George Rodrigue Comes Home

The work of George Rodrigue, the late Louisiana artist made world-famous during his life by his Blue Dog paintings, was controversial—people either loved his work, or they hated it. The controversy didn't begin with the Blue Dog either, which originally found its way into his work as a representation of the Cajun werewolf, or loup garou, and was modeled after a family dog.

In fact, strong reactions were elicited first by the landscapes of South Louisiana that Rodrigue painted in his early years. The canvases were populated with oak trees dripping with Spanish moss and painted from a vantage point unique to the landscape genre: a position under the oaks' thick canopies. From this shaded perspective, the paintings were almost uniformly cast with shadows and murky light. In an entry in her online blog, Musings of an Artist's Wife, Wendy Rodrigue wrote, "George was unprepared for the negative hometown reaction to his landscapes. Most locals entered his gallery on Duclos Street (and later Pinhook Road … ) in Lafayette, Louisiana with skepticism. Why are your paintings so dark? Everything looks the same. Can’t you paint anything else?"

He did paint "something else," exploring a number of themes during his lifetime. But Rodrigue was from New Iberia, and the oak trees of this seminal landscape were always a prominent component in his work, especially in his series of Cajun paintings filled with people enjoying the typical pastimes of South Louisiana families.

It follows, then, that a special exhibition to be launched at the Bayou Teche Museum in New Iberia would focus not so much on the Blue Dog, though the blue terrier-mix with the yellow eyes will certainly be in attendance, but on those reliably representational trees that always feature in the background. Every painting in the exhibit, entitled George Rodrigue Comes Home: Under Iberia's Oak Trees, will have an oak in it.

Rodrigue died almost one year ago on December 14; so the city's annual Christmas activities are themed this year to celebrate and memorialize its native son, whose pop-art sensibility was so often misunderstood. "I think once he died, and the community realized how deep his roots were and how much he gave back, and how much we influenced his art, I think everybody kind of woke up," explained Marcia Patout, director of the museum. "The people that didn't appreciate him at first now are interested in his past and what he means."

The exhibit will feature about a dozen of his paintings, many of which have never been seen in public before. "When we started to [put together] this exhibit, a lot of locals started calling and saying, 'Oh, we've got something he painted for us,' and 'He painted my oak trees in my backyard,'" Patout said.

The opening reveal will take place on January 14 during the museum's annual fundraising gala and will be on display for three months. As the date comes closer, details will be available at bayoutechemuseum.org.