PAQUET
November 1st - December 23rd, 2023
Reception: Saturday, December 2nd, 6-8 pm
GEORGE DUNBAR
PAQUET
November 3rd - December 23rd, 2023
GEORGE DUNBAR
GEORGE DUNBAR
PAQUET
A visionary artist with uncommon endurance and a passion for innovation, George Dunbar is one of our most treasured cultural figures and, at age 96, a true living legend. For Paquet, his tenth solo exhibition at Callan Contemporary, he has created new works from several of his well-known stylistic periods—Rouville, Surge, Coin Du Lestin, and Bonfouca—and is debuting a brand-new series, after which the exhibition is titled. Paquet is the name of a bayou near his home and studio near Slidell; it is also the French word for “bundle.” In these mixed-media paintings, bundles of metallic yarn- dyed linen cluster together in high relief, their woven surfaces imparting distinctive, cross-hatched surfaces. Conceived in an elegantly understated color palette, the pieces were adapted from Dunbar’s long-running Rag Series, updated with a unique process for laminating multiple layers of metallic cloth to maintain the bundles’ shapes and heighten their shimmering texturality. It is the latest example of this artist’s commitment to pioneering new working methods and techniques.
Born in New Orleans in 1927, Dunbar studied at Tyler School of Art (Temple University) and the Grande Chaumière Academy in Paris before exhibiting in New York and Philadelphia alongside canonical Abstract Expressionists such as Franz Kline. Returning to Louisiana in 1957, he co-founded Orleans Gallery, a historically significant artist co-op that elevated regional artists to international acclaim. In the nearly seven decades since those formative years, his paintings and sculptures have been acquired into the permanent collections of The British Museum (London), Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh), Ogden Museum of Southern Art (New Orleans), and New Orleans Museum of Art, where he has had two major career surveys. Lauded in The New York Times, Art in America, and ARTnews, he is the subject of a recent WLAE-TV/PBS documentary, George Dunbar: Mining the Surfaces, and a 200-page monograph, Distinctively Dunbar, published by Callan Contemporary. His newly finished monumental bronze sculpture, the 14-foot- tall Monumental Deity, commissioned by the Helis Foundation, will soon be installed in the Foundation’s Poydras Corridor Sculpture Exposition located in the New Orleans Central Business District.
Spanning an impressive range of media and styles, Paquet exemplifies the qualities that have made George Dunbar so acclaimed among critics and sought-after among collectors: a gift for the rapid compositional movement of Action Painting united with the visual harmonies of geometric abstraction; a trailblazing approach to diverse media; and an unparalleled lineage in the history of 20th and 21st Century art. As curator Katie A. Pfohl has written, Dunbar embodies “a singular vision for abstract art unlike that of any other artist working anywhere in the country.”
- Richard Speer
“I enjoy revisiting and changing certain series. I am frequently asked which piece of my work is my favorite. My answer is: the one I have yet to create.”
- George Dunbar
George Dunbar
Paquet Series XIV, 2023
Yarn dyed linen bundles on linen canvas
48h x 78w x 6d in
George Dunbar
Paquet Series XV, 2023
Black and gray metallic yarn dyed linen bundles on linen canvas
60h x 108w x 5d in
George Dunbar
Paquet Series X, 2023
yarn dyed linen bundles on linen canvas
20h x 24w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Bonfouca XCV, 2023
Asian leaf over black and blue/ gray clay with die keen
25.50h x 37.50w in
George Dunbar
Ojawashkwa- Surge Series, 2023
Palladium over blue and black clay
38h x 50w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Coin Du Lestin CCVII, 2023
Asian leaf and oxidized silver over blue gray clay on panel
14h x 12w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Bridge No. XX - Coin Du Lestin Series
Palladium leaf over gray clay on panel
50h x 74w in
George Dunbar
Coin Du Lestin CCVIII, 2023
Asian leaf over yellow clay with incised lines
14h x 12w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Tuxachanie - Surge Series, 2023
Moon gold with taupe clay and die keen
33h x 40w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Mallarme Fragment in Bronze, 4 / 7, 2022
Bronze Cast with high polish and sealed finish
5.50h x 13w x 7d in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Paquet Series IV, 2023
yarn dyed linen bundles on linen canvas
21.50h x 25w in
George Dunbar
Marshgrass LVIII
Palladium leaf over black clay, over red rags on board
27h x 25w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Paquet Series IV, 2023
Yarn dyed linen bundles on linen canvas
21.50h x 25w in
George Dunbar
Coin Du Lestin CCVIII, 2023
Asian leaf over yellow clay with incised lines
14h x 12w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Bridge XX - Coin Du Lestin Series
Palladium leaf over gray clay on panel
50h x 74w in
George Dunbar
Coin Du Lestin CCVII, 2023
Asian leaf and oxidized silver over blue gray clay on panel
14h x 12w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Tuxachanie - Surge Series, 2023
Moon gold with taupe clay and die keen
33.50h x 40w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Paquet Series XV, 2023
Black and gray metallic yarn dyed linen bundles on linen canvas
60h x 108w x 5d in
George Dunbar
Ojawashkwa- Surge Series, 2023
Palladium over blue and black clay
38h x 50w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Bonfouca XCV, 2023
Asian leaf over black and blue/ gray clay with die keen
25.50h x 37.50w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Paquet Series XIV, 2023
Yarn dyed linen bundles on linen canvas
48h x 78w x 6d in
George Dunbar
Marshgrass LVIII
Palladium leaf over black clay over red rags on board
25 x 27 in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Paquet Series X, 2023
Yarn dyed linen bundles on linen canvas
20h x 24w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Rouville 2023
Moon gold and Palladium leaf over taupe clay with die keen
48h x 60w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Bonfouca XCVI, 2023
Palladium and Moon gold leaf over green and gray clay with die keen
16.50h x 19.50w in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Mallarme Sculpture No.1
edition 1/10, 2023
bronze cast with silver plate mounted on granite base
9h x 10w x 5d in
SOLD
George Dunbar
Mallarme Fragment in Bronze, 4 / 7, 2022
Bronze Cast with high polish and sealed finish
5.50h x 13w x 7d in
SOLD
