Taos is still hitched to 'Easy Rider' and Dennis Hopper
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-hopper9-2009may09,0,7188476.story
The 1969 film's 'compulsive creator' returns to curate an art show
during town's Summer of Love fest.
Associated Press
May 9, 2009
Taos, N.M. -- Never mind that the original Summer of Love was 42
years ago and almost 1,000 miles away: Taos is offering its own
version this year.
The summer-long celebration marks the 40th anniversary of the iconic
counterculture film "Easy Rider" -- some of which was shot here --
and the influx of hippies that added yet another spicy ingredient to
Taos' multicultural stew.
Scheduled events include a "hippie homecoming" parade, art shows,
concerts, costume contests and lectures about Taos' bohemian edge and
"Los Hippies." Country Joe McDonald will re-create his performance
from 1969's Woodstock festival at a June 6 concert.
The Taos Summer of Love kicked off Monday when actor and artist
Dennis Hopper was made honorary mayor of the town of 5,000. Hopper is
curator of an exhibition that opens today at the Harwood Museum of Art here.
"It was magical to me," Hopper recalls of his first visit while
scouting locations for "Easy Rider." "I thought, if I ever make any
money, I'm going to come back here."
"Easy Rider" did make money, and Hopper bought the rambling old adobe
house that had belonged to Mabel Dodge Luhan, the wealthy arts patron
whose Taos salon drew D.H. Lawrence, Georgia O'Keeffe and others from
the arts. It would be Hopper's home for a dozen years.
Hopper, a self-described "compulsive creator," is a longtime
photographer, painter and collector who lives now in Venice, but he
has maintained close ties to Taos.
When he was asked to curate "Hopper at the Harwood," he reached out
to five other contemporary artists who share slices of his past. Part
of the hip, emerging contemporary art scene in Los Angeles in the
1950s and 1960s, they all eventually decamped to Taos, where they
still live and work.
Larry Bell, Ron Cooper, Ronald Davis, Ken Price and Robert Dean
Stockwell (actor Dean Stockwell) are "really world-class artists"
whose work is rarely shown in Taos, Hopper says.
"They didn't come looking for a style. . . . They were already well
into contemporary art," says Hopper, whose own photographs and
paintings will be on view at the exhibition, which runs through Sept. 20.
Related events include a panel discussion on Aug. 1 led by critic
Dave Hickey, who says in his essay for the exhibition's catalog that
in the 20th century, Taos "probably produced more serious art and
literature than any other non-metropolitan area in the United States."
"It's been a place that arts have flourished in one form or another
-- depending on what community you're in -- for 800 years or 400
years or 100 years," says photographer Gus Foster, who is on the
governing board of the Harwood, part of the University of New Mexico.
Taos Pueblo was here for centuries before Spanish colonists began
establishing farms and ranches nearby in the 1600s.
"It's been a fertile place for creative people. Lots of writers, lots
of musicians, lots of visual artists," says Foster, who has lived and
worked in Taos since 1976.
The historic Harwood -- with its thick adobe walls, high ceilings and
traditional Southwestern ceiling beams and woodwork -- showcases
artists who worked in the local, Hispanic traditions as well as the
procession of Anglo artists who made their mark here.
The "founders," painters largely from the East Coast, formed the Taos
Society of Artists in the early part of the 20th century and are
known for their landscapes, paintings of old-timers and idealized
depictions of Indians.
The mid-century was marked by an influx of modernists -- the "Taos
Moderns" -- that put the town on the map for contemporary art.
The artists represented by the "Hopper at the Harwood" exhibit "is
like an unnamed next group . . . a yet-to-be named third generation,"
says Jina Brenneman, the museum's curator.
The show "really is all about Dennis' profound respect for these
artists," she says.
Stockwell, an old friend of Hopper, first saw Taos in 1964. He had
made "Sons and Lovers" in England and was captivated by Lawrence's
essays on Taos. When he saw the place, he says, "It was even more
incredible than I thought . . . and I knew the minute I got here I
was going to end up here."
He visited annually and finally moved here about six years ago.
Stockwell lives on the outskirts of town, with sweeping views of the
Sangre de Cristo Mountains that are Taos' backdrop. The walls of his
home are covered with original art -- his, and the late Wallace
Berman's, among others.
He began doing art seriously in 1956 after meeting Berman, an artist
legendary in the Beat movement and Los Angeles art scene that
developed the late '50s and '60s. Their friendship profoundly changed
his life, Stockwell says. He didn't make art with the intention of
showing it, although he did the album cover for his friend Neil
Young's 1977 "American Stars 'N Bars" album. It wasn't until 2003
that he began making collages for exhibition and quickly began to have shows.
Besides the photo collages, he does "diceworks" -- sculptures made of dice.
Hopper started doing photography in 1961, and did his main body of
black-and-white work over the next six years.
"I wanted to direct movies, so it seemed a natural thing to do," he
says. He stopped once he was into "Easy Rider" -- "working with
[cinematographer] Laszlo Kovacs was exciting enough for me" -- and
didn't resume photography for another two decades.
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Taos events mark 'Easy Rider' anniversary, '60s
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iaFy4rU98mVYaAcWRaCK7CndUx7gD9800OEO0
By DEBORAH BAKER
May 5, 2009
TAOS, N.M. (AP) Never mind that the original Summer of Love was 42
years ago and almost 1,000 miles away: Taos is offering its own
version this year.
The summerlong celebration marks the 40th anniversary of the iconic
counterculture film "Easy Rider" some of which was shot here and
the influx of hippies that added yet another spicy ingredient to
Taos' multicultural stew.
Scheduled events include a "hippie homecoming" parade, art shows,
concerts, costume contests and lectures about Taos' bohemian edge and
"Los Hippies."
Country Joe McDonald will recreate his performance from 1969's
Woodstock festival at a June 6 concert.
"Our approach to the whole thing was to really have fun with it,"
said the town's public relations director, Cathy Connelly.
But for a town of 5,000 that officials say gets 2 million visitors a
year, tourism is serious business.
Mayor Darren Cordova said Taos "has been a unique travel destination
for over 1,100 years," a reference to Taos Pueblo, which anchors the
northern New Mexico community.
The Spanish settled here in the early 1600s, and Anglo artists began
coming 300 years later.
Cordova credited the area's natural beauty, isolation, exotic
architecture, lifestyles and "a spirit that has not been ... paved
over" for attracting waves of newcomers.
The Taos Summer of Love kicked off Monday when actor and artist
Dennis Hopper, a former resident who is a frequent visitor, was made
honorary mayor.
He moved to Taos for 12 years after discovering it while directing
and starring in "Easy Rider."
Hopper shot scenes that featured Taos Pueblo, a local hot spring and
the interior of the jail where Billy and Wyatt played by Hopper and
Peter Fonda famously meet up with George, played by Jack Nicholson.
He wanted to film at the nearby New Buffalo commune but the residents
wouldn't allow it, so he recreated it in Los Angeles for the film's
commune scenes.
"Easy Rider" which came in 88th in the American Film Institute's
top 100 American movies was his attempt at capturing the political
climate of the country at the time.
The 1967 Summer of Love in San Francisco was over, the '60s were
drawing to a close, "and nobody's ever made a movie about it," Hopper said.
On the Net:
Taos Summer of Love: http://www.TaosSummerOfLove.com
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