Dewey Crumpler

Dewey Crumpler (born 1949), is an American painter and educator. He taught at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) for many years, where he held the title of associate professor.

Crumpler's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is featured in the permanent collections of the Oakland museum of California; the Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, California; and the California African American Museum, Los Angeles. Crumpler has received a Flintridge Foundation award, National Endowment for the Arts fellowship grant, and the Fleishacker Foundation, fellowship eureka award. A digital image of his murals was included in the 2017 Tate Modern exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power in London.

Education and early life Crumpler was born in 1949, in Magnolia, Arkansas, United States. He grew up in Hunters Point, a historically Black neighborhood of San Francisco, and attended Balboa High School, an arts magnet school, graduating in 1967. Decades later, he appeared on a panel Honoring Catlett at the De Young Museum. Crumpler became a professor of history and studio art at the San Francisco Art Institute, where his notable students included Kehinde Wiley and Ionna Rozeal Brown.

Crumpler started teaching at SFAI in 1989 and was an associate professor of painting.

Mural at George Washington High School In 1936, Russian immigrant Victor Arnautoff was hired by the Works Progress Administration to paint a mural at George Washington High School in San Francisco. His work, Life of Washington, includes images of slavery and settlers stepping over a dead Native American.

Crumpler first saw the mural when he was a Balboa High School student visiting George Washington High School for a football game. He was impressed with the scale of the piece, but initially disliked how the work portrayed African Americans and Native Americans. A few years later, when he was 18 or 19, he was chosen to paint a corresponding mural in response to student activists upset by the Arnautoff work. To prepare for designing the mural, Crumpler traveled to around the country for research, which he was able to do due to his father working for Pan American World Airways. Crumpler viewed different murals and spoke with muralist William Walker. He then went to Mexico and received guidance from artist Elizabeth Catlett. In Mexico, he also met artists Pablo O’Higgins and David Alfaro Siqueiros. After being mentored by O'Higgins, Crumpler came to see Arnautoff's murals as a critique of George Washington, rather than a celebration.

After going through multiple approval processes, Crumpler painted his mural Multi-Ethnic Heritage at the high school. It portrayed Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans and African Americans in empowering ways, and included historic figures like Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. 2018 – Collapse: Recent Works by Dewey Crumpler (solo), Hedreen Gallery, Seattle, Washington

Honors and awards

1967 – Honorary Resolution Award, Mayor's Office, San Francisco, California 1967 – Honorary Citation, California State Assembly, Sacramento, California 1969 – Purchase Award, Arts Commission, San Francisco, California 1975 – Outstanding Achievement Award, National Conference of Artists 1978–1977 – Purchase Award, Airports Commission, San Francisco, California 1978–1977 – Purchase Award, Fillmore-Fell Gallery, San Francisco, California 1985–1982 – Grant Award, California Arts Council, Artist In-Residence Program 1991 – Honored Artist Award, Pro Art Annual Exhibition, Oakland, California 1992 – Eureka Fellowship Award, Fleishhacker Foundation, Eureka, California 1995 – Fellowship Grant Award, National Endowment for the Arts 2005–2006 – Visual Artist Award, Flintridge Foundation, Pasadena, California