George Rodrigue was born in New Iberia, Louisiana in 1944. His family was
descendants of the original Cajun settlers, and he grew up listening to the
stories of his ancestors’ struggles as told by his mother and grandmother.
These stories would later influence his painting. Rodrigue’s artistic
ability was recognized when he was in the third grade. Stricken with polio,
Rodrigue spent four months confined to bed, during which time he started to
draw, paint and sculpt figures out of clay. When he was well enough to return
to school in the fourth grade, he pursued his artistic talent and continued
his training through high school. He excelled in his art classes, but it was
clear from the beginning that he had no intention of conforming to what was
expected – he never saw a “wrong way to paint.” Rodrigue
made full use of color, which today remains a dominant element of his work.
In 1962 Rodrigue entered the art department of University of Louisiana (then
named the University of Southwestern Louisiana) in Lafayette. At the end of
his freshman year, his designs were thought so advanced that he was accepted
into the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles at the young age of nineteen.
After six semesters of intense instruction, Rodrigue was anxious to begin
his career, and he longed for the Cajun culture. Rodrigue left Los Angeles
and returned to his beloved Louisiana homeland. In 1968 he accepted the position
of art director for an advertising agency in Lafayette, but left after one
year to paint full time.
His early paintings were dark and centered on the simple live oak tree, which
for Rodrigue stood as a symbol of his Cajun past. He painted hundreds of these
trees, driven by a need to uncover the spiritual essence of this icon. Slowly,
cabins and then people were introduced into his landscapes. The figures are
Cajuns who existed in a bygone era, and were always in stark contrast to the
dark and brooding landscapes. The figures in these paintings were used as
compositional elements, much like the oak tree or the bayou, and for the most
part represented generalized Cajun characters. But then Rodrigue began receiving
requests for individualized portraits – those where the person was the
focus of the composition. Initially he resisted the idea, but eventually gave
in to requests by friends, and high-profile commissions.
Perhaps George Rodrigue’s name is most associated with the Blue Dog,
an image that has been raised to an icon-like status much as Andy Warhol’s
Soup Can. What began in 1984 as a series of paintings illustrating the Cajun
myth, loup-garou, evolved into something that even Rodrigue could not have
predicted. Originally set in Rodrigue’s swampy landscapes, the loup-garou
gradually began to take on a primary role in his paintings, and became less
frightening, and more comforting. The mythical creature became bluer and the
eyes changed from fire red to calming yellow. The Blue Dog, as dubbed by the
public, had found a following and was fully embraced into contemporary culture.
This exhibition includes paintings from the various phases of his career,
including examples of his most recent work – that of his Hurricane series,
the Bodies series and recent landscapes which parallel his paintings of 40
years ago. George and his wife Wendy continue to be spirited supporters of
their Louisiana homeland, and have been instrumental in fundraising relief
for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, raising over $1 million thus far. They
divide their time between homes in New Orleans and Carmel, California. In
addition to galleries in those two cities, Rodrigue Studios are in Aspen,
Colorado and Lafayette, Louisiana.
As with any great artist, Rodrigue’s work continues to evolve. By his
own estimation, the artist takes a new direction about every two years. He
remains unaffected by compliments and criticism, and stays true to his art.
He no longer paints the Cajuns, and when asked if he will one day cease the
Blue Dog paintings, he replies that he can’t predict what he will paint
next.