In New Orleans, Bourgeois has long been one of the most celebrated of contemporary Louisiana painters. Over the years, he’s had 10 solo shows in Louisiana and four outside the state, and he’s been part of more than 40 group shows. Local curators, critics and other art-minded people remain ardent supporters. It’s easy to see why.
Louisiana master Douglas Bourgeois’ soul-satisfying paintings of pop stars and passionate music lovers may be the No. 1 crowd-pleaser at New Orleans’ international art festival, Prospect.3.
George Dureau, interviewed by author Jack Fritscher for the book “Mapplethorpe: Assault With a Deadly Camera,” at his home in New Orleans, April 8, 1991.
The Arthur Roger Gallery is very pleased to be a part of Art Miami this year. At Booth C1, we are exhibiting works by Luis Cruz Azaceta, Richard Baker, David Bates, Jacqueline Bishop, Robert Colescott, Stephen Paul Day, Lesley Dill, Troy Dugas, George Dureau, Lin Emery, Gordon Parks, Holton Rower and Bob Snead. The exhibition will be on view from December 3 – December 7, 2014 at the Miami Art Pavilion located in the Miami Midtown Arts District.
Launched two years after Hurricane Katrina had devastated large areas of New Orleans and the Louisiana Gulf Region, Prospect New Orleans was conceived as an international biennial to exhibit current artistic practices while contributing to the city’s cultural and economic recovery.
As the first impressions of standing amid a chaotic sea of colors and shapes was slowly beginning to resolve itself into individual entities and images, I began to sense an empathy between a vaguely discerned memory rising from within me and the artist’s work: that this was like an experience that had happened before, when first arriving and feeling overwhelmed by the oxymoronic diversity of this polysemous aggregation of cultures that is southwest Louisiana.
For artists, a casual stroll through most any New Orleans neighborhood is a lesson in habitual beauty: the ethereal mid-afternoon light, the sprawl of vegetation, the bright colors of the homes, even the elegance of decayed wood.
People crowded around the displayed piece to take photographs of its artist next to the logo for next year’s festival.
The Cosby-owned Colescott on view, “Death of a Mulatto Woman,” is one of the few pieces from their collection that stakes out a strong political view of the world.
