Dennis Hopper Exhibits Another Side of Himself As a 'Strange Realist'

"James Dean spearheaded the idea that acting was only one aspect of art, and to do painting and photography is also important," he notes. "This left a tremendous impact on Dennis."

Hopper avidly collected art by California artists working in the late 1950s and early 1960s. "He was one of the first people worldwide who responded to this new art that was developing" -- pop art, Shafrazi says. At the first major exhibition of Andy Warhol's paintings, a series of Campbell's soup cans shown in Los Angeles in 1962, Hopper was one of only two buyers who took home artworks. Shafrazi says Hopper got them for $75 (and later surrendered the paintings during a divorce).

As Hopper, 69, takes his guests on a tour of the exhibit, he seems in fact more artist than actor. He quotes Leonardo da Vinci (on the difficulty of representing the creamy patina of a wet stain on a Tuscan wall). He paraphrases Marcel Duchamp, with whom he agrees when he explains, "An artist is a person who points his finger and says, 'That is art.' " And he speaks in great detail about the difference between digital and film photography, how with the former, "you're spraying with light, and not like a [film] photograph, where it rises up from the chemicals."

Hopper has also taken his photographs from the early '60s and transferred them to huge oil paintings on vinyl. He says he always has been fascinated by the Southern California landscape of outdoor advertising. Asked why his work now is so big, so billboard-y, Hopper says, "That's L.A. -- the billboards and the cars. Maybe next I should do some palm trees."

The big images are arresting. When he was a young artist hanging out with the pops, he often took his comrades to a billboard-painting factory near downtown Los Angeles. He says the place amazed him, and that what he often tries to do with his art (including his photographs of graffiti from Florence, London, New York, Prague) is just capture what is already there on the streets, a style he calls "strange realism."

It works. Shafrazi remembers Hopper in the '60s, when Dennis was the person they all wanted to meet.

"He's a big star, he's dynamic, he's running around taking photographs all over, plus he's the hottest, coolest, most knowledgeable guy on art," Shafrazi says. "He is a conduit, he's the guide, he's the pointer."

Staff writer Sonya Geis contributed to this report.