Interview with Curt Hoppe
q) Let’s start with the basics; what’s your full name, where do you live, and
how old are you?
a)Curt Hoppe. I live and work in New York City and I am 57.
q) Do you have any formal training?
a)I attended the University of Minnesota and studied for a BFA but dropped out with 6 months left until graduation. I had no intention of teaching so did not need a degree. I was already exhibiting, making a living, so moving to New York seemed like a better idea than completing my studies just for a piece of paper I had no use for.
q) Did the place you grew up in influence your image making?
a)I grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota; it had good museums and arts education programs at all levels, which probably laid the foundation for my interest in art. But other than that, I don’t think it had much influence on my work.
q) How do you come up with your concepts?
a)They come to me. I don’t plan on what series of paintings I do next. Usually it involves an interest or obsession I have at the moment.
q) Describe your creations in a clear, concise and understandable sentence.
What do you call them?
a)The latest exhibition and series I am currently working on, "Girls of Action," is my ongoing tribute to women who refuse to conform to received ideas of the "feminine." Women who do not let the media, men, today’s mores, or societal pressure define what is beautiful and acceptable inspire me. They are talented and rebellious. They are driven. They define themselves. They are Hipstresses, "(my own tem for hip females)". They are feminists in the true sense. I do my best not to objectify them, but being a male that at times can be difficult, or maybe impossible.
q) What other mediums would you like to explore in your image making?
a)Right now I have a pretty full stage, with painting, sculpture (my action figurines), and photography. I would like to do a little more video but my temperament really does not allow me to do to many things at once. I am a bit of an obsessive compulsive. The way I work is very time consuming and my subject deserves it. I usually have a million ideas in my head and doing photography and using larger format printing alleviates some of the frustration brought on by the constraints of time, while still giving the subject a proper amount of attention and scale.
a)One, or is it more about the environment — maybe the right mood?
I am very happy in my own head. I don’t look at making art as "work," so I rarely get in bad moods. If someone or something arises that tries to sabotage whatever I’m doing, I generally say fuck ‘em or fuck it, and just go on. I look forward to going to my studio and whenever I don’t, I figure that it is time to move on and start a new series of works. That usually happens in 10-year intervals.
I have little concept of time and I am very self-centered when I am working. I rarely socialize, answer the telephone, or make any plans, always leaving my days and nights open-ended for work. I never set timetables for myself and would rather not work at all if there were someplace that I must be in a set time. I do my best to set my own agenda.
q) What are your artistic influences? And. generally who or what
Influences you the most?
On a purely art level I rarely go to exhibitions to avoid art trends or other outside artistic influences.
However, I am interested to see if Street Art can throw a wrench into the shiny gears of the big corporate art takeover of recent years. Now more than ever it seems that money has trumped passion and love, taking conspicuous consumption to the art world and raising the stakes of so-called "keeping up with the Joneses" to a new level.
q) Who are some of your favorite artists/designers/photographers?
a)Dianne Arbus, Wegee, Arturo Vega, Richard Hamilton, Ray Johnson, Mel Ramos, Tom Wesselman, Calder, Oldenburg, Franz Gertsch, Caravaggio, Rivers, Ingres, Crumb, Ray and Charles Eames, Vargas, Big Daddy Ed Roth, John Holmstrom, Norman Rockwell, Val Killmore’s films and lately I’ve really been digging a couple of street artists, Marc Jenkins and Judith Supine. In fact, if Judith or Mark read this and are interested in exchanging work shoot me an email.q) What is your next project? Exhibition? Collaboration?
a)I continue to work on the "Girls of Action" series and I will have an exhibition in New York in 2008 at the Stricola Gallery.
a)See above question 10, and in January of 2009 sitting in front of a large television to watch as Bush and Cheney fly off into the sunset, hopefully never to be heard from again. Then to take a deep breath and heave a sigh of relief that they’re gone.
q) Are there some web sites that you would like to recommend? Artists, art
Communities, xxx,…!?
q)What sort of music do you listen to?
a)Alternative, Indie, a little Country now and then I listen to talk radio, NPR, etc.q)Do you collect anything?If so what?
a)Souls.q)What do you do for fun?
a)Have coffee, eat dessert and smoke all at the same time, which is really difficult to do these days in New York. So I go to France for that.q)Any advice you can pass onto aspiring artists/designers?
a)No. I doubt anyone needs advice from me.
q)Your contacts.
a)Europe
La B*A*N*K Galerie http://www.bankgalerie.com
U.S
Stricola http://www.stricola.com
