A Unique Slant of Light: The Bicentennial History of Art in Louisiana - (Page 194)

Happenings, Minimalism, and color field painting all had their foundations in the 1950s.” These diverse and overlapping developments would not, however, have been readily apparent then. “The complex and overlapping art movements of the fifties, from which we can now distinguish Pop, assemblage, collage, Beat, figuration, gestural and hard-edge abstraction, Happenings, Abstract Impressionism, and color field painting, were far from distinct to contemporary viewers.”20 In addition to these developments in the art world, in the larger culture this was the era of the Baby Boomers, when members of this generation were quickly becoming the most media-saturated populace in American history. Popular culture developed as a major force in 1950s America, expanding into the 1960s. A major element in this scenario was the introduction of television in the 1950s, growing around the country as new stations appeared from coast to coast, even becoming part of the electoral process by then, greatly influencing the election of John F. Kennedy as the decade began. By the end of the 1960s it would even broadcast a man landing on the surface of the moon. Popular shows beamed national products, performers, and media personalities into the nation’s living rooms, and appealed increasingly to the housekeeping mother and her children, offering a wide and enticing range of merchandise, foods, and entertainment options. Travel, “seeing the nation,” was a major part of this era, and families devoted themselves to exploring the history of America and its diverse regions as a pastime. This led to a new slogans and promotional efforts, including Chevrolet’s ubiquitous “See the USA in your Chevrolet” ads, and appeals to bring the family to Disneyland. In Louisiana and across the nation, popular music evolved at a rapid rate during the 1950s and 1960s, advanced by live concerts, television appearances, automobile radios, record players, and popular 45-rpm records. It was the era of the birth of rock and roll, with a prominent role played by Southern singers and musicians who were advanced by regional recording studios in cities including New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville, and Atlanta. Fats Domino, for example, emerged from New Orleans as a major star in the 1950s, recording in New Orleans studios, and reaching national audiences at an unprecedented pace.21 Onceisolated and local Louisiana musical personalities became regional and national figures as Swamp Pop emerged, bringing Bobby Charles, Warren Storm, Phil Phillips, Rod Bernard, Jimmy Clanton and others to national attention.22 Figures including Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ike Turner, and Howlin’ Wolf recorded with Sam Phillips at Sun Studios in Memphis, bringing international recognition to the music and culture of the South, while an older generation of Southern musicians, including many blues singers and traditional jazz musicians, received limited recognition, and often struggled to survive.23 Within this context, the artist who would be known as Noel 194 ART IN CONTEMPORARY LOUISIANA Rockmore came to New Orleans from New York. Born Noel Davis, he already had established a successful career in New York ( Joseph Hirshhorn purchased a painting from him when Rockmore was age nineteen), had been invited to join the National Academy, and had exhibited his works at the Whitney Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He arrived in New Orleans in 1959, created a studio in the house of Paul Ninas, established himself in the French Quarter, and then changed his name to Noel Rockmore. In 1959 and 1960, he worked in New Orleans, meeting figures such as Larry Borenstein and Bill Russell who were working on the formative stages of Preservation Hall. Returning to New York for two years (1961-63), he came back to New Orleans and discovered that Borenstein had formed a partnership with Allan and Sandra Jaffe and opened Preservation Hall. Borenstein commissioned Rockmore to paint the Preservation Hall Portraits, a series depicting a wide range of musicians who reflected the larger history of traditional jazz. Many of these works hung in Preservation Hall, others were sold, and a number were published in the 1968 book Preservation Hall Portraits. Rockmore lived full-time in New Orleans beginning in 1977, and spent the remainder of this life in the city until his death in 1995. George Dureau returned to New Orleans after his art studies at LSU, and worked through the 1950s as an advertising and display manager for downtown department stores, until he was able to support himself full-time as an artist, beginning around 1960. He became affiliated with the Downtown Galley in New Orleans, and presented exhibitions there through the 1960s. He was given his first art exhibition at the Delgado Museum of Art in 1965. A retrospective exhibition, George Dureau: Selected Works, 1960-1977, was presented at the Contemporary Art Center (CAC) in New Orleans in 1977 only one year after the CAC’s founding, in 1976. During these years he was beginning his extended explorations of the characters and figures he discovered in the city and around the French Quarter, where he would maintain a studio for many decades, advancing his vision in paintings, drawings, and photography. During the 1960s and 1970s a range of social, cultural, and artistic movements unfolded, marking a period of significant transformation in America, and in the American art world. Pop Art, Op Art, Minimalism, Post Minimalism, Pattern and Decoration, Earth Art, Conceptual Art, and Post Modernism were among the artistic developments of the period. During the 1960s and 1970s there was a progressive unfolding of the Civil Rights struggle, student movements on university and college campuses, the Vietnam War’s antiwar protest movements, the feminist and women’s liberation movements, gay rights movement, black and Latino power movements, and related social movements. The opportunities offered to women artists in Louisiana, continuing from the early decades of the twentieth century, were often significant in comparison to other parts of the South  http://www.knowla.org/entry.php?rec=1343 http://www.knowla.org/entry.php?rec=1343

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A Unique Slant of Light: The Bicentennial History of Art in Louisiana

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