Dennis Hopper: A Second Look

Alright, so I have already confirmed with myself that one visit to Chelsea was not enough. Thus I returned to take another glance at a gallery that peaked my fascination the last time. The exhibition in which I'm referring to is Dennis Hopper's "Signs of the Times", an exploration of iconic 60's photographs, or so they say. My first impression of his work was nothing too special; a bunch of photos lined up against the wall, with a few blown up sized images sitting right next to them. I thought to myself, "oh Christ, not another one of these photo galleries, been here, done that, I've seen it all".

















Hopper does a good job in making me feel inferior

Yeah, that's what I thought, until upon closer inspection I noticed that the large scaled photos were not photos at all, but in actuality photo realistic paintings. Let's just say that my mind was blown out of proportion. Never in my life would I have ever imagined seeing such an accurate representation of a photo at such a monumental scale. Hopper's attention to detail and sensitivity to realism made even the best copy machines in the world look like a mockery. I may be a graphic designer, but that's just my concentration. When it comes down to it, I'm a hardcore fan of the fine arts.


















Strike a pose! (detail... THE DETAIL!)