everything from the music I listen to, the life style I lead, to the political and social ideals I hold firm are, if you break it down, largely down to this man work during that time. For that, I say thank you and wish him a great time in Valhalla, may you find the peace and joy you deserve.
Following are a few pictures that to me, capture his spirit as I will remember it. The Guardian, along side many other much better publications than this, compiled are great photo story of his life here.