George Dureau "Black 1973 - 1986"
Higher Pictures
This event has ended.
Higher Pictures presents Black the first New York solo exhibition by George Dureau (B. 1930 New Orleans). The exhibition consists of fifteen photographs from 1973 - 1986 whose subjects are black males, all New Orleans locals.
With a cult-like following, George Dureau's photographs are a striking mix of carnal and heroic, unsentimental yet completely intimate and personal. Known as a painter who began making photographs as an extension of his paintings, Dureau's photographs are a significant contribution to art history, yet somehow, even today, are largely unknown.
On the obvious link to Robert Mapplethorpe, Claude J. Summers had this to say:
Dureau's photographs have often been compared with those of Robert Mapplethorpe. But the influence runs not from Mapplethorpe to Dureau but from Dureau to Mapplethorpe. The photographers were friends in the early 1970s. Mapplethorpe was greatly moved by Dureau's photographs, even to the point of restaging many of Dureau's earlier compositions. For all their similarities, however, the photographs of Dureau and Mapplethorpe are quite different. Whereas Mapplethorpe exhibits his subjects as cool and objective, self-contained and remote icons, Dureau presents his as exposed and vulnerable, playful and needy, complex and entirely human individuals. The difference is foremost a matter of empathy.
Media
Schedule
from May 31, 2012 to June 13, 2012