He Has a Dream
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No more meek kowtowing for Hopkins. “I don’t want to be ushered into the MCA at age 70, have them view slides of my art and say ‘thanks,’ and then know I can die in peace because the museum has seen my work.” He is fighting for the museum to devote space in its new building (scheduled to open in about two years) to a permanent gallery for Illinois artists, a venue for all kinds of exhibits of local work: theme shows, one-person shows, group shows. He is tired of going to see the work of what he maintains is a closed set of artists. “Art exhibits nowadays have a franchised feeling–you see the same artists everywhere,” he says. Hopkins would rather major museums take a chance on something new and different and preferably local. “It may not always be very good art, but at least I can be shocked or surprised by how bad it is.”
But others on the local art scene side with Hopkins. “I think what Hopkins is doing is warranted,” says Michael Wier of Lyons Wier Gallery, which represents a number of young artists in the Chicago area. Bill Struve of Struve Gallery says devoting space to local work is becoming increasingly common at museums across the country. “Art museums in Denver and Hartford have rooms devoted to local art, but here in Chicago we’re used to accepting scraps.” He also discounts the notion that a separate display space demeans the artists. “Every artist I have spoken to wouldn’t object to such an exhibition, because they want above all to have their work seen in the hope that people will respond to it.”
Tom Blackman is back this year with a bigger and, he hopes, better New Pier Show, running through May 9 in a 90,000-square-foot tent at Cityfront Center. John Wilson, Blackman’s former employer and now his arch rival, is back too with the 15th Chicago International Art Exposition, scheduled for May 12 through 16 in the rotunda at Navy Pier. But David and Lee Ann Lester are not back this time around. Unhappy with the overly competitive situation here and concerned that Chicago is no longer a mecca for art collectors, they opted to mount a spring fair in New York City. At the moment, the Lesters plan on returning to Chicago in the fall of 1995, with a fair in the new exhibition space at Navy Pier.
