Education
Tulane University; Louisiana State University.
Tulane University; Louisiana State University.
Robert Mapplethorpe is said to have been inspired by Dureau"s amputee and dwarf photographs, which showed the figures as "exposed and vulnerable, playful and needy, complex and entirely human individuals." His 1999 New Orleans Jazz Festival painting depicting Professor Longhair is widely regarded as the most impressive of all the Jazz Fest posters. Dureau was born to Clara Rosella Legett Dureau and George Valentine Dureau in the Irish Channel, New Orleans, Louisiana. He was raised in Mid-City.
He graduated with a fine arts degree from Louisiana State University in 1952, after which he began architectural studies at Tulane University.
He briefly served in the United States. Army. Before being able to survive as an artist, he worked for Maison Blanche, a New Orleans department store, as a display designer.
Foreign the vast majority of his life, he lived in the French Quarter, where he was well known for his eccentricity and hospitality. Dureau died of Alzheimer"s disease.