Exhibition Dates: May 4 – May 25, 2013
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 4 from 6–8 pm
Gallery Location: 434 Julia Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 am–5 pm
Contact Info: 504.522.1999; www.arthurrogergallery.com

In collaboration with the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Arthur Roger Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by Robert Gordy. The exhibition will be on view at Arthur Roger@434, located at 434 Julia Street, from May 4 – May 25, 2013. The gallery will host an opening reception, Saturday, May 4 from 6–8 pm.

Waterfall, 1967. Acrylic on canvas over plywood, 96 x 48 inches.

Robert Gordy is considered one of the most original and creative Southern painters of the twentieth century. His unfortunate death from AIDS in 1986 at the age of 52 was an enormous loss.

The paintings in this exhibition, on both canvas and paper, date from between 1954 and 1981. Many of the works contain the artist’s clean-edged and stylized forms, melodic patterns and flawless color harmonies so characteristic of his work prior to 1982.

Robert Gordy achieved far more beyond exquisite compositional patterning of forms – a technique self-described as “knitting” – and sensitivity to layers of color nuance. Perceptive art critics noted that in this period Robert Gordy invigorated his formalism through careful interest and attention to the French Symbolist-Surrealist tradition. Even in this “aesthetic phase” Gordy had a penchant for emotional release that would surface fully in his later riveting monotypes. In the works prior to 1982 there are often intense emotional realities beneath the apparent calm of the marvelous paintings and drawings.

Born in Louisiana in 1933, Gordy received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from Louisiana State University. He had numerous solo exhibitions and was included in the 1973 Whitney Biennial and the 21st National Print Exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. He received several accolades including a Ford Foundation Fellowship, Yale-Norfolk Fellowship and National Endowment for the Arts Purchase Award. His work is in several collections including the National Collection of Fine Art, Washington, D.C.; the Metropolitan Museum in New York, NY; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.