# Wilbur Niewald

Wilbur Niewald (1925–2022) was an American landscape and figurative painter active in Kansas City, Missouri from 1942–2022 primarily painting in watercolor and oils. Works by Niewald can be found in public and private collections across the United States including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

## Career

Niewald took art lessons as a child at the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) and the Nelson Gallery of Art between 1935 and 1940 and began full time study at the Art Institute in 1942 immediately after graduating from high school. After a hiatus to serve in the US Naval Air Corps (commissioned as Ensign) from 1943-6 Niewald continued his education at the Art Institute, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1949 and Master of Fine Arts in 1953.
In 1949 Niewald began teaching watercolor courses at the Art Institute while working towards his master's degree and continued to work at the Art Institute until his retirement in 1992; first as professor, then as the chairman of the Painting and Printmaking Department (starting 1959), and finally as Senior Professor of Painting (the first in the college's history, 1985). His career at the Art Institute was interspersed with invitations to teach summer programs across the country and abroad at The Studio School in Paris and New York City as well as at various American universities. These teaching trips contributed to a varied ouvre of landscapes when combined with his 1965 sabbatical leave to travel Europe and live in Florence and a brief stint in 1972 where Niewald was the artist in residence at the Grand Canyon National Park.

## Personal life

Born in Kansas City, Missouri February 22, 1925 to parents Joseph and Cora Niewald, Wilbur Niewald married Gerry Beeler in 1952. The couple had one child, Janet, in 1953 who followed in her father's footsteps and became an artist and teacher herself. Niewald died April 30, 2022 in Mission, Kansas.

## Awards

* Purchase prize, Mid-America Annual, Nelson Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri (1957)
* John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2006)
* Distinguished Teaching of Art Award from the College Art Association of America (1988)
* Distinguished Teaching Award, Kansas City Art Institute (1991)
* Received the Lifetime Achievement Award, Charlotte Street Fund, Kansas City, Missouri (1999)

## Exhibitions

Niewald's work was displayed in the Kansas City Art Institute Faculty Exhibition in the 1950, 1952, and 1954 shows and was presented by the Art Institute in a solo exhibition in 1955, 1960, 1963, and 1966. Similarly, Niewald's work was shown in the Mid-America Annual Exhibition in 1952, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1963, and 1968.
* Mid-America Artists Association Member Exhibition, 1952
* Independence Community Art Association, Little Fall Art Exhibition, 1959
* Art of Two Cities Exhibition, 1965
* Wilbur Niewald: A 40 Year Retrospective, 1951-1991 Exhibition, 1967
* William McKim Solo Exhibition, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, 1992
* Exhibition of the Oppenheimer Collection, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, 2012
* In the Studio with Wilbur Niewald, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri 8-8-2018 - 11-4-2018.
* Wilbur Niewald In the Landscape, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas, November 9, 2018 - February 3, 2019.

## Selected Works

Current River II, 1965, oil on canvas, 54 1/2 x 70 1/2 in. (138.4 x 179.1 cm), Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, 2011.24.
Kansas City, View from Greystone Heights IV, 1989, oil on canvas, 29 × 36 in. (73.66 × 91.44 cm), Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, F90-14/1.
Roanoke Park, The Castle, 1991, oil on canvas, 26 x 32 1/2 in. (66 x 82.6 cm), Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, 2012.11.01.
Elizabeth, 1994–95, oil on canvas, 36 1/8 × 26 1/8 in. (91.8 × 66.4 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995.246.
Trees at Linda Hall Library, 1996, oil on canvas, 29 x 36 in. (73.7 x 91.4 cm), Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, 1998.22.
Still Life with Bowl of Apples and Grey Pitcher, 1999, oil on canvas, 26 x 32 in. (66 x 81.3 cm), Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, 2013.12