1. George Rodrigue was an American artist who in the late 1960s began painting Louisiana landscapes, followed soon after by outdoor family gatherings and southwest Louisiana 19th-century and early 20th-century genre scenes.
14 Facts About George Rodrigue
1. 2.
George Rodrigue was born March 13,1944, in New Iberia, Louisiana.
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George Rodrigue attended the Brothers of the Christian Schools all-male high school called St Peter's College, which was located near St Peter's Church, and near the banks of the Bayou Teche running through New Iberia.
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George Rodrigue formally studied art at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
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George Rodrigue returned to Louisiana in the late 1960s, and became well known for his interpretations of Cajun subjects and landscapes, inspired by his roots.
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Between 1985 and 1989, George Rodrigue painted the Saga of the Acadians, a series of fifteen paintings chronicling the Acadian journey from France to Nova Scotia to Louisiana and ending with the official return visit to Grand Pre.
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The Blue Dog was made popular by Absolut Vodka in 1992, when George Rodrigue was honored as an Absolut Vodka artist joining famous artists such as Andy Warhol and glass artist Hans Godo Frabel.
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George Rodrigue has galleries in Carmel, California; Lafayette, Louisiana; and New Orleans, Louisiana.
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George Rodrigue was awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette on May 17,2009.
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In 2004, George Rodrigue came to Shreveport with another incoming Democratic governor, Kathleen Blanco of Lafayette, with whom he made an appearance at the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum, where he autographed Hathaway's menu from more than twenty years earlier.
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George Rodrigue believed it could be linked to his spraying canvases with a toxic varnish inside an unventilated studio early in his career.
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On December 14,2013, George Rodrigue died at the age of 69.
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George Rodrigue sent prints of To Stay Alive We Need Levee 5 to every member of the US Congress.
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Programs of the Rodrigue Foundation include an annual Scholarship Art Contest, and George's Art Closet, which donates art supplies to schools and Louisiana A+ Schools.