NEW YORK - When Dennis Hopper put two bullets through an Andy Warhol portrait of Mao Tse-tung, the artist didn't holler, he called the
Easy Rider
star a collaborator.
Warhol's Mao is among 300 works of the late actor-director's fine art and memorabilia up for auction at Christie's on Tuesday and Wednesday. The 1972 colored screenprint is expected to bring $20,000 to $30,000.
Hopper, twice nominated for Oscars, died at 74 of prostate cancer in May.
He began collecting in the 1960s after actor Vincent Price, himself an avid collector of impressionist art, told him, "This is where you need to put your money," said Cathy Elkies, Christie's director of iconic collections. "This really was his calling."
Hopper, himself a photographer and painter, became immersed in the West Coast artist scene and pop art movement, befriending Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and many others he collected.
While the collection is eclectic, "there is some depth of certain artists" among the artworks, including those by Wallace Berman, Bruce Conner, and George Herms.
Conner's Picnic on the Grass - also expected to bring $20,000 to $30,000 - and Mao are the highest-priced items in the sale.
The shooting incident involving Mao occurred sometime in the early 1970s at Hopper's Los Angeles home, said Alex Hitz, a family friend and a trustee of the estate.
"One night in the shadows, Dennis, out of the corner of his eyes, saw the Mao and he was so spooked by it that he got up and shot at it, twice, putting two bullet holes in it," Hitz said in a telephone interview. "Andy saw it, loved it, and annotated those holes," labeling them "warning shot" and "bullet hole."
Hopper's four children are selling the collection because "it was Dennis' wish to sell everything," said Hitz. "How do you cut a Warhol and all those other wonderful pieces by four?"
Elkies said Hopper's Venice Beach house was filled "from floor to ceiling with art, and realistically [the children] couldn't take that on." She said they were holding on to the more sentimental pieces, including Hopper's own work.
Posters from his movies, including Apocalypse Now, Blue Velvet, and Speed, are estimated to sell for $200 to $500. A 158-page unbound Easy Rider script, with extensive notes on the back of two pages, is being offered at a presale estimate of $2,000-$3,000.
When Christie's offered 30 works from Hopper's collection in November, an untitled 1987 Jean-Michel Basquiat work sold for $5.8 million.