JAMES MACDONELL

ABOUT

James Macdonell is an American painter and sculptor who worked for Robert Rauschenberg and his mom Dora when he was a teenager. He was best friends with Rauschenberg’s sister’s son Rick and was treated like one of the family. This access allowed James into Rauschenberg’s inner circle where he remained until the artist’s death in 2008.

“Hermitizing for the last 20 years in New Orleans has been a lot like living in one’s own personal Walker Percy novel. It been a good place for me to work. Artists always seem to find something here [New Orleans} that infects them, that they take with them, back to wherever, something transformative, and it keeps them returning here from time to time. To reacquaint with it, it teaches things that New York does not. I can speak to this because I have spent over 2 decades in both cities, and I know first-hand that both are invaluable. They have shaped me for better or worse, I was home on 9/11 and I was home for Katrina.” - James Macdonell