Survey of Wilbur Niewald’s Career Opens at Nelson-Atkins Aug. 8
In the Studio Spans 70 Year Commitment to Visual Truth
Kansas City, MO. July 31, 2018–Wilbur Niewald’s decades-long career as an artist is celebrated at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City with the exhibition In the Studio, opening Aug. 8. The native Kansas Citian’s classically beautiful landscapes of Loose Park and the West Bottoms have been shown at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Nelson-Atkins; his works are included in numerous public and private collections. In the Studio with Wilbur Niewald captures the scope of Niewald’s career, from abstract to representational.
“I have a great admiration for Wilbur’s remarkable longevity,” said Julián Zugazagoitia, Menefee D. and Mary Louise Blackwell CEO & Director of the Nelson-Atkins. “From his early paintings to today, his work remains fresh, vital, and relevant. In the Studio allows visitors a glimpse into the process of this enduring artist.”
The exhibition encompasses paintings from the 1950s to the present, with works from the Nelson-Atkins and private collections as well as Niewald’s personal collection. In the Studio will be installed within the Bloch Galleries, adjacent to works by artists who heavily influenced Niewald’s subjects and styles.
“Wilbur’s work is studied and deliberate, and has a meditative quality,” said Jaime Rovenstine, Curatorial Assistant who organized the exhibition. “His habitual studio practices and commitment to daily painting is remarkable. He lives his work, and we are fortunate to have him living it in our community. We are thrilled to be honoring his lifelong career and legacy in Kansas City.”
Niewald taught painting and drawing at the Kansas City Art Institute for 43 years, chaired the painting department, and received the prestigious Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2006. Niewald cites Paul Cezanne, Alberto Giacometti and Piet Mondrian as key influences. The Mondrian influence is most apparent in Niewald’s abstracts of the 1950s and 60s, with simple vertical and horizontal lines with a simple palette of yellow ochre, burnt sienna, black, and white. While his early work was largely abstract, in the late1960s he began to paint more representationally.
“For me, painting is a visual study but it is always a personal expression,” Niewald has said. “I have learned the importance of the field of vision and the visual size of things, and I learned that color is all we really see.”
Niewald grew up near Swope Park and was selected by teachers as a student who had artistic potential. He went to KCAI each Saturday and received a scholarship to attend the school at age 17, but WWII intervened and he left to serve the Navy Air Corps. Following the service, he did attend KCAI and received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees before embarking on his career teaching drawing and painting. He retired from KCAI in 1992.
The artist will lead two tours of the exhibition; Thursday, Sept. 27 from 6–7 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 21 2–3 p.m. In the Studio with Wilbur Niewald closes Nov. 4. In November, The Nerman Museum will present Wilbur Niewald In the Landscape, an exhibition of recent watercolors.
Image captions: E. G. Schempf, American (born 1948). Wilbur Niewald, 2009. Chromogenic print, Image: 10 7/8 x 16 inches, Sheet: 16 1/8 x 20 1/4 inches. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Gift of the artist, 2010.28.
Wilbur Niewald, American (b. 1925). Kansas City, View from Penn Valley Park, 1989. Oil on canvas, 29 3/4 x 36 3/4 x 1 5/8 in. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Purchase: Nelson Gallery Foundation, F90-14/2.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
The Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City is recognized nationally and internationally as one of America’s finest art museums. The museum, which strives to be the place where the power of art engages the spirit of community, opens its doors free of charge to people of all backgrounds. The museum is an institution that both challenges and comforts, that both inspires and soothes, and it is a destination for inspiration, reflection and connecting with others.
The Nelson-Atkins serves the community by providing access to its renowned collection of more than 41,000 art objects and is best known for its Asian art, European and American paintings, photography, modern sculpture, and new American Indian and Egyptian galleries. Housing a major art research library and the Ford Learning Center, the Museum is a key educational resource for the region. In 2017, the Nelson-Atkins celebrates the 10-year anniversary of the Bloch Building, a critically acclaimed addition to the original 1933 Nelson-Atkins Building.
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