Douglas Bourgeois, who is among Louisiana’s finest artists by anyone’s standards, draws much of the inspiration for his magic realist paintings, from pop music sources.
Painter Douglas Bourgeois is talking specifically about works that are on display in the Contemporary Arts Center as a part of Prospect.3, but also his paintings in general.
Even the aisles are packed to the brim with installations, like Bob Snead’s “Family Dollar General Tree: Store #002,” 2011–2014, presented by New Orleans’s Arthur Roger Gallery.
In the city of New Orleans, two exhibitions that ran concurrently, as cogeneration extends from one source, appeared as if an intrinsic grandfather birthed the concepts presented.
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.
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.
