Marxy in the Sower - Oct 1987

The Sower: Vol. 24, No. 4, page 9. This issue came out December 17, 1986.

Marxy in the Sower - November 1986

The Sower: Vol. 24, No. 3, page 14. This issue was first published November 25, 1986.

Marxy in the Sower - Oct 1987

The Sower: Vol. 25, No. 2, page 3. This issue came out October 22, 1987. Concordia, which was then called CTC, honored Marxhausen at an event November 7.

Marxy in the Sower - September 1985

The Sower: Vol. 23, No. 1, page 4, Sept. 25, 1985.

1985 was one of the years where the faculty art show was held at Concordia. It was also Prof. Wolfram's 25th year, and Prof. Soloway's first year teaching at Concordia.

Bullying Children and Art

Here is a quote I read from Laura Ingraham's new book which sounds like it came right out of an article by Marxhausen:

All over the museum, there were people with their cell phones extended, recording every image in the gallery, muttering to themselves, and no one said a word to them. Americans now experience live events, art, and even family life via their cell phones. They're so busy watching life go by in the display screen that genuine human emotion and interaction are no longer a part of the equation. But a child squeals with delight at a piece of art, and it's a federal offense.

We have become experts at capturing images, but often fail to see deeply. Our children should be encouraged to have honest reactions to the world around them and not bullied into silence when they attempt to interact. (Of Thee I Zing, p 225)

Marxhausen wrote in one of his articles that as an art instructor, he often had to "give permission" before the students and adults he was teaching would try to create anything. A possible consequence of bullying and stifling creativity in children is that, as adults, we're timid and afraid to try anything new without someone giving us permission.

Activity on the Facebook Page

Watercolor

Given as a wedding present in 1953

Courtland, MN farm

Several people have been sharing artworks they own created by Reinhold. I'm going to share a few of these images here as well as some information provided about the works.

Scribd update and Marxhausen Exhibit

Here is a link to a St. John Lutheran Church pamphlet which describes the artworks in the church, which includes the white T cross and stained glass windows designed by Reinhold Marxhausen.

There is an old version and a new version of the pamphlet.

Here's the URL to the collection: http://www.scribd.com/collections/2809198/Marxhausen

Update:

I've added the latest edition of the Concordia Broadcaster to the collection. The Summer 2011 edition of the Broadcaster has an article in memory of Reinhold.

There will be an exhibition of Marxhausen's art entitled "Do You See What I See?" at the Marxhausen Gallery of Art at Concordia University. It will run Oct. 2-Nov. 18. If you've enjoyed following this artist's work online, please try to visit and see his work in person.

I and Thou in the Here and Now by Kay Anderson

The book I and Thou in the Here and Now is a book about finding joy in life and dealing with how life can be sad and feel like a drudgery. In it, the author shares short stories of her experiences. Several of these are about her memories of Reinhold Marxhausen. Karl Marxhausen shared a copy of this book with me which includes a note from the author addressed to Reinhold.

Stories which were about Reinhold were marked with stars in the text. Here is the note written by Kay Anderson and the relevant quotes from the book:

8/15/77

For Marx—

This book was launched after meeting you. Your spirit joined mine…and you will find yourself clearly reflected on the star marked pages. You are the “senior robin” in the Fantasy Finale. Thanks for BEING you!

With love,

Kay

(The FLURRY is super! Thanks J)

p. 16

At a conference, an artist loaned me his eyes until I was able to see with my own.

Marx shared himself and gave me a world of new awareness. Suddenly, common things took on great significance. I stooped to study a dried and crumbling leaf, and saw the sun move through it casting a lacy shadow on my path.

p. 48

The conference is long past, and I feel like a child whose hands are still cupped to hold a shimmering bubble that once drifted away on a breeze.

It’s hard for me to let go of something or someone that completes me. Although the longing makes me painfully aware of my needs, it also makes me aware of beautiful memories. I chose to recall and remember the joy. I chose to reach out again.

p. 77

A man told me that his father had always wanted him to become a minister, but he became an artist instead. Now in his fifties, he drives himself in his work seeking to minister to others through his medium, not yet certain that he’s fulfilled his father’s dream.

He and I and others have placed excessive demands on Self, all because of unresolved and long-ago, external expectations. To become aware, to be gentle with Self, to accept the kind of reflections of others—that is a beginning. The past need not consume us.

p. 116

“Look there!” my friend said, and pointed in my tea cup. I presumed he meant a speck of dust or some lint. “It’s okay,” I assured him, and poured myself some tea. Then he had to take another cup to patiently show me a heart-shaped reflection that the sunlight cast in the cup.

At least for now, it takes a conscious effort for me to remain silent and receptive. I would like to give others time to reflect, to share, to be.

The final chapter of the book is a fantasy that the author dreamed about. The two main characters are an old butterfly and a senior robin. Notes were written in the margins, identifying the butterfly as Kay and the robin as Marx. Here is the section of the final chapter which is a direct reference to Reinhold:

Fantasy Finale

The Great Escape

After being at a luncheon with friends one day, I came home to think through the conversations of that noon hour. I felt frustrated by the lack of fulfillment expressed by some of my friends. I felt saddened by their willingness to accept their “lot in life.” I felt separated from them when I shared some of my flying experiences.

And then I had a fantasy. Within the fertile garden of thoughts and wishes and dreams, I saw the birds and butterflies of the world held captive on the wheels of life. Though their wings flapped and fluttered, a clasp was closed around their bodies, and they were seemingly hopeless captives.

Around and around they went on their particular wheels, pouring out their life force in pursuit of life’s daily needs. They were limited to experiences within the scope of that wheel. There they saw their fellow winged beings. There they all dipped down to eat and rest at the end of the day’s “journey.”

“That’s life,” I imagined they’d say, just as my friends were saying without actually voicing that conviction. But I couldn’t bear it! Not for myself. Not for them.

Then into my fantasy came an old butterfly and a senior robin. They had been “flying” for most of their lives. They had seen sunsets over the lake, sunrises on the hills of the forest. They had tasted of flowers and worms. They had climbed to great heights. They had been driven against their will in sudden unexpected squalls. They had taken their chances away from the security of the wheel.

Now they had come home. In a mutual pact, they had agreed to try once more to free their friends from captivity.

“Lift your eyes,” they butterfly whispered in a flutter of demonstration. “Look up!”

“Raise your vision,” chirped the old robin. “There’s more to life than worms. I eat so that I can fly and drift and splash in rain puddles. Lift your heads, my friends.”

Still the wheels turned. The lovely creatures remained passively secure within the clasp of life’s practicalities. Around and around they flew, though I question the use of that verb. Their only change of pace came at meal times and at dusk.

On the next morning, the old butterfly visited flowers that flourished beyond the well-worn and quite barren and of wheels. And the senior robin sang freely from the branches of a lush leafy oak.

Perhaps it was an accident. Perhaps it was a plan. But the uncommon song of the robin caused two birds to life their heads suddenly, almost in unison.

With that individual choice, two clasps flew open. Two birds abandoned the plodding plight of the wheel. The responsive birds were free, free at last. Together they flew, they truly flew to join the senior robin. They flew to participate in life.

As if on cue, the old butterfly winged close to one wheel, settling, lifting, dipping her wings, faltering a bit. She caught the attention of an eager young captive. Excitedly the old butterfly fluttered forth toward the blue and waiting sky. And the young one looked up!

Again a clasp flew open. And for a while the fragile and untested young wings moved more quickly. Then they stopped. The wheel moved forward, relentlessly, and the young one was almost swept away in the down draft.

Just in time, the old butterfly flew close and flapped and flapped and flapped, until a kindly breeze developed to set the young butterfly right again. They away she flew, up and up and up.

“I’m flying,” came the song of the lovely butterfly. “Flying, really flying.”

All that day and the next, which would be like years in the life of men, the old butterfly and the young, along with senior robin and his friends, called out to those still trapped on the wheel.

“Look up! There is more to life than the cares of daily existence. Try your wings. Security can be hopelessness. Lift up your vision, your hopes, and you will be set free.”

Slowly, one by one, others dared to trust the uncommon call of shared flight. “Trust in Good,” said the robin. “Good created this world. Good gave us wings to carry us beyond hopelessness.”

And then, late in the afternoon, they were gone. These harbingers of freedom moved on to other wheels, to other trapped beings. There was not time to free them all. Life is of the essence. And the essence vanishes.

I and Thou in the Here and Now

Kay Anderson

1977, Word, inc.

Marxhausen's Family Site

The Marxhausen family has its own website and this is the section devoted to Reinhold. It includes a lot of great info including writing, photos and films!

Here is the address:

http://reinhold.marxhausen.net/

Article referencing Marxhausen and Seeing

In my collection of Marxhausen documents on Scribd, I just added an article I wrote for my church newsletter, CBC. In it, I talk about my experiences in France with students of Concordia.

http://www.scribd.com/collections/2809198/Marxhausen

The Phantom Tollbooth and Seeing

One chapter from the classic children's story The Phantom Tollbooth reminds me of how Reinhold stressed that seeing is an aggressive act.

In the story, the main character, a young boy named Milo, visits two cities. One is called Illusions, where nothing that is seen is real. The second is called Reality, where all the buildings are invisible. The people of Reality walk around with their heads down, unaware that their whole city is invisible.

A character called Alec tells Milo the story of how this came to be:

'Many years ago, on this very spot, there was a beautiful city of fine houses and inviting spaces, and no one who lived here was ever in a hurry. The streets were full of wonderful things to see and the people would often stop to look at them.'

'Didn't they have any place to go?' asked Milo.

'To be sure,' continued Alec; 'but, as you know, the most important reason for going from one place to another is to another is to see what's in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that. Then one day someone discovered that if you walked as fast as possible and looked at nothing but your shoes you would arrive at your destination much more quickly. Soon everyone was doing it. They all rushed down the avenues and hurried along the boulevards seeing nothing of the wonders and beauties of their city as they went.'

...

'No one paid any attention to how things looked, and as they moved faster and faster everything grew uglier and dirtier, and as everything grew uglier and dirtier they moved faster and faster, and at last a very strange thing began to happen. Because nobody cared, the city began to disappear. Day by day the buildings grew fainter and fainter, and the streets faded away, until at last it was entirely invisible. There was nothing to see at all.'

...

'they can never see what they're in too much of a hurry to look for...it's just as bad to live in a place where what you do see isn't there as it is to live in one where what you don't see is.'

Because the world around us is changing, if you don't pay attention, you might miss your chance to see something in quite the same light ever again.

Two books by Reinhold

Greetings,

I've returned from my school trip to France. After 11 days of sight-seeing and learning, I've returned with a book full of sketches, a bag full of books, and a head full of ideas. Since there were no posts while I was away, here are links to a couple of files I've been working on which fans of Marxhausen will enjoy.

Both of them are scrapbooks Reinhold made. One is called New Forms of Worship, and shows artwork and worship spaces along with his notes on them.

The second, A Time to See, should sound familiar to those who have seen his documentaries. The scrap book features several of the photos featured in the documentary he made, as well as multiple additional photographs in a similar vein.

Here is the URL of the page of Scribd, where I am collecting Marxhausen related documents: http://www.scribd.com/collections/2809198/Marxhausen

Marxhausen Chapel Message

Hello blog readers! Tomorrow, I leave for France, and will return May 22. You'll have to wait til then for new posts, so today I'm just going to let you know what I've been working on recently. I've been scanning a few books created by Reinhold. These books were entrusted to me by Karl Marxhausen.

So far, I have completely scanned two books, one of which is titled A Time to See and contains photos he showed and discussed in the film of the same name. It also includes many more photos not shown in the film, and tells the stories of the interesting things he saw and how he found them. I'll be sharing my favorite highlights from his many sketches and notes here shortly after I return, so check back later this month!

For today, I'd like to share this text of a school chapel Reinhold wrote. Pastor Bruick of St. John Lutheran Church in Seward shared this story at the memorial service for Reinhold. When Reinhold originally delivered this message, the pine coffin he built was sitting on stage.

My Capsule Just Fits

Reinhold Pieper Marxhausen, 1981—St. John Lutheran Church—School Chapel

“I used to be afraid of death
As anyone else.
Even though we know that Christ has conquered death.

My hair used to be black. I’m changing. I’m dying.

This is my casket. I paid $130.00 for it.
When it came to my house in a cardboard box as a kit,
I put it in the garage.
I did not open it for a long time because I was afraid.

Last summer I glued the pieces together.
It sits in my studio.
I see it whenever I work.
I stand in it most every day.
I am no longer afraid.

I think about death often.
When I open my eyes in the morning,
I’m surprised and happy.
Another day for me.
A gift unexpected.
But this day may be my last.

I know you are young,
full of life ahead to look forward to.
This is important.
I’m 59.
Some of you will die before me.

Farmers don’t throw their seeds away.
They plant them.
Old and shriveled people and seeds become new after death.
Like these beautiful flowers.

This box is a symbol.
A new space capsule for my meeting with God.
A great new adventure lies before me.
This box reminds me every day of God’s grace and love.

May it be for you also.”

St. John Windows

Marxhausen designed the stain glass windows in St. John, which can be found on either side of the sanctuary, the ceiling, and on both the stair cases leading to the orchestra pit.

Links to Different Sites with Info

Here is a link to a radio broadcast about Marxie, including an interview with William Wolfram!

Here is the URL:

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/netradio/.artsmain/article/17/283/1796189/Nebraska.Humanities.Features/Remembering.Nebraska.artist.Reinhold.Marxhausen/

This blog post is by the administrator of a site called unfocusedblog. He must be a former student of Reinhold's. Here is the URL:

http://www.blog.unfocusedmg.com/?p=200

Book on Sound Sculpture

Today, I visited Link Library at CUNE and checked out the book "Sound Sculpture: a collection of essays by artists surveying the techniques; applications; and future directions of sound sculpture." It was edited by John Grayson and the back of the book describes it as "The first publication to deal completely with this new art form." Part I of the book is devoted to senior artists active in the field of sound sculpture, which is where Reinhold is featured.

In his essay, Marxhausen relates the stories of different objects he worked with to create musical sounds. As a young boy on the farm, Marxie collected discarded whiskey bottles (unbeknownst to his father, a minister). Another story was playing the musical saw with the Lincoln Nebraska symphony. I plan to post the full text of Reinhold's essay in future.

This book lends further creedence to Reinhold's status as a "founding father" of an artistic movement within sculpture.

For those who have been fascinated by the musical works by Reinhold, such as his star dusts, cosmic cubes, and head sets, here is a list of names of other artists featured in the book for you to research: Bernard Baschet, Francois Baschet, A. Villeminot, Harry Bertoia, Allan Kaprow, Stephan Von Huene, David Jacobs, and Charles Mattox.

1975, Pulp Press, Canada.

Marxy in the Sower - May 1986

The Sower, Vol. 23, No. 8, May 1, 1986, page 3.
This article contains an interview where Marxhausen talks about his appearance on the David Letterman show.

Marxy in the Sower - December 1985

The Sower: Vol. 23, No. 4, December 11, 1985, page 2.

From this article I learned that Marxhausen wrote a regular column for the Seward County Independent. That discovery could prove to provide some wonderful insight into his views on art.

Marxhausen Exhibit in LCMS International Center

Here is a link to the Center of Liturgical Art's blog post on the Marxhausen exhibit put together by Abby Lange. It is currently on display at the Wolfram Gallery in St. Louis. The post links to more photos of the exhibit.

Watercolor portrait

Rest in Peace

I was saddened to hear the news today that Reinhold Marxhausen passed away last Saturday, April 24.

Karl Marxhausen visited me Saturday and shared several books made by Reinhold, including a sketchbook from 1945. Today, my family and I paged through his sketchbook, and everyone was discussing not only Reinhold's drawings, but also his thoughtful insights written in his notes. Only a couple hours later, we saw the article from the Lincoln Journal Star.

One of my heroes is with Jesus now. I know his art and his work will continue to be a testament to his faith in the years to come.

As I look through his sketchbook, done when he was about my age, I'm finding all sorts of wonderful insights. Among his class notes, I found this quote he wrote down: "Leonardo Da Vinci - a work of art is the finest, deepest, most significant expression of a rare personality. The painter has in his hands and mind the universe." I'm looking forward to discovering and sharing more of this man's wonderful work.

Here is the article from the Lincoln Journal Star.

Watercolor portrait

Watercolor portrait

Watercolor

Drawing

Watercolor

Graphite Drawing

Watercolor

Marxhausen gallery ID#: 8790

Watercolor

Marxhausen gallery ID #: 8789

Watercolor

Watercolor

Watercolor

Watercolor

Watercolor

Grand Park in Chicago

Marxhausen Gallery ID #: 1062

Watercolor

Photogram 5

Reinhold Marxhausen

Water Plants #2

14.5" x 10.5"

Color swatches

This chart lists all the different colors of mosaic pieces by Lacto products which Marxy used. You can see there is quite a variety.

Grass

21.5" x 21.75"

Indian Red

Throne Dome Video

The Sounds of Sound Sculpture

At Link Library, I found a phonodisc which collects the works of several prominent sound sculptors. Reinhold Marxhausen was one of the featured artists. The description called all the artists "founding fathers" in the field of musical sculpture. These first photos show his work "Throne Dome" and the others show info about the record itself. You can find it in Link Library's phonodisc collection and play it at the library.

#23 Landscape

Glass and burnt wood mosaic

14.33" x 20.25"

Metal Sculptures

Marxy's gloves - 1981

Leather work glove

15.5" x 11"

1981

Rubber coated glove

16.25" x 9.5"

1981

Cotton Work Glove

9.5" x 9.5"

1981

Cotton work gloves

15" x 14.5"

1981

Leather work gloves

17" x 11.75"

1981

Leather work glove

15" x 12"

1981

Girls Mitten (Glove)

15.5" x 7"

1981

Work glove

14.5" x 11.75"

1981

Cotton Work Glove

9.5" x 9"

1981

11.75" x 9.5"

1981

Girls knit mittens (glove)

12" x 8.5"

1981

Leather glove

9" x11.25"

1981