Blue dog george rodrigue biography
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George Rodrigue and His Blue Dogs
Hailing from New Iberia, Louisiana, George Rodrigue gained international acclaim for painting blue dogs—his favorite subject, as well as something straddling between the literal and the (disturbingly) enigmatic.
Born in 1944, Rodrigue was the only child of George and Marie Rodrigue, a bricklayer and a devout Catholic. He began drawing and painting at the age of eight while recovering in bed from polio. Then, during the mid-1960s, Rodrigue took up art as a profession at the then-University of Southwest Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette). He continued studying art at the Art Center College of Design between 1965 and 1967.
Rodrigue’s signature Blue Dog first appeared in a 1984 kommission piece as part of the illustrations for a book on Cajun ghost stories titled Bayou. Among these forty paintings about landscapes and characters, Rodrigue drew from one of the tales called Slaughterhouse and came up with Watch D • George Rodrigue was a Louisiana painter known for his depictions of the landscape and people of Acadiana, as well as his later Pop Art paintings featuring the figure of a blue dog. This painting, Watchdog from 1983, was the first ever painting in what would become known as the Blue Dog series. Born in New Iberia, Louisiana in 1944, Rodrigue attended Catholic High School on the banks of Bayou Teche before studying at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. In 1968, after the death of his father, he returned to Louisiana, establishing a studio in Lafayette. In his Lafayette studio, Rodrigue developed a wholly unique style of landscape painting focused on the oak trees of South Louisiana. His first major exhibition of 69 landscape and oak tree paintings opened in 1970 at the Old State Capital in Baton Rouge. Despite the local art critic giving it a horrible review – • Born on March 13th in New Iberia, Louisiana, to George Rodrigue, Sr., a brick-layer, and Marie Courrége Rodrigue. Remains an only child. Diagnosed with polio in the third grade, and discovers painting. Following a full recovery, embarks on his life’s journey as an artist. Studies art at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette, followed by the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. Returns from California to Louisiana, where he photographs and paints the mystical local landscape. Solo exhibition at the Louisiana Old State Capitol in Baton Rouge. Incorporates the Cajun people, traditions, and mythology into his landscapes. Receives a Gold Medal from the Academy of Literature, Arts, and Science in Rome, and a prestigious Honorable Mention from Le Salon des Artistes in Paris, prompting the French newspaper Le Figaro to name him “America’s Rousseau.” The Cajuns of George Rodrigue (Oxmoor House) is the first book published nationall The First Blue Dog George Rodrigue's Watchdog
1944