George Rodrigue: A Louisiana Cowboy
Historic City Hall & Cultural Center
1001 Ryan Street
Lake Charles, LA
The Louisiana Cowboy’s story blends Creole, Cajun and Native American cultures. Yet for George Rodrigue, the narrative is only semi-historical, as in his monumental Louisiana Cowboys, within this exhibition. Although never a horseman, Rodrigue explored the romance of the cowboy’s journey, spanning history to Hollywood. His imagination paid tribute to the Cowboy and Native American cultures while inventing a new Louisiana cowboy, one that often starred himself as a young boy. As a result, this is less an exhibition steeped in history than it is a child’s fantasy, made real on his canvas and carried throughout his life.
George Rodrigue (1944-2013) was born and raised in New Iberia, Louisiana, the heart of Cajun country. His fascination with the American West and its kinship to Louisiana inspired more than one hundred artworks over fifty years. He fondly recalled that as a child he listened secretly on his transistor radio to the Lone Ranger Radio Show beneath his bedsheets, and that at age sixteen he won 1st place at the Catholic High Science Fair for his project, “Indian Tribes of 1650.”
My skill in drawing and painting had a lot to do with the success of my project. I was the only student from New Iberia in 1960 to win an award at state level. Along with my popular monster paintings and my achievement of Eagle Scout, it’s one of the best moments of my high school years.
Soon after, Rodrigue attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, followed by the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. During art school he continued exploring the cultures of the American West, with related paintings found in this exhibition, including his Three Indians of 1963, a canvas Rodrigue considered one of his early masterpieces.
It was on his drives between California and Louisiana in the late 1960s, as he crossed the Sabine River near Lake Charles, that Rodrigue formulated a visual plan to capture the Louisiana landscape with a symbolic mysticism. He contrasted the large open skies of the American West with the small skies of Louisiana, as viewed from beneath the oaks, and he connected the distant light beneath the trees with the hope of the displaced Cajuns following their expulsion from Canada in 1755. Rodrigue explored this concept the rest of his life, not only with the Cajuns, but also with other cultures, including the Cowboys and Indians. He reconnected these stereotyped western cultures to the land and people of south Louisiana, a place they also called home.
I revisited the Native American culture on my canvas beginning in the 1980s when I traveled regularly to New Mexico. By that time, the Cajun food craze reached Santa Fe, and I met Rosalea Murphy of the Pink Adobe Restaurant, who was originally from New Orleans. She gave me a show, and I filled it with paintings of the American Indian but in the same style as my paintings of Cajun folk life.
Similarly, Rodrigue’s Blue Dog sprang from a Cajun myth called loup-garou, yet he used it to explore the vastness of his imagination and the intensity of his curiosity and feelings. In one of his last paintings, He Stopped Loving Her Today, within this exhibition, the mystery of our existence relates to the Louisiana river as the road of life, the golden sky of the American West as Heaven, and the Blue Dog as Rodrigue himself.
I think folks will be surprised at my Louisiana Cowboys. Yet it’s a subject I’ve approached many times over the years. I hope people like the art as much as I’ve enjoyed returning to this strong American theme in both my Cajun and Blue Dog paintings.
G.R.
Please join Wendy Rodrigue for the following events:
January 23, 2026, Lake Charles, LA: Celebrate the opening of Rodrigue: A Louisiana Cowboy with an evening reception honoring the legacy of iconic Louisiana artist George Rodrigue. Historic City Hall. 5:30-7:30 pm
January 27, 2026, Lake Charles, LA: Gallery Talk and Tour with Wendy Rodrigue:
Join Wendy Rodrigue for an inside look at the exhibit, Rodrigue: A Louisiana Cowboy, and gain personal insight into George Rodrigue’s work and inspiration. Historic City Hall. 5:30-7 pm.
Press
- Acadiana Profile
Special George Rodrigue Exhibit Will Open in Lake Charles
01/05/2026 - Visit Lake Charles
Rodrigue: A Louisiana Cowboy
01/06/2026