Early life and education
She was born Caroline Spelman Wogan inQuotations
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,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 ofBack to New Orleans
In 1937, Pierre Durieux was diagnosed with severeForeign 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,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.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 theBibliography
* * * 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 JottingsReferences
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
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