Joseph P. Lee Rec Center
1395 Mendell
Backside
Bayview
Fire Next Time II
Excerpt from San Francisco Bay Area Murals by Timothy W. Drescher regarding the original mural:
Crumpler depicted three aspects of black people’s lives in the United States: education, religion, and culture. The contemporary figures, a teacher and student, athletes and dancers, are watched over by exemplary portraits of Harriet Tubman and Paul Robeson. Above them are two Senufo birds which are mythical beings in Africa but here oversee the cultural and creative lives of the community…
By 1984, Crumpler continued the mural on the adjacent gymnasium at the Recreation Center. More stylized than the first part of the mural, it continues the same visual motifs, with large portraits of black leaders and a background of dualist flames. Wrapped around the northern corner is a hand holding a quilt from Alabama. Up Newcombe Street is another hand, but with a section of cloth with an African textile design on it…Between the two hands is a giant replica of a 16th-centuray Ife bronze figure against a background of Egyptian and United States Figures: King Tut, Muhammed Ali, Willie Mays, Wilma Rudolph, Arthur Ashe. The second part measures over five thousand square feet.
Oni – of Fire Next Time II
In 2007, the San Francisco Arts Commission contracted with ARG Conservation Services (ARG/CS) to restore and stabilize the mural. The main objective of the treatment was to prevent further deterioration of the mural and achieve an overall integrated visual restoration.
Dewey Crumpler painted over 15 murals throughout the Bay Area. His large-scale San Francisco projects include: A Celebration of African and African American Artists, 1984, at the African American Art and Culture Complex, formerly the Western Addition Cultural Center; The Children of San Francisco, 1986; and Knowledge, 1988. Crumpler now focuses his art practice on studio work. Dewey Crumpler received a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, an MA from San Francisco State University, and an MFA from Mills College in Oakland, CA. He resides in Berkeley, CA, with his wife Sandra and their two sons Saeed and Malik. Dewey Crumpler is Associate Professor of Painting at the San Francisco Art Institute.
In 1984 Crumpler was assisted by Dr. Timothy W. Drescher. Drescher has been studying and documenting community murals since 1972, was co-editor of Community Murals magazine from 1976 to 1987, and is the author of San Francisco Bay Area Murals: Communities Create Their Muses, 1904-1997. He wrote the Afterward to the revised edition of Toward A People’s Art, and consults and lectures widely on murals. Dr. Drescher has a Ph.D. in English Literature and Art History from the University of Wisconsin.
The restoration had a budget of $105,000 for cleaning and stabilization of the Dewey Crumpler mural, Fire Next Time II, and commemorative plaque for Fire Next Time I. $33,000 went to ARG and a $5000 honorarium payment went to Dewey Crumpler.
Fire Next Time I was removed during the remodeling of the Recreation Center, photos of it can be found inside the center.