George Dureau, the painter and photographer who captured French Quarter denizens for decades using camera and brush, died today around noon, according to Arthur Roger, the art gallery owner who was Dureau’s longtime friend. Dureau was 82 and had been in poor health. “It’s been a long journey. It’s been a remarkably peaceful one. He was very restful,” Roger told Gambit this afternoon.
Artist George Dureau, master of mythic painting and hyper-realistic photography died Monday morning (April 7) at the Waldon Health Care Center in Kenner, where he was being treated for advanced Alzheimer’s disease. He was 83.
Photos from April 2014 exhibition openings – Edward Whiteman and Bunny Matthews.
Over at Arthur Roger Gallery, the red pastel figure drawings and glass sculptures of New Mexico-based James Drake’s “Can We Know the Sound of Forgiveness” and the multidimensional poured paintings of Holton Rower ‘s “Viscous Resin Extruding From the Trunk” evoke styles of the past.
“Dreams from the bristles of the artist’s brush… I probe be yond the confines of the finite to create an infinity…Living dreams.” Arshile Gorky’s words, in 1942, at the start of his late, most eloquent, phase. The quote occurred to me during my initial visit to Edward Whiteman’s new exhibition of abstract pictographs (recently at Arthur Roger); it returned during my second.
Jammin’ on Julia, the annual spring street party in the New Orleans Arts District takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday (April 5). Look for a dozen exhibitions of regional and national artworks augmented by live music in many galleries along Julia Street and nearby. As always, the wide selection of art will hold something to satisfy most taste.