Dog Art Today

Tag: Doug MacCash

  • George Rodrigue Retrospective at NOMA

    Rodrigue_blue_dog_sculpture
    Colors of My Mind, 2008.  Painted in automotive "flop" colors.

    I don’t know why I keep denying my interest in George Rodrigue .  Maybe because Blue Dog, as sweet as she is, got a little over-saturated in my mind at the height of her popularity.  Regardless, I finally took a look at  "Rodrigue’s Louisiana: Forty Years of Cajuns, Blue Dogs, and Beyond Katrina" at the New Orleans Museum of Art, and couldn’t deny my awe and admiration for the artist and his endless creativity, and of course his wonderful dog art.

    Art critic Doug MacCash of The Times-Picayune gives the show a rave too.  He also selected some of his favorite pieces (including several non-Blue Dog ones) that I share with you here.  Enjoy!

    Rodrigue_blue_dog_watchdog
    Watchdog, 1984.  One of the earliest Blue Dogs originally meant to be a mythical werewolf creature.

    Rodrigue_no_dukes_blue_dog
    No More Dukes, 1993.  Rodrigue and Blue Dog get political as David Duke runs for Governor of Louisiana.

    Rodrigue_doc_moses
    Doc Moses, Cajun Traiteur, 1970s.  One of Rodrigue’s famous Cajun scenes, a popular focus for him pre-Blue Dog.

    Rodrigue_kiss_me_cajun
    Kiss Me I’m Cajun, 1979.  A painting of Rodrigue’s son and also a commentary on the commercialization and possible demise of the Cajun culture.  Wonderful!

    Rodrigue_cow
    A collection of Blue Dog style cows.  The large one made for Cows on Parade Chicago, 1999.  The 250 small ones, won in a settlement after a Chinese porcelain company tried to illegally mass produce them in miniature. 

    Show runs through June 8.  For more information visit NOMA’s website.

  • Elizabeth Fox: The Paris Hilton-ization of “American Desire”

    Pinkfedora

    It’s not too late to catch Elizabeth Fox’s “American Desire” exhibit at the d.o.c.s. gallery in New Orleans, which runs until the end of May. But first, read Doug MacCash’s incisive Times-Picayune review to “get” where Elizabeth is coming from.

    Not in the Crescent City? Visit Fox’s site to see more of her fabulously cool work — paintings that MacCash calls both subversive and “as slick and shiny as freshly polished toenails.” I, of course, like the tiny dog with the pink fedora in Pink Fedora (pictured above.) That’s hot!

    5.26.07 Update: I received a lovely note from Elizabeth Fox about this post and an important clarification. Pink Fedora is loosely based on Britney Spears not Paris Hilton. Of course! Who could forget this image of Britney, Kevin Federline and Bit Bit from the 2004 Billboard Music Awards? I must have become so caught up in the Paris Hilton motif of Doug McCash’s review, that I forgot Paris wouldn’t be caught dead anywhere near a pink fedora. Thanks Elizabeth — keep in touch.