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The Baseball Reliquary Presents
Occupy Chavez Ravine: The “Blue Bum” Paintings
of Stephen Seemayer
Exhibition: February 4-March 29, 2012
Location: West Covina Library
Address: 1601
West Covina Parkway, West Covina, California
Information: (626) 791-7647 or
terymar@earthlink.net
The Baseball Reliquary launches its 2012 season
by presenting an exhibition,
Occupy
Chavez Ravine: The “Blue Bum” Paintings of
Stephen Seemayer, from February 4-March 29,
2012 at the West Covina Library, 1601 West
Covina Parkway, West Covina, California.
For his L.A. Blue Bum series of
paintings, artist Stephen Seemayer resurrected a
character from the past, the Brooklyn Bum, the
brilliant creation of the late sports cartoonist
Willard Mullin.
While working for the
New York
World-Telegram in the 1930s, Mullin
introduced the Bum, which provided an instant
identity to the Dodgers and the entire borough
of Brooklyn, a symbol which would endure through
times of heartbreak and triumph.
A tattered tramp with a four-day growth
of beard, patched clothing, and flapping soles,
chewing on a cigar stub and mangling the English
language, the Bum would appear in some 2,000
Willard Mullin drawings, right up to the
Dodgers’ controversial departure to the West
Coast in 1958.
Using actor Joe Walters as his model,
Seemayer decided to resurrect Mullin’s Bum in a
series of 2011 paintings, trading in the old
neighborhood in Brooklyn for the bright lights
and glamour of Los Angeles.
Seemayer’s contemporary reincarnation
sardonically opines on the current travails of
the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have struggled on
and off the field under the divorce and
financial mismanagement of owners Frank and
Jamie McCourt.
The L.A. Blue Bum, according to Seemayer,
“roots for the boys in the Ravine while at the
same time commenting with sometimes scathing
candor on their follies and triumphs.
But just as baseball, as American as
apple pie, has an ugly underbelly of drug use
and greed, underlying the L.A. Blue Bum
paintings are observations on the darker aspects
of contemporary American society.”
The exhibition features a selection from
the 58 L.A. Blue Bum paintings, and related
documentation, completed by Seemayer during the
2011 baseball season, many of which were
originally displayed in his front yard in Echo
Park, to be viewed by drivers and passersby on
their way to Dodger Stadium.
In contrast to Mullin’s often stark
pen-and-ink drawings on illustration board,
Seemayer’s paintings are densely layered with
image and text, and utilize aerosol enamel,
latex, and photo collage on masonite.
The paintings can also be viewed at the
artist’s Web site at
www.labluebum.com.
Stephen Seemayer is a Los Angeles-based
performance artist, filmmaker, and painter.
In a career spanning more than 30 years,
he has been featured in performances and
exhibitions at galleries and museums across the
United States, including the Donnelly Gallery in
Boston; WPA Gallery and Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.; Scottsdale
Center for the Arts in Scottsdale, Arizona; de
Young Museum in San Francisco; San Diego State
University Art Gallery; Los Angeles Institute of
Contemporary Art; Los Angeles County Museum of
Art; and the 18th Street Arts Complex
in Santa Monica.
Library hours for the exhibition are
Tuesday-Thursday, 10:00 a.m.-8:00 pm; Saturday,
8:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.; closed Monday, Friday, and
Sunday.
For further information, contact the
Baseball Reliquary by phone at (626) 791-7647 or
by e-mail at
terymar@earthlink.net.
For directions, phone the West Covina
Library at (626) 962-3541 during library hours.
The exhibition is made possible, in part,
by a grant to the Baseball Reliquary from the
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through
the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
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“The Last Day of This World?”
by Stephen Seemayer (24” x 24,” aerosol
enamel, latex, and photo collage on wood
panel). Created for Dodgers/Padres
series of September 23-25, 2011. On
display in the exhibition,
Occupy Chavez Ravine: The “Blue Bum”
Paintings of Stephen Seemayer.
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SPECIAL PROGRAM:
Occupy Chavez Ravine: The “Blue Bum” Paintings
of Stephen Seemayer
Reception & Video Presentation
Saturday, February 18, 3:00 p.m.
West Covina
Library, 1601 West Covina Parkway, West Covina,
California
In conjunction with its exhibition,
Occupy
Chavez Ravine: The “Blue Bum” Paintings of
Stephen Seemayer, the Baseball Reliquary
presents a reception for the artist on Saturday,
February 18, at 3:00 p.m., at the West Covina
Library, 1601 West Covina Parkway, West Covina,
California.
Stephen Seemayer will discuss the legacy
of sports cartoonist Willard Mullin, who
provided inspiration for his L.A. Blue Bum
series, and will introduce a screening of a
video documenting all 58 Blue Bum paintings
completed in 2011.
The program is made possible, in part, by
a grant to the Baseball Reliquary from the Los
Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the
Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
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