“Rodrigue: Houston” hosts book signing with JACQUES RODRIGUE AND DON SANDERS
PLUS family activities on Saturday 6/13 (10am-4pm)
World-renowned artist George Rodrigue featured in memorial retrospective exhibition in Houston
WHAT: The family of Louisiana artist George Rodrigue (1944-2013) brings his paintings to Houston with a unique exhibition in West Ave. at River Oaks featuring 75 original works of art, including the artist’s dark Louisiana Landscapes, Cajun genre scenes, and iconic “Blue Dog” paintings. A Family Day on Saturday, June 13th includes Rodrigue: The Sanders Collection, a new lavishly illustrated book on Rodrigue’s work, plus face painting, art activities, and complimentary cool treats from Pinkberry.
A Book Signing with Houstonian and Rodrigue collector Don Sanders and the artist’s son and co-author Jacques Rodrigue features Rodrigue: The Sanders Collection (Hardcover/$85.00/221 pages/100 full-color illustrations). Baseball pitching legend Nolan Ryan, the book’s Foreword author and a mutual friend of Sanders and Rodrigue, signed a limited edition of 100 books, available on-site only for $250 each and benefitting the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts, a non-profit organization founded by Rodrigue in 2009 to emphasize the value of the arts in education.
WHEN: Family Day, plus Book Signing with Don Sanders and Jacques Rodrigue:
Saturday, June 13th
10AM-4PM (Book Signing, 1PM-3PM)
WHERE: West Ave. at River Oaks, 2800 Kirby Drive, 2nd Floor (at the corner of Kirby Dr. and Westheimer Rd.)
WHO: Jacques Rodrigue, son of George Rodrigue and Director of the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts
Don Sanders, Houston businessman, philanthropist, and long-time Rodrigue friend and collector
WHY: George Rodrigue is an important American artist, revered worldwide for his paintings rooted in the land, people, and mythology of Louisiana. In 1974 the French newspaper Le Figaro dubbed Rodrigue “America’s Rousseau” following his award from the prestigious Le Salon in Paris, France, a rare honor for an American. He is the subject of 13 books, published nationally and internationally on his art, as well as numerous museum exhibitions, including 40-year career retrospectives at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens Museum in Memphis, Tennessee (2007) and the New Orleans Museum of Art (2008), both of which broke museum attendance records at those locations for living artists or contemporary shows. Rodrigue painted Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton; and his Blue Dog Series prompted ambitious art-related projects and campaigns for Neiman Marcus, Absolut Vodka, and Xerox Corporation.
This Houston retrospective exhibition includes early paintings from Rodrigue’s archives, as well as rarely seen Blue Dog works from the private collection of Houston businessman Don Sanders, and the original portrait of President George H.W. Bush, on loan from the Bush Family.
Rodrigue first developed his fondness for Houston during the 1980s. He displayed his artwork and established friendships at his favorite hangouts, including Ray Hay’s Cajun Po-Boys, Bonnie’s Beef & Seafood, the Mandola Family Restaurants, and Landry’s. While his career sent him around the world, it was in Houston that Rodrigue spent much of the last 18 months of his life, undergoing treatment for lung cancer at Methodist Hospital.
“Dad’s connection to Houston runs deep,” explains Jacques Rodrigue, Director of the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts, “with close friends, stories, artwork, and philanthropy since the 1970s. It is for these reasons and more that Houston is the perfect venue for our first satellite retrospective of his art.”