Flora Plonksy Levy with Anna in Paradise, George Rodrigue
For 10 years artist George Rodrigue honored the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with portraits of its distinguished guest speakers.
This fall the university honors Rodrigue in return with the special lecture, “George Rodrigue: Painting to the Frame,” presented by William Andrews, Executive Director of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. September 23rd 2015, 7:00 p.m., UL Lafayette, Angelle Hall. FREE.
For many years, George Rodrigue painted portraits of the various Flora Levy Lecture presenters, a group of distinguished authors and academics who presented the public lectures and became immortalized in the artist’s paintings and, therefore, the artist himself became the subject of the upcoming program.
The phrase “Painting to the frame” was coined by Rodrigue and evokes a custom early in his career of using frames reclaimed from various sources, such as antique stores and flea markets, many of which are now recognized as examples of fine craftsmanship adorning paintings of great historic and cultural significance.
Andrews says that the phrase has another meaning, and describes Rodrigue’s ability to maximize every inch of the picture plane on the surface of the canvas to create images packed with color, form, energy and narrative of endless ingenuity.
In this spirit, the lecture focuses on the continual inventiveness of Rodrigue as a painter, and follows the evolution of his work through concepts of region, style, period and media, relating to the tradition and history of movements ranging from the Italian Renaissance through the Modern era.
Learn more about this iconic series of Rodrigue portraits, now on view at the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum in Lafayette, Louisiana
Robert Coles by George Rodrigue
Portraits from the Flora Levy Lecture Series: Works by George Rodrigue
Sept. 5, 2015 – Jan. 2, 2016
Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum
Lafayette, LA
Portraits from the Flora Levy Lecture Series: Works by George Rodrigue presents paintings of some of the esteemed guests who have presented at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s annual Flora Levy lecture. This series was conceived by Professor Maurice DuQuesnay and funded by Flora Levy, a Lafayette heiress and philanthropist who left her fortune to the university. Beginning in 1980, George Rodrigue painted a portrait each year, honoring the guest lecturer.