Donelson Farquhar Hoopes, Jr. (December 3, 1932 – February 22, 2006) was an American

art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

and

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

. Hoopes was a scholar of nineteenth- and twentieth-century

American art Visual art of the United States or American art is visual art made in the United States or by U.S. artists. Before colonization there were many flourishing traditions of Native American art, and where the Spanish colonized Spanish Colonial arc ...

, especially the work of

Thomas Eakins Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins (; July 25, 1844 – June 25, 1916) was an American realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important American artists. For the length ...

Winslow Homer Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 – September 29, 1910) was an American landscape painter and illustrator, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th-century America and a preeminent figure in ...

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...

, and Marco Sassone.

Career

Born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

to Donelson Wood and Esther Taylor Dechert, Hoopes served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

from 1953 to 1955, rising to the rank of

Sergeant Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...

. He then received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1960. In that year, Hoopes began his curatorial career as Director of the

Portland Museum of Art The Portland Museum of Art, or PMA, is the largest and oldest public art institution in the U.S. state of Maine. Founded as the Portland Society of Art in 1882. It is located in the downtown area known as The Arts District in Portland, Maine. ...

. In 1962, he moved to the

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Overview The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...

for a role as

. Two years later, Hoopes curated the landmark exhibition there titled ''The Private World of John Singer Sargent''. Hoopes was thus credited with restoring the reputation of the artist

. In 1965, Hoopes was hired as Curator of Paintings and Sculptures at the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

until 1969. Three years later, he became Senior Curator of American Art at the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

until 1976, when he resigned due to the museum board's decisions to mount the landmark exhibition ''

Two Centuries of Black American Art ''Two Centuries of Black American Art'' was a 1976 traveling exhibition of African-American art organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). It "received greater visibility and validation from the mainstream art world than any other ...

'', despite the curatorial staff having rejected the exhibition proposal. Contemporaneous reporting described Hoopes' decision to resign, along with several colleagues, as having been made due to perceived overreach by the board into curatorial decisions, although several curators at the museum had refused to attend the proposal presentation given by the guest curator, arts educator and artist

David C. Driskell David C. Driskell (June 7, 1931 – April 1, 2020) was an American artist, scholar and curator; recognized for his work in establishing African-American Art as a distinct field of study. In his lifetime, Driskell was cited as one of the world’ ...

. Hoopes also was nominated to serve on the

Committee for the Preservation of the White House The Committee for the Preservation of the White House is an advisory committee charged with the preservation of the White House, the official home and principal workplace of the president of the United States. The committee is largely made up of c ...

United States President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United State ...

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...

from 1977 to 1980. Three years after that, Hoopes took the role of Director of the

Thomas Cole National Historic Site The Thomas Cole National Historic Site, also known as Cedar Grove, is a National Historic Landmark that includes the home and the studio of painter Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School of American painting. It is located at 218 Spring ...

, a post that he held until retirement in 1997. Hoopes resided in Steuben before his death in Bangor in 2006.

References

External links

New York Times obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoopes, Donelson 1932 births 2006 deaths Writers from Philadelphia United States Army soldiers American art curators American art historians Brooklyn Museum People associated with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Career

See also

References

External links