George Rodigue Art Is About No One Had Done Before

George Rodrigue- a Retrospective

Introduction:

George Rodrigue is most known today as the artist of the Blue Dog. While Rodrigue gained fame and fortune for his Blue Dog works, the series that fabricated him a name in the art world has overshadowed his earlier and maybe more accomplished works. Rodrigue'southward before evangelical and landscape paintings show his love for the Louisiana setting and inherent Cajun culture. Sadly, these works that show Rodrigues personal relationship with his homeland have been surpassed past the Blueish Domestic dog. This exhibit plans to explore Rodrigues less commercially recognizable work and gain insight to his love of the state of Louisiana every bit his inspiration in his works.

Rodrigue was born March xiii, 1944 in New Iberia, Louisiana.[1] His father was of true Acadian descent, a culture that traveled from France to Nova Scotia then Louisiana, settling in the Bayou.[2] His mother was of purely French heritage.[iii] Information technology was during his long drives to and from art school in Los Angeles, passing through many states and different landscapes that made Rodrigue realize how unique the low-lying Louisiana landscape was.[4] He began his first series depicting the swamp mural and oak trees.[5] When Rodrigue would work in a series, he imbued every piece of work he created with the same unifying element; his beginning being the oak tree. Interestingly, Rodrigue deliberately failed to picture the lands of the Bayou equally a warm and inviting surroundings. His landscapes are oftentimes dark, with the near light coming from far off the horizon, the big oak trees moss hanging down forebodingly. Later, his works advanced to use his beau Cajuns as the subjects of his series. Rodrigue saw his Cajun culture and people diminishing, much like the actual swamplands.[vi] The Cajuns were non modernizing with the times and their civilization was dying out. If it weren't for Rodrigue's depictions of Cajun cultural activities, history might have forgotten the Cajun people. In his paintings of the Cajuns, Rodrigue has said he never pictured them standing; they were ever sitting to symbolize how they are a non-progressive people that would never leave the Bayou they inhabit.[7] Rodrigue'due south second series, The Evangeline, stemmed from the Cajun tale of the Evangeline who haunted the bayou.[viii] She is somewhat of a symbol to the Bayou people for her patient suffering, every bit the Cajuns have gone through many hardships as a people.[9] His last serial, i which he worked in until his expiry on December fourteen, 2013 was the Blue Dog serial.[ten] The Bluish dog series started with inspiration from Cajun tales, depicting Loup- Garou, a domestic dog that haunted the Louisiana swamps.[xi] Fifty-fifty though the Blue Dog was created out of Cajun folklore, it has grown so commercialized it has lost its Cajun identity.

Rodrigue may accept saved his Cajun culture from being erased in the history books, just he also shed a low-cal on the culture with his arts. During his 1976 exhibition in Boston, the Cajun civilisation was so unknown that he was introduced as a "ka-yoon" creative person.[12] Today, most Americans know of the Cajun civilisation prevalent in Louisiana and the South.

All Rodrigue's works, from his primeval landscapes to the Blue Dogs, share one characteristic; they have some type of Cajun bayou influence. His earlier landscapes and images of Cajun people display a culture that is once more overshadowed. This project intends to reemphasize the works that made Rodrigue successful that have been somewhat forgotten today.

Bibliography

Bernard, Shane G. The Cajuns: Americanization of a People. Jackson, Mississippi: Academy Press of Mississippi, 2003.

Danto, Ginger. The art of George Rodrigue. New York, New York: Harry North. Abrams, Incorporated, 2003.

Fruendlich, Lawrence S. and John Bradshaw and George Rodrigue. George Rodrigue: A Cajun Creative person. Washington, D.C.: Studio, 1997.

Rodrigue, Wendy W. The Other Side of the Painting. Lafayette, Louisiana: University of Louisiana at Lafayette Printing, 2013.

Rodrigue, George and Floyd Sommier. The Cajuns of George Rodrigue. Birmingham, Alabama: Oxmoor Firm, 1976.

Rodrigue, George. Le Petit Cajun: Conversations with Andre Rodrigue. Winter Park, Florida: Legacy Publishing, 1978.

Figure one: Broken Limb, 1975. Oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches. Private Collection.

Figure 1: Cleaved Limb, 1975. Oil on canvass, 24 ten 30 inches. Private Collection.

Rodrigue began his series on Oak Trees after witnessing the landscapes of other states equally he drove to and from Los Angeles where he attended art schoolhouse.[thirteen] He saw once he entered Louisiana, the land became flat, wet and dark equally the massive oak copse blocked the sun.[xiv] This made Louisiana uniquely different than all other states he had passed through.[15] A contempo graduate of art school, studying popular art, Rodrigue was inclined to pigment the landscapes he saw with hard edges and a more abstract manner.[16] Rodrigue said he never 'saw' an oak tree, merely noticed the shapes the light created as it passed through the branches. [17]

Rodrigue chose to depict the landscapes of his beloved homeland equally so dark and foreboding as a symbol for Louisiana.[18] The people were strong and dominating, as paralleled in his strong oak copse. His landscapes tried to capture the idea of 'Erstwhile Louisiana', a place where the people were one with the land, connected to their roots.[nineteen] Rodrigue is noted as proverb "Every swell artist has taken a common thing and fabricated people come across information technology in a dissimilar way".[20] Rodrigue took the common scenery of Louisiana and made the viewer detect not the tree, simply the strength of the tree itself, seen through its branches and emanating light. The landscapes that made Rodrigue realize how Louisiana was different from the rest of the land then avant-garde to testify how the customs, traditions and people of Louisiana were dissimilar.

Figure 2: Sugar Bridge over Coulee, 1973. Oil on canvas, 48 x 72 inches. Individual Collection.

Figure two: Saccharide Bridge over Coulee, 1973. Oil on canvass, 48 ten 72 inches. Individual Collection.

Carbohydrate Bridge over Coulee depicts a landscape in Louisiana.[21] These scenes are typical landscapes Rodrigue was painting when he returned habitation from fine art schoolhouse in California and recognize the unique landscape Louisiana mural. Axiomatic in this painting is the nighttime scenery the big oak copse created. This composition of the calorie-free source coming from the back ground became one of Rodrigue's signature elements.

Figure three: Evangeline Park Demote, 1976. Oil on Canvas, 30 x 40 inches. Private Collection.

Effigy 3: Evangeline Park Bench, 1976. Oil on Canvass, xxx x forty inches. Private Drove.

Rodrigue worked throughout his career on the Evangeline series, never stopping to begin work on another serial similar he did the Oak Trees and Cajun People.[22] These works were inspired by Evangeline, who was an Acadian (during the time the civilization lived in Nova Scotia) heroine.[23] Folklore stories claim that Evangeline and her lover were separated when the British invaded Nova Scotia in 1755.[24] The lovers were separated as the Acadians went south to the Louisiana Bayou.[25] She searched the bayou corner to corner, looking for her lost lover.[26] The pair were reunited in the last minutes of his life as she cared for him.[27] The tale is mutual among the Idealized culture as one of persistence and heartbreak. [28]

The Evangeline works, like all of Rodrigue's serial, take a common course. One figure, the Evangeline, is portrayed. She wears lighter colors and is surrounded past the mural of the bayou. She is defenseless in scenes of somberness, lonely, waiting to be reunited with her lover.

Figure 4: Paul Prudhomme, 1986. Oil on Canvass, 30 x 40 inches. Collection K-Paul'southward Louisiana Kitchen, New Orleans.

Figure 4: Paul Prudhomme, 1986. Oil on Sail, 30 x 40 inches. Collection Yard-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen, New Orleans.

Rodrigue'due south portrait of Chef Paul Prudhomme commemorated the 1986 opening of the Chef's eating house in New York City (now closed).[29] Rodrigue painted three portraits of Prudhomme over his career, as the 2 were longtime friends.[xxx] Rodrigue and Prudhomme shared many similarities. They were both from Acadia Louisiana neighborhoods, both influenced in their works by their Cajun culture, and both brought spotlight to their culture with their work.[31] In this portrait, Rodrigue depicts chef Prudhomme as attached to the Louisiana swamplands, a typical style for which he depicts his Cajun people. Prudhomme is dressed in all white, another element typical of Rodrigue's Cajun portraits. An oak tree and piddling light from the mural consummate the painting in distinctive George Rodrigue mode.

Figure 5: Aioli Dinner, 1971. Oil on canvas, 32 x 46 inches. Collection the Ziegler Museum, Jennings, Louisiana.

Figure v: Aioli Dinner, 1971. Oil on canvas, 32 x 46 inches. Collection the Ziegler Museum, Jennings, Louisiana.

Rodrigue's works on Cajun people came about equally a remembrance for the old Cajun culture which was disappearing even in the Acadian populated Bayou.[32] The old Cajuns were a people stuck in the past. Rodrigue painted them but equally he saw them, wearing older clothing, doing tasks they would normally be doing.[33] Equally he painted stories from the past, he used his ain memory or folklore tales pop to the Cajuns as inspiration.[34] For this painting in particular, Rodrigue painted from a photograph.[35] The scene was an old family unit dinner from when Rodrigue was a kid.[36] These dinners were unremarkably chosen Creole Gourmet Dinner society meals, where groups of men would gather at one house and be served for hours by their wives and children.[37] It shows his whole extended family unit where only the men eat the repast the women provided, equally the immature children serve.[38] The Aioli People was Rodrigue'southward kickoff painting away from the oak tree series but some of the style he developed while creating landscapes carried through to his depiction of people.[39] As he did in his landscapes, Rodrigue had sunlight as coming from behind the scene. The scenes he paints are not illuminated with lite; rather they are a placement of dark figures on a dark mural. This method may tell the viewer that the scene they are witnessing is from the by, the characters ghost-similar on the dark landscape, reminding the viewer that this old Cajun lifestyle is gone.

Figure 6: Gourmet Club, 1978. Oil on sheet, 30 x forty inches. Collection the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.

Figure vi: Gourmet Club, 1978. Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches. Drove the Academy of Louisiana, Lafayette.

This later on painting of a gourmet dinner was done after Rodrigue'due south first, The Aioli Dinner, received critical acclaim.[40] In these later gourmet dinner works, Rodrigue adds more color and makes the scene more inviting with his positioning of the figures, welcoming the viewer in a toast. A custom of the dinner society was for the male diners to each bring their own bottle of wine, as seen with the many bottles on the table.[41] Overall, these after dinner scenes are more inviting to the viewer but contain the typical George Rodrigue formation of oak trees, figures in white and little sunlight.

Figure seven: Andre and Boudreaux humid crawfish, 1978. Oil on sail, 24 10 18 inches. Private Collection.

Figure 7: Andre and Boudreaux humid crawfish, 1978. Oil on canvas, 24 x 18 inches. Private Drove.

This painting is a more typical Rodrigue Cajun scene. In these Rodrigue works, the figures are caught in the midst of their everyday Cajun lifestyle.[42] Over again, the figures are depicted in stark calorie-free colors in contrast to the dark landscape. Rodrigue chose to draw his people normatively for their culture to preserve the lifestyle they pb.[43].

Effigy 8: Mardi Gras, 1984. Oil on canvass, forty 10 thirty inches. Private Collection.

Figure viii: Mardi Gras, 1984. Oil on canvas, xl x 30 inches. Private Collection.

Mardi Gras was commissioned in commemoration of the city of Lafayette, Louisiana's, 100 year commemoration of the Mardi Gras festivities.[44] The virtually interesting attribute to this painting is that Rodrigue chose to position the Mardi Gras old revelers in the Bayou, surrounded by his distinctive oak trees. This scene shows classic Cajun culture in the celebration of Mardi Gras, present in Rodrigue'due south typical setting.

Figure 9: Watchdog, 1984. Oil on sheet, 40 x xxx inches. Private Collection.

Figure 9: Watchdog, 1984. Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches. Individual Collection.

In 1980, Rodrigue was commissioned to illustrate a book on bayou ghost stories.[45] Rodrigue was to create xl images to continue with the book, all of which he made on canvass.[46] For the tale of the domestic dog-wolf that haunted the bayou's graveyards, Loup- Garou (in French straight translated to werewolf), Rodrigue used the likeness of his deceased dog Tiffany.[47] Rodrigue maintained that his selection of Tiffany for the shape of Loup-Garou was only by take chances as he had many pictures of her around, and in no way was Watchdog meant to exist a commemorative piece to Tiffany.[48] The choice of blueish to depict Loup-Garou was also by chance. Rodrigue wanted a colour to pop out from the grey tones of the stone Loup-Garou sits atop.[49]

Today, the blue dog is thought to have been an overnight sensation. Contrarily, later on Rodrigue'southward commission with the ghost book, he continued to pigment the blue dog.[50] He was "haunted by it".[51] In works post-obit the first blue canis familiaris, Rodrigue would pigment the dog alone in the bayou, in place of a Cajun person or an oak tree. The blue dog became his new model, the new subject of a series. Similar to what Andy Warhol did with the Campbell's soup can, Rodrigue's blueish dog images became a cultural miracle. The Blue Domestic dog gained national attention when it was seen on an advertisement for Absolut Vodka in 1993, even though Rodrigue himself stopped drinking alcohol, and when he did it was "ever whiskey".[52] With the success of the blue domestic dog, Rodrigue started to create prints of his image.[53] Today, there are multiple 'Blue Dog' cafes, run by Rodrigue's son.[54] The Blue Dog has been almost everywhere and done near everything, from his yearly Mardi Gras commemoratory prints to prints raising coin for a natural disaster. Rodrigue'due south legacy in the art world will be the blue dog, just as Warhol's legacy will be soup cans.

Figure 10 : Absolut Rodrigue, 1993. Acrylic on canvas, 60 ten 36 inches. Drove Absolut Vodka.

Figure 10 : Absolut Rodrigue, 1993. Acrylic on canvas, threescore x 36 inches. Drove Absolut Vodka.

The same Absolut advertisement entrada featuring the blue dog, which brought Rodrigue and his blue domestic dog serial fame.

Conclusion:

While George Rodrigue is known today for his art, it remains to be seen if he will be remembered and studied for his fine art. Rodrigue stands with other famous artists like Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp who took an idea and commercialized it, translating the blue canis familiaris to something the public as a whole recognized. Before his big break with the blue domestic dog, Rodrigue was known to Louisiana and the S as a Cajun painter. The bluish domestic dog, although information technology stemmed from Cajun tales, has today lost its cultural identity, instead being swept up by the commercial art economy. Sadly, Rodrigue'southward earlier landscapes and Cajun paintings were left off the pages of fine art history books and off the walls of major museums. Rodrigue died in December of 2013 without seeing his works, blue dog or otherwise, critically praised or adorning the walls of a major art museum collection.

[one] Ginger Danto, The art of George Rodrigue (New York, New York: Harry Due north. Abrams, Incorporated, 2003), 250.

[2] Shane Yard. Bernard, The Cajuns: Americanization of a People (Jackson, Mississippi: University Printing of Mississippi, 2003), 37.

[3] Ginger Danto, The art of George Rodrigue (New York, New York: Harry Due north. Abrams, Incorporated, 2003), 17.

[four] Ibid., 25.

[five] Ibid., 25.

[half-dozen] Wendy Westward. Rodrigue, The Other Side of the Painting (Lafayette, Louisiana: University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2013), 7.

[7] Ginger Danto, The art of George Rodrigue (New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, 2003), 11.

[8] Wendy W. Rodrigue, The Other Side of the Painting (Lafayette, Louisiana: University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2013), 15.

[9] Ibid., 15.

[10] Ginger Danto, The art of George Rodrigue (New York, New York: Harry North. Abrams, Incorporated, 2003), 250.

[11] Ibid., 34.

[12] Wendy W. Rodrigue, The Other Side of the Painting (Lafayette, Louisiana: University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2013), 23.

[13] Ginger Danto, The art of George Rodrigue (New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, 2003), 25.

[14] Ibid., 25.

[15] Ibid., 25.

[16] Ibid., 25.

[17] Wendy West. Rodrigue, The Other Side of the Painting (Lafayette, Louisiana: Academy of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2013), 27.

[18] Ibid., 27.

[19] Ginger Danto, The art of George Rodrigue (New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, 2003), 24.

[20] Wendy W. Rodrigue, The Other Side of the Painting (Lafayette, Louisiana: University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2013), 23.

[21] Ibid., 31.

[22] Ibid., 44.

[23] Ibid., 43.

[24] Ibid., 44.

[25] Ibid., 44.

[26] Ibid., 44.

[27] Ibid., 44.

[28] Ibid., 44.

[29] George Rodrigue and Floyd Sommier, The Cajuns of George Rodrigue (Birmingham, Alabama: Oxmoor House, 1976), 35.

[30]Wendy West. Rodrigue, The Other Side of the Painting (Lafayette, Louisiana: University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2013), 64.

[31] Ibid., 64.

[32] George Rodrigue and Floyd Sommier, The Cajuns of George Rodrigue (Birmingham, Alabama: Oxmoor House, 1976), 4.

[33] Ibid., 5.

[34] Ibid., 14.

[35] Ginger Danto, The art of George Rodrigue (New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, 2003), 25.

[36] Ibid., 25.

[37] George Rodrigue and Floyd Sommier, The Cajuns of George Rodrigue (Birmingham, Alabama: Oxmoor House, 1976), 27.

[38] Ibid., 27.

[39] Wendy Westward. Rodrigue, The Other Side of the Painting (Lafayette, Louisiana: University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2013), 64.

[40] Ibid., 66.

[41] Ibid., 64.

[42] George Rodrigue, Le Petit Cajun: Conversations with Andre Rodrigue, (Winter Park, Florida: Legacy Publishing, 1978), seven.

[43] Ibid., 7.

[44] Wendy Due west. Rodrigue, The Other Side of the Painting (Lafayette, Louisiana: University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2013), 91

[45] Ibid., 107.

[46] Ibid., 107.

[47] Ibid., 108.

[48] Ibid., 107.

[49] Ibid., 108.

[50] Ibid., 108.

[51] Ibid., 108.

[52] Ibid., 110.

[53] Ibid., 110.

[54] Ginger Danto, The art of George Rodrigue (New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, 2003), 250.

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Source: https://southernart.ua.edu/george-rodrigue-a-retrospective/

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