A benefit of membership with the New Orleans Museum of Art
ARTSQUARTERLY VOLUME XXX ISSUE 1
NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART
JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2008
Rodrigue’s Louisiana: Cajuns, Blue Dogs, and Beyond Katrina BY E. JOHN BULLARD The Montine McDaniel Freeman Director, NOMA
George Rodrigue (American, born 1944) Aioli Dinner, 1971 Oil on canvas, 32 x 46 inches Collection of Jacques Rodrigue and Andre Rodrigue
O
pening on March 1, the New Orleans Museum of Art will present a forty-year retrospective of the work of George Rodrigue, undoubtedly Louisiana’s most famous contemporary artist. The exhibition will feature more than one hundred paintings, which survey the full range of his work: early landscapes, scenes of Cajun life, portraits of famous Louisianians, the emergence and evolution of the now iconic Blue Dog, and most recently hurricanes and nudes. While Rodrigue’s work is quite familiar to New Orleanians, the comprehensiveness of this retrospective will be a surprise and pleasure to even his most devoted fans. And it may convince those who so far have resisted the charm and power of his work that Rodrigue has made a unique contribution to the culture of Louisiana. I first became aware of George Rodrigue in the early 1970s when a buzz from Lafayette began reaching New Orleans about a young artist who was reinventing Louisiana landscape painting of moss-draped oaks and watery bayous, in the tradition of such late nineteenthcentury masters as Richard Claque and William Buck. Rodrigue’s dark and moody landscape paintings were followed by something totally original: nostalgic
depictions of Cajun life from the early years of the twentieth century. The 1976 publication of The Cajuns of George Rodrigue, illustrating one hundred-fifty six of these new compositions, was a major factor in his growing reputation. In fact his paintings heralded the emergence of a Cajun revival that soon swept the country with its unique music, food, folktales, and images of a bygone era. The new Cajun pride in its indigenous culture and traditions was centered in Lafayette, the capital of Cajun country. At the same time, Cajun country experienced a financial boon in the oil service industries, which supported the tremendous growth of off-shore oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. The newly affluent owners and employees of the “oil patch” companies were among Rodrigue’s most enthusiastic patrons, competing to purchase his Cajun scene paintings to decorate their offices and homes. Cajun country was flexing new financial and cultural muscles, feeling independent from the long dominance of New Orleans.
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