The Curatorial Imagination of Walter Hopps
Mar 24 – Aug 13, 2023
Main Building
Joe Goode, Untitled, ca. 1962. Oil paint on canvas, wood, and glass milk bottle, 27 × 25 ½ × 6 ¼ in. (68.6 × 64.8 × 15.9 cm). The Menil Collection, Houston, Gift of Caroline Huber and the estate of Walter Hopps. © Joe Goode. Photo: Caroline Philippone
The Curatorial Imagination of Walter Hopps at the Menil Collection, Houston. Photo: Paul Hester
Edward Kienholz, Walter Hopps Hopps Hopps, 1959. Oil paint and resin on hardboard and wood with metal, plastic, animal vertebrae, candy, plaster, leather, pills, glass, printed paper, graphite, colored pencil and ink on paper, mat board, and adhesive tape, 87 × 42 × 21 in. (221 × 106.7 × 53.3 cm). The Menil Collection, Houston, Gift of Lannan Foundation. © Kienholz. Courtesy of L.A. Louver, Venice, CA. Photo: Caroline Philippone
Andy Warhol, Big Campbell’s Soup Can, 19¢ (Beef Noodle) [Nineteen Cents], 1962. Casein and graphite on canvas, 72 x 54-½ in. (182.9 x 138.4 cm). The Menil Collection, Houston. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Caroline Philippone
The Curatorial Imagination of Walter Hopps at the Menil Collection, Houston. Photo: Paul Hester
George Herms, Day of Bessie Smith, 1962. Plywood, paint brush, shell, photogravure, cord, nails, ink, and resin, 22 × 16 ½ × 3 in. (55.9 × 41.9 × 7.6 cm). The Menil Collection, Houston, Gift of Caroline Huber and the estate of Walter Hopps. © George Herms. Photo: Caroline Philippone
The Curatorial Imagination of Walter Hopps at the Menil Collection, Houston. Photo: Paul Hester
Sam Gilliam, The Saint of Moritz Outside Mondrian, 1984. Acrylic on canvas and metal, 59 × 63-½ × 5 in. (149.9 × 161.3 × 12.7 cm). The Menil Collection, Houston. © Sam Gilliam / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Caroline Philippone
William Christenberry, Fruit Stand Sidewalk, Memphis, Tennessee, 1966, printed 1982. Dye transfer photograph, 8 1/8 × 11 7/8 in. (20.6 × 30.2 cm). The Menil Collection, Houston, Promised Gift of Caroline Huber and the estate of Walter Hopps. © Estate of William Christenberry, courtesy Pace Gallery
The Curatorial Imagination of Walter Hopps at the Menil Collection, Houston. Photo: Paul Hester
Frank Stella, Avicenna, 1960. Alkyd paint on canvas, 74-½ × 72 in. (189.2 × 182.9 cm). The Menil Collection, Houston. © Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Paul Hester
Once dubbed “the marvelous mad maven of modern art in America,” Walter Hopps (1932–2005) estimated that he had curated some 250 exhibitions in his 50+ year career. Hopps’s impressive curatorial record constitutes the framework of The Curatorial Imagination of Walter Hopps, which features more than 130 artworks by 70 artists, many of which are recent or promised gifts to the museum from Caroline Huber and the Estate of Walter Hopps. The show will explore the influential curatorial vision of Hopps, the Menil Collection’s Founding Director, as well as his distinctive approach to exhibition making and appreciation for a variety of 20th-century art movements. It features drawings, paintings, photography, and sculpture, ranging from the 1930s to the early 2000s.
The book Artists We’ve Known: Selected Works from the Walter Hopps and Caroline Huber Collection, highlights 50 artists and 53 works selected to show the couple’s personal and wide-ranging assembly as represented by their gifts and promised gifts. The book is now available for purchase at the Menil Bookstore and online.
The Curatorial Imagination of Walter Hopps is curated by Clare Elliott, Associate Research Curator.
Major funding for this exhibition is provided by Lea Weingarten. Additional support comes from Henrietta Alexander; Eddie and Chinhui Allen; Nancy C. Allen; Anne Levy Charitable Trust; Suzanne Deal Booth; Clare Casademont and Michael Metz; Angela and William Cannady; Hilda Curran; Barbara Davis; Janet and Paul Hobby; John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation; Linda and George Kelly; Mary Hale Lovett McLean; Susan and Francois de Menil; Betty Moody; Carol and David Neuberger; Marilyn Oshman; Leslie and Shannon Sasser; Mark Wawro and Melanie Gray; Leslie Field and Morris Weiner; Nina and Michael Zilkha; and the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.
Artists on Walter Hopps: Larry Bell, George Herms, and Ed Ruscha. | The Menil Collection, Houston, TX. March 24, 2023.
“The Curatorial Imagination of Walter Hopps” at the Menil Collection, Houston. Video: Jay Clark
Artist Talk: Robert Longo. | The Menil Collection, Houston, TX. April 13, 2023.
Book Talk: “Artists We’ve Known”: Don Quaintance, Mel Chin, and Terrell James. | The Menil Collection, Houston, TX. June 15, 2023.
