NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Jan. 16, 2008

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Ann Dee Lee
Public Information Director
Oklahoma Arts Council
(405) 521-2931
anndee@arts.ok.gov

BERT SEABOURN’S EXPRESSIONIST PAINTINGS TO BE EXHIBITED AT STATE CAPITOL

Oklahoma City, OK – Oklahoma expressionist Bert Seabourn is not only a painter, but also a printmaker, sculptor, author and teacher, who experiments intensively with creative vitality. His exhibit, The Expressionist Paintings, will be on display in the first floor of the East Gallery at the State Capitol from January 16 through March 11. Curated by the Oklahoma Arts Council, the East Gallery is open daily from 8:30-5:00.

Born in 1931, Seabourn sold his first piece of art to King Features Syndicate in 1946, while in the eighth grade at Purcell, Oklahoma. After graduating from high school, he joined the Navy and spent several years as a Navy artist/journalist. After being discharged in 1955, Seabourn and his family moved to Oklahoma City, where he worked at Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company for 23 years as graphic artist and art director. In 1978, he resigned to pursue a full-time career as a painter of fine art.

Seabourn believes that paintings should contest our creative elements. “Ultimately, each painting is an arena for the artist’s own emotional tug of war. If it leads the viewer to react, think, or make a judgment, it has attained some success. The responsibility of the artist is to make a visual experience for himself and the viewer. I love to paint and I hope it shows,” says Seabourn.

“Wind Walker”, Seabourn’s 23-foot tall bronze sculpture, can be seen outside the offices of the Oklahoma Attorney General in the Capital Complex. He has exhibited his art throughout the United States, England, Germany, France, Russia, Taiwan, Singapore, Chile, Bolivia, Columbia and Ecuador. His works are included in the permanent collections at the Vatican Museums, Rome, Italy; China’s National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan; Moscow University, Ulytanovsk, Russia; the American Embassy, London, England; the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.; President Ford Library Collection, Ann Arbor, MI; President George and Barbara Bush Collection, Houston, TX; the Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ; and in Oklahoma City at the Oklahoma State Art Collection Gallery, the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum and the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

Seabourn is the recipient of several notable honors. In 1976, he was designated a Master Artist by the Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee, and received a Governor’s Art Award in 1981. Oklahoma City University awarded him their highest honor, Honorary Degree of Humane Letters,  in 1997 and he was named an Oklahoma Living Treasure in 2004. In recent years, he has taught watercolor, acrylic and printmaking workshops for high schools, universities and art organizations in several states. Seabourn also teaches art at the City Arts Center in Oklahoma City.

For more information, contact Ann Dee Lee, Public Information Director, Oklahoma Arts Council, (405) 521-2931 or anndee@arts.ok.gov.

ABOUT THE OKLAHOMA ARTS COUNCIL

The Oklahoma Arts Council is a state agency whose mission is to improve lives through the arts by promoting and sustaining the development of a thriving arts environment, which is essential to quality of life, education and economic vitality for all Oklahomans.

---End---