Description:

Steve Sweet
American/Louisiana, b. 1952
"Portrait of George Dureau"
Xerox on clear mylar substrate construction
1982, signed and dated on heel of proper right foot, unframed.

Exh.: Aron Hastings Gallery, New Orleans, LA, 1982; Davis McClain Gallery, Houston, TX, 1985; The Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA, 1993.

Note: Steve Sweet's impressive body of work comprises an array of non-traditional media and often incorporates contemporary technology in innovative ways. For example, his collage portrait series from the 1980s was created using Xerox scans of his subjects' body parts, reassembled in such ways that most exemplify their personalities and lives. Armed with access to a large Xerox machine, "Sweet's artistic method involves placing his subjects (often human) on a photo-copier and making piece meal reproductions of their bodies. He then enlarges, reduces, blurs, colors and otherwise alters and manipulates the copies before assembling them." Roger Green notes in his 1983 Times Picayune article on the artist: "Sweet's portrait of artist Jesse Poimboeuf includes several views of his head, assembled so as to suggest sequential movement. Poimboeuf, as it happens, is fascinated—some would say possessed—by the idea of movement, which is almost invariably the subject of his paintings and drawings."

For the portrait of George Dureau on offer here, the beloved local artist is depicted with neither prop nor clothing. Sweet retooled his proportions so the resulting image is that of Dureau as a nude little person, a clever homage to the subject matter Dureau himself was famous for portraying in his paintings and photographs. Sweet's portraits are ingenious, challenging and even humorous at times. They capture the essence of their sitters and perfectly demonstrate the definition of good portraiture—to create a facsimile of a person distilled in their most iconographic and eternal form. The artist was represented by Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans with five one-person shows in the 1980s and 1990s. His work is included in the collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art and Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in Columbus, Ohio.

Ref.: Green, Roger. "Flattened People: Portraits in Depth." The Times Picayune. Jan. 21, 1983: pg. 12; Rive, David. "Steve Sweet." Art Papers. May/June 1987.

  • Dimensions: 45 x 16 1/2 in. (114.3 x 41.9 cm.)
  • Medium: Xerox on clear mylar substrate construction
  • Condition: No signs of past restoration; light waffling; seams with associated clear tape are hand of the artist and inherent to process; 2 1/2 in. horizontal fold upper center (top of head); 1/4 in. dia. hole top of head for hanging display also hand of the artist; very light scattered scratches and scuffs; light scattered hazing.

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October 23, 2025 11:00 AM CDT
New Orleans, LA, US

Neal Auction Company

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