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Caroline Wogan Durieux (January 22, 1896 – November 26, 1989) was an American printmaker, painter, and educator. She was a Professor Emeritus at both
Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...
, where she worked from 1943 to 1964 and at Newcomb College of Tulane University (1937–1942). Carl Zigrosser, Keeper of Prints at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, wrote:


Early life and education

She was born Caroline Spelman Wogan in
New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
, on January 22, 1896; into a Creole family. At the age of 4, she began drawing and received art lessons from Mary Williams Butler (1873–1937), she was a local artist and a member of the faculty of art at
Newcomb College H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, or Newcomb College, was the coordinate women's college of Tulane University located in New Orleans, in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It was founded by Josephine Louise Newcomb in 1886 in memory of her daughter. ...
at
Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...
. She worked in watercolor from the age of six and in 1908 at the age of 12 created a portfolio of ten watercolors depicting New Orleans scenery. One of those watercolors, ''Church Pew''s is illustrated below. Most of these early works are now in
The Historic New Orleans Collection The Historic New Orleans Collection (THNOC) is a museum, research center, and publisher dedicated to the study and preservation of the history and culture of New Orleans and the Gulf South region of the United States. It is located in New Orleans ...
. She continued at Newcomb College of Tulane University in the Art School headed by
Ellsworth Woodward Ellsworth Woodward (1861–1939) was an American artist and art educator. During the late 19th century in New Orleans, Ellsworth and his older brother William Woodward were two of the most influential figures in Southern art. Ellsworth was born 1 ...
. From her college days, she was interested in satire and the use of humor in her imagery. Durieux earned a Bachelor's in Design in 1916 and a Bachelor's in Art Education in 1917, and she pursued graduate studies at the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Henry Bainbridge McCarter Henry Bainbridge McCarter (1864-1942) was an American illustrator and painter known for his influence on the modernistic art movements. McCarter worked as an illustrator in New York before becoming an instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of t ...
. She returned to Louisiana after graduate school and in April 1920 married Pierre Van Grundard Durieux (1889–1949). Pierre worked in his family's business importing laces and dress goods from many Latin American countries.


Quotations


Career

Pierre's work led to a job in Cuba which Caroline described as a time of "quiet artistic growth that heightened her sense of color." Caroline Durieux lived in the French Quarter in the mid-1920s, and was part of a circle of talented and creative individuals featured in a private publication, "Sherwood Anderson and Other Famous Creoles." Her next-door neighbors included author,
William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of ...
, and silver designer,
William Spratling William Spratling (September 22, 1900 – August 7, 1967) was an American-born silversmith, silver designer and artist, best known for his influence on 20th century Mexican silver design. Early life Spratling was born in 1900 in Sonyea, Livin ...
.


Spirituality and religion

Durieux was born into a mixed-religious marriage at a time when that was taken more seriously than it is today. The Wogan family was Roman Catholic; the Spelmans were Episcopalian. Caroline often referred to her father, Nicholas, as if he were officially excommunicated from the Catholic Church because of his marriage to her mother. On Sundays Caroline would be taken to protestant services with her mother only to be whisked off to the "bells and smells" of the Catholic Cathedral's High Mass. Religion is the central theme in ''Benediction, Priests,Acolytes,Church Interior, Death Masker, First Communion (2),Idle Angels, Insomne, Lot's Wife, Lady Godiva,'' ''Annunciation, On the Levee, Easter Egg, Iron Sharpeneth Iron,'' A Cult Leader Exhorts His Flock, Mother Carre and others.


Artist statement

"I cannot remember a time when I did not have a pencil in hand trying to put down on a slate, on wrapping paper or even on the woodwork visual ideas concerning my environment To me art is not work. It is fun. If I happen to give a measure of enjoyment to others as I entertain myself, so much the better. If not, well ... that's just too bad!"


Durieux in Cuba

On April 19, 1920, she married childhood friend Pierre Durieux at her parents' home at 1226 Louisiana Avenue in New Orleans. In October 1920, the Durieux's moved to Havana, Cuba where Pierre took a position with General Motors. In late December 1920, Caroline Durieux returned to New Orleans to give birth to the couple's first and only child. She spends the next six months recuperating from postpartum complications at her parents' vacation home in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. When she returned to Cuba she and Pierre lived in the downtime neighborhood of Vedado. She worked briefly in a design firm but spent most of her time creating paintings, drawings and watercolors of her colorful surroundings. She has said color, and most of her work from this period were still lifes, flowers and landscapes. At the request of her housekeeper, she became involved with the native women in the community, helping them devise a rudimentary method of birth control.


Diego Rivera and New Orleans

This essay by Marysol Nieves appeared in a 1999 Christie's publication highlighting the provenance of a Rivera painting, ''La bordadora (The Embroiderer)''. "The 1920s ushered in a period of extraordinary and radical cultural transformation in Mexico. Perhaps nowhere was this reinvention more notable than in the visual arts, where artists like Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, advocated a new approach to artmaking that was socially and politically engaged while grounded in notions of accessibility and civic engagement. Their model galvanized artists in the United States who also sought to break free from the dominance of European art to make art that was rooted in modernism but reflected their own specific reality. The cross-cultural dialogue that ensued saw many American artists travel to Mexico, while the leading Mexican muralist spent extended periods of time in the United States, executing murals, paintings, and prints; participating in exhibitions; and teaching and interacting with local artists. Louisiana (and particularly New Orleans) artists, writers and intellectuals flocked to Mexico….drawn to the formal affinities between pre-Columbian art and modernism as well as the socially and politically charged works of their fellow artists across the border. For example, New Orleans natives William Spratling and Caroline Durieux befriended, studied and collaborated on numerous occasions with artists like Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Emilio Amero and Carlos Orozco Romero. Along with Tulane University, the then burgeoning New Orleans Arts and Crafts Club also served as an important nexus between these two thriving artists communities. In 1928, the Times-Picayune declared Diego Rivera "the greatest painter on the North American continent". while announcing a four-day exhibition of his oil paintings and watercolors at the New Orleans Arts and Craft Club. Other related exhibitions followed including a 1933 exhibition of works by Mexican artists (Rivera, Amero and Tamayo) alongside works by Spratling and Durieux. Spratling, an accomplished silver designer, traveled to Mexico in the late 1920s with Tulane University archeologist Frans Blom. The news of Blom's excavations of Mayan ruins and his explorations of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (also a source of study for Rivera) published in local newspapers and magazines captivated Louisianans. Motivated by these accounts, Spratling traveled with Blom in the late 1920s to study ancient indigenous art and archeology. The trip ultimately prompted Spratling's move to Taxco, Mexico where he played a significant role in promoting Mexican silversmithing traditions. The painter and printmaker Caroline Wogan Durieux arrived in Mexico City in 1926 with her husband Pierre, the newly appointed Latin American corporate representative of General Motors. Armed with a letter of introduction from Blom to the great muralist Diego Rivera, Durieux quickly absorbed her new milieu. Durieux not only befriended many of Mexico's leading artists and intellectuals of the day (including Rivera and Kahlo) but flourished under the tutelage of Rivera and Emilio Amero with whom she honed her skills as a painter and printmaker as well as the satirical qualities of her work. In 1929, curator René d'Harnoncourt, organized a solo exhibition of Caroline's oil paintings and drawings at the Sonora News Company in Mexico City." Rivera published an enthusiastic review in the journal Mexican Folkways: "Since she has lived among us, she has developed a close spiritual rapport with the country and simultaneously there has grown in her a painter's mature power of expression. Not only does her painting show the love of nature, exalting the grandeur of the mountains, the beauty of the peasants, and the orderly freedom of our architecture, but she has also seen our mongrel, perverted and deformed bourgeoisie, with the clear eye of a Mexican mountaineer, and yet with all the urbanity, the culture, and the occidental sophistication which are Caroline's". Durieux and Rivera's enduring friendship is perhaps best celebrated in the elegant portrait the Mexican artist painted of his New Orleans comrade in 1929 and which today hangs in the collection of the LSU Museum of Art in Baton Rouge.


Mexico City

In 1926, her husband Pierre was named chief representative of
General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
for all of Latin America, but Caroline stayed and worked in Mexico City. She received a letter of introduction to
Diego Rivera Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...
from Tulane anthropologist,
Franz Blom Franz may refer to: People * Franz (given name) * Franz (surname) Places * Franz (crater), a lunar crater * Franz, Ontario, a railway junction and unorganized town in Canada * Franz Lake, in the state of Washington, United States – see Fran ...
, which helped ease her transition into the local artist community. In 1929, curator
Rene d'Harnoncourt René d'Harnoncourt (May 17, 1901 – August 13, 1968) was an Austrian-born American art curator. He was Director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, from 1949 to 1967. Background Of Austrian, Czech, and French descent, Count Rene d'Harnoncou ...
, organized a solo exhibition of Caroline's oil paintings and drawings at the Sonora News Company. Rivera wrote a favorable review of his friend's exhibition, and then chose the occasion to paint her portrait. Again, a promotion for Pierre marked an important development in his wife's career. This time they moved to New York City, where Caroline forged a lifelong friendship with art dealer,
Carl Zigrosser Carl Zigrosser (1891–1975) was an art dealer best known for founding and running the New York Weyhe Gallery in the 1920s and 1930s, and as Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Philadelphia Museum of Art between 1940 and 1963. In the 1910s, ...
. Zigrosser championed Durieux's career, first as director of the
Weyhe Gallery Weyhe Gallery, established in 1919 in New York City, is an art gallery specializing in prints. It is now in Mount Desert, Maine. History Erhard Weyhe (1883–1972) established the Weyhe Gallery in 1919. He also operated a bookstore, the Weyhe bo ...
, then as the curator of prints at the
Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...
and including her in his many books. It was Zigrosser who recognized Durieux's talent and eye for satire and encouraged her adoption of lithography as a primary means of artistic expression. In 1931, the Durieuxs again were transferred to Mexico City. Eager to learn more about lithography, Durieux enrolled in the Academy of San Carlos (now known as
National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...
) to study with
Emilio Amero Emilio Amero (1901 in Ixtlahuaca – 1976 in Norman, Oklahoma) was a Mexican artist, illustrator, muralist, and educator, he was among the leading figures of the Mexican Modern art movement. He was also a member of the first group of murali ...
. In 1934, Durieux experimented with etching, a technique she learned from
Howard Cook Howard Norton Cook (1901–1980) was an American artist, particularly known for his wood engravingsBecker, p.56. and murals. Cook spent much of the 1920s in Europe and returned to live in Taos, New Mexico. Cook first came to Taos, New Mexico in ...
. Caroline wrote to Carl Zigrosser: "All my etchings are harrowing. I think it is because the medium is such a precarious one-the least slip and all is lost. I can't be funny on a copper plate. I feel tragic the moment I think of doing an etching."


Back to New Orleans

In 1937, Pierre Durieux was diagnosed with severe
cardiac disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, hea ...
. His doctors ordered him to return to the United States, so the couple left Mexico reluctantly and returned to New Orleans. Later that year, Durieux was hired to teach in Newcomb College's art department for the fall term, where she focussed on ensuring that her students could draw before advancing to other classes. In October 1937, Durieux exhibited her etching, ''Hunger'', as a member of the Society of American Etchers (now known as the
Society of American Graphic Artists The Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA) is a not for profit national fine arts organization serving professional artists in the field of printmaking. SAGA provides its members with exhibition, reviews and networking opportunities in the Ne ...
). The exhibition, hosted at the Marcel Guiot Gallery, featured 50 members and artist. Durieux took on a second job as director of the
Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administrati ...
(FAP) of the
Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
in February 1939. In a state where
racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
remained legal until the 1960s, Caroline's Louisiana division of the FAP was the only project not to practice discrimination. Caroline always expressed great pride in that accomplishment: "I had a feeling that an artist is an artist and it doesn't make any difference what color he or she is." Robert Armstrong Andrews, associate director of the national office, praised Durieux's work: "It is my observation that the people in Louisiana have more concern with the potentialities of the Negro and less for his limitations than the people of any other state." From 1943 to 1964, she taught in the art department at
Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...
. In the 1950s, Durieux experimented in printmaking; working on perfecting her electron printmaking technique (with radioactive ink) and she produced the first color
cliché verre Cliché verre, also known as the glass print technique, is a type of "semiphotographic" printmaking. An image is created by various means on a transparent surface, such as glass, thin paper or film, and then placed on light sensitive paper in a ...
prints. In 1976, Caroline Durieux was the first living artist to be honored with a retrospective of her work at The Historic New Orleans Collection. In 1980, she was awarded the
Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award The Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award was established under the presidency of Lee Ann Miller (1978–80). Joan Mondale, artist and wife of vice-president Walter Mondale, helped to secure approval for a national award honoring women' ...
.


Foreign Ateliers

In the early fifties, Caroline took a sabbatical leave to study color lithography in Paris. Her decision to seek further study is indicative of Durieux's continuing dedication to the art of printmaking and to a long life of constant learning. During her leave, she traveled throughout Europe to France, Italy, Spain and England. She eventually went to study at the studio of Edmund Desjobert (d. 1964) and Son in Paris. At first Durieux had difficulty at the workshop because of her gender: Not only did the director of the workshop notice Durieux's talent but also they were impressed with her ability to speak their language: "Since I speak French they taught me all kinds of little tricks that they wouldn't tell the other Americans in the group because they didn't like them since they didn't speak French." She studied with Desjobert for three months in 1952 and again in 1957. In this new medium of color lithography her work became increasingly abstract, and her satire more subtle and complex . Durieux's color lithographs are more thought-provoking and less whimsical. She said of her work at this time: "I wanted to be more emphatic, more essential. I gradually realized that what you LEAVE OUT is important." Durieux's interest in death is evident in the sober and minimalist work: Insomnie (1957) (figure 121). The artist depicts a night time scene of a hilly cemetery which is filled to capacity with white crosses. A green area with white outlines marks each plot. Even in death, a lone skeleton cannot relax and sits awake gazing at the sky thick with stars. The idea came to Durieux when she saw an American military cemetery while riding a bus in southern Italy; she thought that everyone was asleep; "then it occurred to me that maybe one of them wasn't." Durieux had a keen interest in the political climate at home and abroad. Activities of the Ku Klux Klan disturbed the artist as it did many other southerners. Deep South (1957) (figure 130) is a "take-off' on the KKK15 with its hooded figures and numerous fallen crosses and their ashes. Durieux's choice of colors,red, white, blue and yellow is also ironic in its intent. Red, white and blue imply patriotism—an emotion which members of the Klan try to evoke their members. Durieux's inclusion of yellow adds a subtle dimension to the lithograph since the color is traditionally associated with cowardice. Durieux's three trips to Paris were not all spent in the atelier of Desjobert. She also worked on color etching at Lacouriere-Frelaut which was founded in 1929. She worked with Roger Lacouriere—an engraver and master printer whom Stanley William Hayter called "the most highly skilled artisans of colour printing."


Mardi Gras

Caroline Durieux, John McCrady and Ralph Wickiser collaborated on a 1948 book, ''Mardi Gras Day'', published by Henry Holt. Each artist contributed 10 artworks as illustrations for the book. The ten lithographs that Durieux contributed for this book are less satirical than much of her work. When asked about this, Durieux said that Mardi Gras was inherently self-satirical and therefore she decided to present it as is. Durieux was a fixture at the Mardi Gras Day open house hosted by Lyle Saxon in the St. Charles Hotel. Dressing in costume was a requisite for admission to the party and some of Durieux's images for the book were of attendees. In 2018 the Hermes parade included a float titled Caroline Durieux that was inspired by Swine Maskers one of the artist's lithographs from the book. The other nine lithographs were: Carnival Ball, Coach Dogs, Death Masker, Five Girls, Night Parade, Queen of the Carnival, Rex, Six o'clock, TruckRiders.


Good Will Ambassador

In August 1940,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
named
Nelson A. Rockefeller Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979), sometimes referred to by his nickname Rocky, was an American businessman and politician who served as the 41st vice president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. A member of t ...
to head the
Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs The Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, later known as the Office for Inter-American Affairs, was a United States agency promoting inter-American cooperation (Pan-Americanism) during the 1940s, especially in commercial and econ ...
(CIAA), a new federal agency whose main objective was to strengthen cultural and commercial relations between the U.S and Latin America, in particular Brazil, in order to route Axis influence and secure hemispheric solidarity. Rockefeller appointed Caroline Durieux to accompany an exhibition from the Museum of Modern Art to Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Rio. The art exhibitions being sent to Mexico were imagined differently by many. Were they purely cultural? Were they intended to improve relations between our countries or were they intended to purely advance our strategic political and defense goals? Having spent so much of her career in Cuba and Mexico, Durieux had the language skills and political connections necessary to understand the sensitivities of the target audience. She relayed her concerns back to DC that the promotional poster was too US-centric to be embraced widely and that the accompanying catalog was confusing because works not being exhibited in a given city were illustrated prominently in the all-inclusive book. Durieux was both savvy and social and she used those skills to make the events successful. She involved local artists, encouraged their input and charmed them with her art talks and symposia. She facilitated acquiring the supplies needed at local level to enable communities to express their visions. What started out as a tone-deaf good intention turned into a healthy dialogue about art among nations. In the 1950s, Durieux's work in electron printmaking was used as a tool in the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
. The Atomic Energy Commission sends an exhibition of Durieux's works around the world to promote the premise that atomic energy can be used to create art rather than weapons.


Innovation

Caroline Durieux was never content with what she had achieved. She was intrigued with experimentation and new frontiers. The Zigrosser book on Durieux's was published n 1949, By 1951 she is experimenting with faculty friends Naomi and Harry Wheeler, a botanist, with ink coated microbes. In 1952 Durieux creates the first electron print using radioactive ink. In the book The Appeal of Prints, Carl Zigrosser hails the technique as an advance in printmaking. By 1954 Durieux introduces color into the electron printing process with the assistance of faculty friends on the Chemistry faculty, Dr. Olen Nance and Dr. John F. Christman By 1957, Durieux applies for patent on electron printing. That same year she and Dr. Christman revive the 19th century technique, cliche verre using photographic paper in lieu of glass. Ultimately they devise a way to print color cliche verres using the new technique. The new techniques were slow to be adopted because many were reluctant to work with the low level of radiation. However, Durieux's experimental work was well received by critics and museums alike.


Teaching and Mentoring

Caroline Durieux was a gifted teacher and devoted mentor for her students first at Newcomb College of Tulane University in New Orleans and then at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. In 1964 she retired as Professor Emeritus but continued seeing and mentoring students at her home near campus until her stroke in 1980. Among her students are five that should be noted.
George Dureau George Valentine Dureau (December 28, 1930 – April 7, 2014) was an American artist whose long career was most notable for charcoal sketches and black and white photography of poor white and black athletes, dwarfs, and amputees. Robert Mappletho ...
(1930–2014) was a photographer and painter who specialized in black-and-white nude photography of poor athletes, dwarfs and amputees many of whom were black. His photographs appeared before Robert Mapplethorpe became famous for his nude portraits; It is thought that Dureau's work inspired Mapplethorpe. Right-wing extremists' attacks on a Mapplethorpe exhibition helped elevate his profile. In contrast, the conservative high society mavens in New Orleans seemed to accept hanging Dureau's photographs of nude black men alongside their Audubons. Caroline was having dinner at fellow artist Evelyn Withersoon's (1901–1998) home one night when George Dureau crashed the party to kneel in front of Durieux and present her with a large drawing of a nude cupid endowed with a massive penis – a valentine for his mentor.
Robert Gordy Robert Louis Gordy (July 15, 1931 – October 21, 2022) was an American songwriter, music publishing executive, and recording artist under the stage name Bob Kayli. He released the minor hit song "Everyone Was There" in 1958. He was the brothe ...
(1933–1986) is considered one of the most original and creative Southern painters of the twentieth century. He was known for his complex acrylic paintings that featured patterning and repetition, and linear shapes in a flat pictorial space in closely-keyed colors. A painter and printmaker, Gordy created a superb series of monotypes at the end of his life. Aris Koutroulis (1938–2013) grew up during World War II, in Greece, surviving bombings and starvation. That trauma informed his life as a U.S. citizen and as an artist. At Wayne State University, he was a cornerstone of the Printmaking Department where challenged his student's ideas of what art was, while allowing them to question their own personal art-making processes. In a Smithsonian oral history, Koutroulis stated: Elmore Morgan, Jr. (1931–2008) is a painter of the southwest Louisiana prairie in the en plein air tradition, creating a monumental collection of iconic works that capture the vivid palette of that broad landscape under spacious skies. Morgan also was an accomplished photographer. From 1965 to 1998, Morgan taught painting and drawing at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette where he deeply influenced many contemporary Louisiana painters who studied or taught with him. Morgan was a student of Durieux's who evolved into a collector of her lithographs. Jesselyn Benson Zurik (1916–2012) created paintings, sculptures, and drawings throughout her life and exhibited them worldwide. She excelled in creating assemblages steeped in architectural and industrial patterns. She earned her Design degree from Sophie Newcomb College of Tulane University in 1938 where she studied with Caroline Durieux. She was a devotee of lifelong education and was generous in supporting artists, especially in the 1997 establishment of the Jesselyn Zurik Fund for Research at her alma mater, Newcomb College.


Lifelong learning

In the early 1950s, Durieux took a sabbatical leave to study color lithography in Paris. Her decision to seek further study is indicative of Durieux's continuing dedication to the art of printmaking and to a long life of constant learning. During her leave, she traveled throughout Europe to France, Italy, Spain and England. She eventually went to study at the atelier of Edmund Desjobert (d. 1964) and Son in Paris. At first Durieux had difficulty at the workshop because of her gender: Not only did the director of the workshop notice Durieux's talent but also they were impressed with her ability to speak their language: She studied with Atelier Desjobert for three months in 1952 and again in 1957. In this new medium of color lithography her work became increasingly abstract, and her satire more subtle and complex. Durieux's color lithographs are more thought-provoking and less whimsical. She said of her work at this time: "I wanted to be more emphatic, more essential. I gradually realized that what you LEAVE OUT is important." Durieux's interest in death is evident in the sober and minimalist work: Insomnie (1957) (figure 121). The artist depicts a nighttime scene of a hilly cemetery which is filled to capacity with white crosses. A green area with white outlines marks each plot. Even in death, a lone skeleton cannot relax and sits awake gazing at the sky thick with stars. The idea came to Durieux when she saw an American military cemetery while riding a bus in southern Italy; she thought that everyone was asleep; "then it occurred to me that maybe one of them wasn't Durieux had a keen interest in the political climate at home and abroad. Activities of the Ku Klux Klan disturbed the artist as it did many other southerners. Deep South (1957) (figure 130) is a "take-off' on the KKK15 with its hooded figures and numerous fallen crosses and their ashes. Durieux's choice of colors,red, white, blue and yellow is also ironic in its intent. Red, white and blue imply patriotism—an emotion which members of the Klan try to evoke in their members. Durieux's inclusion of yellow adds a subtle dimension to the lithograph since the color is traditionally associated with cowardice. Durieux's three trips to Paris were not all spent in the atelier of Desjobert. She also worked on color etching at Atelier Lacouriere-Frelaut which was founded in 1929. She worked with Roger Lacouriere—an engraver and master printer whom Stanley William Hayter called "the most highly skilled artisans of colour printing"


Death and legacy

Durieux died on November 26, 1989, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Her papers are held at Louisiana State University and the
Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...
. In 2010, a retrospective, "Caroline Durieux: A Radioactive Wit", was exhibited at the LSU Museum of Art. In 2018, she was profiled in a short film on New Orleans public TV, WYES, as part of the station's "Tricentennial Moments" campaign honoring the city. The largest collections of Durieux works may be seen in the following museums;
the Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...
,
the Historic New Orleans Collection The Historic New Orleans Collection (THNOC) is a museum, research center, and publisher dedicated to the study and preservation of the history and culture of New Orleans and the Gulf South region of the United States. It is located in New Orleans ...
,
Louisiana State Museum The Louisiana State Museum (LSM), founded in New Orleans in 1906, is a statewide system of National Historic Landmarks and modern structures across Louisiana, housing thousands of artifacts and works of art reflecting Louisiana's legacy of historic ...
, the
Ogden Museum of Southern Art The Ogden Museum of Southern Art is located in the Warehouse Arts District of downtown New Orleans, Louisiana. Established in 1999, and in Stephen Goldring Hall at 925 Camp Street since 2003. The building The Ogden consists of two main buildin ...
, LSU Museum of Art, Louisiana Art and Science Museum, and the
Meridian Museum of Art Meridian Museum of Art is an art museum located at 628 25th Avenue, Meridian, Mississippi. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and declared a Mississippi Landmark in 1985. The building originally served as t ...
.


Bibliography

* * * Caroline Durieux and her Art Conquer Washington,A review of the artist's exhibition at the June 1 Gallery in Washington, DC, July 1979 June 1 Jottings


References


Further reading

* * * Retif, Earl (1990) ''Caroline Wogan Durieux (1896–1989)''. Newcomb Under the Oaks, Vol.14, Spring 1990 * Retif, Earl and Main, Sally, Curators(2008),From Society To Socialism, ''The Art of Caroline Durieux''(2008), Newcomb Art Gallery of Tulane University.ISBN 0966859561 * Saxon, Lyle (author) and Durieux, Caroline (artist), Gumbo Ya-Ya: A Collection of Louisiana Folk Tales (1945), ISBN 9780517019221 * Poesch, Jessie J., Printmaking in New Orleans (2006), The Historic New Orleans Collection, ISBN 9781578067688 * Retif, Earl, The Sharpest of Needles, Innovative 20th Century Printmaking by Caroline Durieux, Summer 2008, The Tulanian, Volume 80, pages 28–35 * Kraeft, June and Norman, ''Durieux and her Art Conquer Washington'', June 1 Jottings, July 1979 * Ittmann, John, editor, Shoemaker, Innis, Weschler, James, Williams, Lyle, Mexico and Modern Printmaking, Philadelphia Museum, 2006, ISBN 9780876331949. * Saltpeter, Harry, ''About Caroline Durieux: A Southern Girl Whose Pictures Have No Languor, But An Icy Bite'', Coronet, June 1937.50 * Wickiser, Ralph, Durieux, Caroline, and McCrady, John, ''Mardi Gras Day'', New York: Henry Holt, 1948 * Zigrosser, Carl, ''The Appeal of Prints'', Kennett Square, PA. KNA Press, 1970 * Jones, Howard Mumford, ''Books Considered,'' The New Republic, March 1978, p. 34-35 * Retif, Earl, ''In Memoriam Caroline Durieux. 1896–1989, From the New Orleans Museum of Art'', Journal of the Print World 13 No. 2, Spring 1990, 30. * Glassman, Elizabeth, and Symmes, Marilyn F., Cliche-Verre, Hand Drawn, Light Printed: A Survey of the Medium from 1839 to the Present, The Detroit Institute of the Arts, 1980 *Phagan, Patricia, editor, ''The American Scene and the South – Paintings and Works on Paper 1930–1946'', Georgia Museum of Art,University of Georgia, 1996, pp. 110–115 *Kraeft, June and Norman, ''Great American Prints 1900–1950, 138 Lithographs Etchings and Woodcuts'', Dover Publications 1984, #40 *Faulkner, William and Spratling, William, ''Sherwood Anderson & Other Famous Creoles; A Gallery of Contemporary New Orleans'', Pelican Press, 1926 *Symmes, Marilyn, ''Paths to the Press, Printmaking and American Women Artists, 1910–1960'', Kansas State University, 2006 *Miller, Robin, ''Setting an Example: Early Female ArtistsCarve Out Their Space Louisiana'', The Advocate, March 2022 *Miller, Robin, ''A Radioactive Wit Exhibition Celebrates Work Caroline Durieux'', The Advocate, August 2010 *Franich, Megan, ''Works of Art, Arts for Work: Caroline Wogan Durieux,the Works Progress Administration and the U.S.State Department'' (2010),University of New Orleans Thesis and Diaaertation *Williams, Lynn Barstis, ''Imprinting the South, Printmakers and Their Images of the Region, 1920s–1940s'', University of Alabama Press (2007), ISBN 9780817315603 *Barnwell, Janet Elizabeth, ''"''Narrative patterns of racism and resistance in the work of William Faulkner''"'' (2002). LSU Doctoral Dissertations *McCash, Doug. "''Conflicted Caroline, Ridiculing the Road Not Taken''." New Orleans Times Picayune. March 28, 2008 *Beall, Karen and Fern, Alan and Zigrosser, Carl, ''American Prints in the Library of Congress, A Catalog of the Collection'' (1970), Johns Hopkins University Press *Johnson, Una E., ''American Prints and Printmakers'', (1970), Knopf Doubledy, ISBN 9780385149211 *Landau, Ellen, ''Artists for Victory'', (1983), Library of Congress, ISBN 0844404322 *Gambone, Robert L, ''Art and Popular Religion in Evangelical America, 1915–1942'', University of Tennessee Press (1989), p. 102,112,119-124,126,134, ISBN 0-87049-588-7 *Schenck, Kimberly, ''Cloche-Verre: Drawing and Photography'', Topics in Photography Preservation, 1995, Vol. 6 Article 9, p. 112-118 *Borden, Emily, ''Egner & Koutroulis'' , Wayne State University eMuseum (2023) *Seaton, Elizabeth G.,''Paths to Press'' (2006) ISBN 1890751138 *Pfohl,Katie , ''Mexico in New Orleans: A Tale of Two Americas'' , LSU Press (2016) *Ulloa-Herrera, Olga, ''THE U.S. STATE, THE PRIVATE SECTOR AND MODERN ART IN SOUTH AMERICA 1940–1943'', A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of George Mason University in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Cultural Studies (2014) *Laney, Ruth, ''The Thrill of the Hunt'', Country Roads Magazine (2016) *Paine, Frances Flynn and Abbot, Jere, ''Exhibition Catalog on Diego Rivera, Museum of Modern Art'', Includes illustration of Rivera's portrait of Caroline Durieux, Dec 23, 1931 - Jan 27,1932 (1931) *Durieux, Caroline, ''Satirical Paintings and Drawings by Caroline Durieux'', Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (1944) *Sadlier, Darlene J., ''Good Neighbor Cultural Diplomacy in world War II: The Art of Making Friends'', Indiana University *Retif, Earl, ''In Memoriam, Caroline Durieux (1896–1989)'' Rare Works by the Artist at the New Orleans Museum of Art, Journal of the Print World (1990) *Rivera, Diego, ''On The Work of Caroline Durieux'', Mexican Folkways, Sonora News Company (1929) *Beals Carleton, ''The Art of Caroline Durieux'', Mexican Life (1934) *Pope, John, ''Caroline Durieux's World'', New Orleans States-Item, November 1978 *Hoffman, Louise C., ''Caroline Durieux, A Portrait of the Artist'', The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly, (Spring 1992) *Durieux, Caroline, ''An Inquiry into the Nature of Satire, Twenty-four Satirical Lithographs'', Master of Arts Thesis, Department of Fine Arts (May 1949)


External links

* Video
Caroline Durieux, Tricentennial Moment
(2018) by
WYES-TV WYES-TV, virtual channel 12 (VHF digital channel 11), is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station licensed to New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The station is owned by the Greater New Orleans Educational Television Found ...
(PBS) * Salzer, Adele Ramos, Caroline Durieux Interview, Friends of the Cabildo Oral History Program, Louisiana State Museum (1976) {{DEFAULTSORT:Durieux, Caroline 1896 births 1989 deaths Artists from New Orleans Louisiana State University faculty American lithographers H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College alumni Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni 20th-century American women artists American women printmakers 20th-century American printmakers Women lithographers American women academics Louisiana Creole people 20th-century lithographers