River views
Exhibit features Rolland Golden’s Mississippi River paintings
The river is out there, beyond the warm hues of the stained glass and over the levee.
And Rolland Golden has never painted it.
He sits in the back of the House chamber in Louisiana’s Old State Capitol, and he suddenly becomes lost in thought.
What a contradiction. His series of Mississippi River paintings are being installed in the galleries down the hall. The show is called River and Reverie: by Rolland Golden.
Yet, Golden has never painted the river — never painted it from the perspective of Baton Rouge.
“Most of the paintings in this exhibit were painted in Natchez,” Golden said. “I’ve traveled up to Clarksdale and Greenville in Mississippi and painted it from that perspective, but I’ve never painted the river in Baton Rouge.”
He glances around the chamber, notices how the shifting light pours through the stained glass, warming the floor in yellows, blues and reds.
And the artist in him can’t help smiling.
“I’m going to have to come back here now and paint the river,” Golden said. “The river is different everywhere you see it.”
The river definitely has its own personality in Baton Rouge, a personality that almost swelled past its levees last summer.
Golden thinks about this now. He lives in Natchez, Miss., where he owns and operates a gallery on Main Street. It’s simply called Rolland Golden Gallery, a block away from the grand old Natchez Eola Hotel.
He and his wife Stella moved to Natchez from Folsom two years ago. Both are New Orleans natives, and Golden’s artwork has taken them around the world.
His artwork now takes him to Baton Rouge, where the Old Capitol celebrates Louisiana’s bicentennial of statehood by paying tribute to the river through Golden’s exhibit.
The show opened on Dec. 7, then closed for a two-week holiday break on Dec. 22. It reopened on Jan. 17 and will run through March 10.
The scenes capture the river’s moodiness, its crystal reflection of a full moon in the solitude of what appears to be a clear, cold night; the dramatic color changes of a sunset; the mystery cast by a morning fog; and the ominous approach of a hard rain.
“That’s one of the unusual things about the river — you can actually see the rain approaching you,” Golden said.
Amazing how each painting becomes its own character in this story of a waterway. And, at the same time, it’s ironic, for there was a moment when Golden sat in the lobby of the John McCrady Art School in New Orleans thinking, “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”
That was in the 1950s right after Golden had been discharged from the U.S. Navy. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do in life except marry Stella, the girl who lived down the street from his family’s home in the Irish Channel.
Golden knew he had a talent for visual art, and he knew he should develop it after a priest explained that talent shouldn’t be taken for granted.
“He said talent is God’s grace,” Golden said.
Though he knew the priest was right, Golden’s faith was shaken upon entering McCrady’s school.
Those familiar with Louisiana and regional artists will know that McCrady is regarded as one of the most important Louisiana artists of the 20th century. His paintings are some of the most important of southern art, most of which focus on rural and historical themes.
McCrady was part of the group of WPA artists who lived in New Orleans. His WPA posters received national attention and eventually won him the Guggenheim Fellowship.
He opened his art school in New Orleans in 1942, where Golden later sat in the lobby, surrounded by students’ work, wondering if he belonged there.
“I was sitting there, looking at all of those beautiful drawings, and I started thinking, ‘Rolland, you are stupid,’” he said. “But John McCrady came out and talked to me. I didn’t have anything to show him, but he convinced me that I ought to give it a try. It was because I was impressed by this person and liked him that I enrolled.”
Golden used the $110 a month he received from the GI Bill to pay his tuition. He stayed two years at the school, then set out on his own.
“That was in 1957,” Golden said. “I’ve been a full-time artist since.”
It’s understandable when Golden talks about his family’s reaction. They had their apprehensions, but dad could see that his son was committed to this decision.
“Once he was convinced that I was going to do it, he said, ‘I’ll help you,’” Golden said.
Golden eventually married Stella and opened a shop on Royal Street in the French Quarter. Stella Golden is a devout Catholic and hoped to have a houseful of children, though the couple stopped at three.
But how was he to feed a big family on an artist’s salary? Which, of course, wasn’t really a salary at all.
There were times when Golden’s work would produce only $10.
“Stella would take that money and run straight to the grocery store,” Golden said. “Times were tough, and it was tough on Stella, because she came from a poor family. But she’s been totally devoted to me all through the years.”
And Stella Golden learned a little about business in the process. She now takes care of the business side of Golden’s art, which landed its break when Vincent Price visited New Orleans on an art purchasing trip for Sears, Roebuck and Co.
The company offered the Vincent Price Collection of Fine Art from 1962 to 1971. Price purchased some 2,700 pieces in the first year, and people clamored to buy works by such artists as Albrecht Durer, Reginald Pollack, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali.
Sears, Roebuck and Co. sold more than 50,000 pieces by artists throughout the world during that nine-year period. Golden’s work was among them.
“He came in and bought 17 pieces at first,” Golden said. “Then he came back and bought 35. It was everything that I had. He paid me $750 for everything, and I was glad to get it.”
Stella Golden was, too, because $750 was worth a lot more in the early 1960s than today. She had plenty of money with which to feed the couple’s son and two daughters.
And the experienced only affirmed Golden’s decision to pursue a career in art.
“I’ve done exactly what I wanted since,” he said.
Bryant Galleries in New Orleans signed Golden in 1967, representing the artist and paying him a stipend. Times were good. Golden didn’t have to worry about where to get the money for the next grocery bill, and his work was gaining notice not only in New Orleans but throughout the state, and then the country.
Golden’s work has been featured in more than 100 one-man shows in galleries, cultural centers and museums throughout the United States, as well as in one-man touring exhibitions in the former Soviet Union and France. His work also has been recognized with awards from the National Arts Club, American Watercolor Society and the National Watercolor Society and the Visual Arts Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters.
And Golden’s paintings have been published in numerous magazines and books, including four dedicated only to his art: World of Rolland Golden in 1970 with text by Don Keith; Rolland Golden: Journeys of a Southern Artist in 2005 and Katrina: Days of Terror, Months of Anguish in 2007, both with text by John Kemp; and Rolland Golden (drawings; illustrations) in 2004 with text by Edith Long.
He holds a copy of the Katrina book at this moment. It was published by the New Orleans Museum of Art, which in 2007 showed Golden’s series of paintings depicting the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s wrath on the Crescent City.
One watercolor, “Escape from Eden,” harkens back to McCrady’s painting style. Ruins of wooden buildings line the street, almost as if a chorus standing aside to make way for the two stars of the show, which appear to be a young man and his mother.
Contradictions create irony in this piece with cheerful colors only emphasizing its characters’ desperation.
And then there’s the angel, subject of Golden’s painting “Silent Vigil.” Golden and his wife evacuated Folsom for Jackson, Miss., then New York during and after the 2005 storm. He spotted the angel statue in a cemetery in Sunflower County, Miss.
“I photographed it, and it stayed on my easel until we returned,” Golden said. “I turned it into a New Orleans cemetery.”
The angel stands in the forefront. Golden added water, buildings and mud in the background, and the painting became the first in his Katrina series.
“It inspired me to keep expressing myself on this tragedy that engulfed us and changed all of our lives,” Golden said.
It certainly changed the Goldens’ lives. They were looking for a place to relocate and were thinking about Alexandria, Va., until their daughter Lucille suggested Natchez.
It was a place they often visited, a place where they admired the city’s character and architecture. A place where the Mississippi River played a major part in the city’s story.
“I was at a book signing when Lucille said, ‘Dad, what about Natchez?’” Golden said. “We love it there.”
Now the Old State Capitol kicks off its own bicentennial celebration by paying homage to the river that has played a major role in the state’s history through paintings by a noted Louisiana artist.
And Golden plans one day to return to Baton Rouge to continue the series.