Andy Hope 1930: When Dinosaurs Become Modernists

Installation views, Andy Hope 1930: When Dinosaurs Become Modernists, Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 2012. Images by Michael Wolchover

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Press Release

Inverleith House is delighted to present the first exhibition in Scotland by the acclaimed German artist Andy Hope 1930. It consists of almost forty works, most completed this year and being shown for the first time. Encompassing painting, drawing, collage, photography and sculpture all have been selected by the artist for Inverleith House and the exhibition also features three new works made in situ by the artist; the large painting 2030, the canvas Chief Red Cloud and Crazy Horse and The Educational Dinosaur Movie Hall, (shown in the lower ground floor gallery).

When Andy Hope 1930 visited the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh last year he spent time in the Fern House, surrounded by groups of plants whose close relatives would have populated the earth when Dinosaurs first appeared on earth during the Triassic period, approximately 230 million years ago. This link with Dinosaurs provides a context for the exhibition (and its title) and Dinosaurs continue to feature in the artist’s cast of characters – which ranges from these and other prehistoric creatures (such as Pterodactyls and Pteradons) to comic book characters and cultural heroines and heroes (from Linda Lee as Supergirl to the French novelist Raymond Roussel and the American contemporary artist John Baldessari –portrayed as ‘Galactus Jesus’). Graphic and brightly coloured, such beloved characters populate a terrestrial world of deserts, mountains, swamps and cities set within a universe of stars and galaxies, with Sci-fi travel between these worlds undertaken primitive space vehicles (Runaway Rooms).

In the exhibitions of Andy Hope 1930, monsters and fantasies meet order and logic; cowboys and aliens coexist with legends and prehistoric creatures, exploring, expanding and challenging the fundaments of modern life. The orthodox chronology of history and progress is tinted with that of another view; old traces left behind in a time tunnel, contradicting our reading of the world around us.

Andreas Hofer officially changed his name to ‘Andy Hope 1930’ in 2010, having signed all his work with this name since 1998. He graduated from the Art Academy of Munich and Chelsea College of
Art & Design, London. Since the late 1990^’she has exhibited widely in Europe and North America. In London he presented a solo exhibition at the Freud Museum in 2010 (curated by James Putnam) and has presented three solo exhibitions at Hauser & Wirth, the most recent in Spring 2012. He lives and works in Berlin.

The exhibition is kindly supported by Hauser & Wirth.

Inverleith House is supported by Creative Scotland.
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Andy Hope 1930: When Dinosaurs Become Modernists

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