For over 25 years, artist George Rodrigue painted portraits of distinguished authors and academics chosen to give the annual Flora Levy Lecture at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Now the work of Rodrigue himself will be the focus of one of the talks.
William Pittman Andrews, executive director of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, will give a lecture entitled “George Rodrigue: Painting to the Frame.” It’s set for 7 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 23, in Angelle Hall on campus.
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, according to Jack Ferstel, the Flora Levy/BORSF Professor of English at UL Lafayette.
“Andrews says the phrase can also refer to Rodrigue's ability to maximize every inch of the canvas to create images packed with color, form, energy and narrative of endless ingenuity,” Ferstel said.
“In this spirit, the lecture focuses on the continual inventiveness of Rodrigue as a painter and follows the evolution of his work as it relates to concepts of region, style, period and media in the tradition and history of artistic movements ranging from the Italian Renaissance through the Modern era.”
An exhibit of some of the late artist’s paintings of former Flora Levy speakers is at the Paul and Lulu Hilliard Art Museum on the UL Lafayette campus until Jan. 2. It’s on loan from the UL Lafayette Foundation and the Rodrigue Foundation in New Orleans.
The Flora Levy Lecture Series is hosted by the UL Lafayette English Department through a UL Lafayette Foundation endowment.