Timeline (Text)

1944

• Born on March 13 in New Iberia, Louisiana, to George Rodrigue, a brick-layer, and Marie Rodrigue

 

1950 – 1970

• Begins to paint and sculpt during a four-month bout of polio

• Enters University of Southwest Louisiana in Lafayette as an Art Major

• Attends Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles as a Graphic Arts Major

• Marries Veronica Hidalgo

 

1970 – 1980

• Exhibition of 69 Rodrigue landscapes at the Old State Capitol Building

• The Aioli Dinner, Rodrigue’s first painting with people, displayed at the Iberia Parish Library

• First public exhibition in New Orleans at Reilly Gallery

• Honorable mention with The Class in Le Salon des Artistes, Paris

• Gold medal from the Academy of Literature, Arts, and Science of Rome

• Jolie Blonde exhibited at Le Salon des Artistes, Paris

• Son Andre born

• Art in America reviews Rodrigue’s Cajun works

• Produces first silkscreen (Jolie Blonde)

• Book The Cajuns of George Rodrigue published by Oxmoor House, Birmingham, Alabama

 

1980 – 1990

• Exhibition at Galerie Antenia in Paris features The Kingfish

• Rodrigue dubbed “The Louisiana Rousseau” by Le Figaro

• Son Jacques born

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Monument, a 12-foot-tall bronze sculpture, dedicated in Lafayette, Louisiana

• Bayou (Inkwell), a book of forty ghost stories by Chris Segura, includes first Blue Dog painting (loup-garou), titled Watchdog

• Commissioned by The Republican Party to paint President Ronald Reagan (Reagan later donated painting to Louisiana State University)

• Commissioned by The Republican Party to paint Vice President George Bush and ten grandchildren

• The Rodrigue Gallery of New Orleans opens in French Quarter

 

1990 – 2000

• Grand Opening of Galerie Blue Dog in Carmel, California

• Michel Roux of Carillon Importers commissions Absolut Louisiana for USA Today

• Documentary, Rodrigue: A Man and His Dog, filmed with Whoopi Goldberg

• Michel Roux commissions Absolut Rodrigue

• The book Blue Dog (Rodrigue, Freundlich) published by Viking Press with 35-city artist tour

• The Wall Street Journal features Rodrigue’s Blue Dog on the its cover

• Commissioned by New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival to paint Louis Armstrong

• Exhibition at Union Station, Washington D.C.

• The New York Times features Rodrigue’s Blue Dog series

• Commissioned by New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival to paint Pete Fountain

• Commissioned by Neiman Marcus to design catalogue cover for The Book (Butterflies are Free)

• Exhibition at the Gwinett County Arts Museum, Atlanta, Georgia

• Commissioned by the Democratic Inaugural Committee to paint President-elect Bill Clinton and Vice-President-elect Al Gore

• Marries Wendy Wolfe

• Commissioned by Neiman Marcus to design catalogue cover for The Book (Hawaiian Blues)

• People Magazine article on Rodrigue

• Book, Blue Dog Man (Rodrigue, Brokaw), published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang, NYC and 45-city artist tour

• Rodrigue art and books featured on Friends in Central Perk

• Neiman Marcus, Michigan Avenue, sponsors three fiberglass Rodrigue cows during the Chicago Cow Parade

 

2000 – 2010

• Commissioned by Young & Rubicam to create paintings for advertisements promoting Xerox Color Inkjet Printers

• Painting Me, Myself, & I in Louisiana fronts contemporary art wing at New Orleans Museum of Art

• Commissioned by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival to paint Al Hirt

• Paints God Bless America in response to 9/11

• Children’s book Why is Blue Dog Blue? (Rodrigue) published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang

• Receives CHILD Magazine Best Children’s Book of the Year Award

• Joins children from 100 countries and 50 states to create a peace mural on the National Mall in Washington D.C. on September 11 during the International Child Art Festival

• The Art of George Rodrigue (Danto, Lewis), a 40-year retrospective, published by Harry N. Abrams, NYC

• Paints official Louisiana Governor’s portrait for the Inauguration of Governor Kathleen Blanco

• Retrospective exhibitions at Louisiana State Exhibit Museum in Shreveport, Louisiana and at Pensacola Museum of Art in Pensacola, Florida

• The Aioli Dinner and twelve paintings from the Rodrigue Xerox campaign join the permanent collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art

• Exhibition, Blue Dog Bodies, at McClain Gallery, Houston, Texas

• Creates We Will Rise Again to benefit the Red Cross in response to Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans.

• Rodrigue visits Tokyo for an exhibition of new works at the Blue Dog Gallery, celebrating ten years in Minato-ku

• Receives the Humanitarian Award from the Southeast Louisiana Chapter of the Red Cross for money donated from sales of We Will Rise Again

• Rodrigue’s 10-foot steel and aluminum 3-sided sculpture becomes a permanent part of the Besthoff Sculpture Garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art

• Receives the Lifetime Achievement Arts Award from the State of Louisiana at the Governor’s Arts Awards in Baton Rouge

• Presents a lecture series at the Phoenix Art Museum

• Exhibition at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens Museum Memphis TN, titled  Blue Dog: The Art of George Rodrigue, featuring more than one hundred paintings and sculpture works spanning forty years

• Donations from Blue Dog Relief surpass $2 million

• Retrospective exhibition New Orleans Museum of Art, George Rodrigue’s Louisiana: Forty Years of Cajuns, Blue Dogs, and Beyond Katrina

• CBS Sunday Morning News presents feature segment on Rodrigue entitled “A Dog’s Life”

• Publication of George Rodrigue Prints (Harry N. Abrams, New York), a catalogue raisonne

• Presents artwork to U.S. President George W. Bush, Mexican President Felipe Calderone, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper during the North American Leaders Summit in New Orleans

• Appointed to Artist Laureate of the State of Louisiana by Governor Bobby Jindal

• 22-city book tour for Blue Dog Speaks (Sterling Press, October 2008)

• Lafayette, LA celebrates Rodrigue’s Acadiana, a city-wide tribute to George Rodrigue, including museum exhibitions, and the SPARKS Lifetime Achievement Award for the UL Lafayette College of Arts

• Receives an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette

• Victory on Bayou St. John, 14-foot portrait of Eisenhower and Higgins, unveiled at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans

 

2010 – 2013

• 24-foot Blue Dog sculpture of steel, aluminum, and chrome installed on Veterans Blvd in Metairie, Louisiana

• “Rodrigue’s New Orleans” celebrates the grand opening of the new Rodrigue Gallery at 730 Royal Street

• Forms George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts (GRFA) to support arts in education and hosts first Scholarship Awards Art Contest

• Creates the Louisiana State Tree Ornaments for the National Christmas Tree Lighting on the National Mall in Washington D.C.

• Receives Distinguished Eagle Award from the National Boy Scouts of America

• Exhibition “Blue Dogs and Cajuns on the River” opens at the LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, LA

• Receives the 2011 James William Rivers Prize from the Center for Louisiana Studies, a division of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette

• Receives the top national award from the National Arts Educators Association for “Outstanding Service Outside of the Profession,” during their annual convention in NYC

• Rodrigue reappointed Artist Laureate of the State of Louisiana by Governor Bobby Jindal

• Exhibition, “Blue Dogs in Texas,” at the Amarillo Museum of Art

• Honored by the Arts Council of New Orleans during their 36th Annual Community Arts Awards for Rodrigue’s outstanding contributions to the visual arts

• Unveils Rodrigue Steinway piano in partnership with LSU School of Music and GRFA

• Official Artist of the Carmel Art and Film Festival.

• Receives the Opus Award from the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

• George Rodrigue passed away on December 14, 2013, at age sixty-nine after battling cancer.