(August 31, 1951 – June 25, 2007)
Douglas Bourgeois graduated from Louisiana State University in 1974 with a B.F.A. He worked in New Orleans for several years until he returned to live in St. Amant. He has received awards for his work throughout his career including a Louisiana Division of the Arts Fellowship in 1992; a Southeastern Artist Fellowship from the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art and R.J. Reynolds in 1987; and awards in the Visual Arts Fellowship from Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1981. Bourgeois is represented by Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans.
Born and raised in Saint Amant, Louisiana, Bourgeois went to Catholic school (he once intended to become a priest) at the time when rock and roll and R&B music exploded, and he therefore reveres the two themes, music and religion, equally in his work. In Womack and Del Rey (2014), two American singers—one who is young today, one shown in his younger days—perform on what appears to be the surface of the moon, littered with empty vessels and a half-drained hourglass. Bobby Womack grins, guitar in hand, while the ever-melancholy Lana Del Rey turns away from him and from us, serenading Earth. In other works, religion manifests more blatantly, as in the series in which saints appear to bystanders, or it remains buried like a clue, as in the detailed image of a Sacred Heart in a light bulb. Bourgeois touches on issues of domestic violence, poverty, and racial injustice.