Marxy in the Sower - March 9, 1989

This is a short article about Marxhausen and other Concordia faculty having work accepted to the Fred Wells 13 art exhibit. The work was called, "Night Encounter" and in wood. I checked the photos of wood pieces I have and didn't find one with that title. Maybe it isn't in the Marxhausen Gallery collection?

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.

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.

The Sower

This Marxhausen piece hangs in the Teachers' Learning and Education Center at CUNE. When they saw me photographing this piece, several faculty and staff at TLEC began to reminisce about Marxy, and I gleaned some great information.

The back contained basic information such as the artist and title, Marxhausen gave it the simple title of "The Sower," and the listed media was glass and plexiglass.

He also used wood and possibly Formica, which is also used for counter-tops. Lynda Parde recalled Marxhausen also used Formica in a piece which he gave to her in 1973. From this information, I learned that Marxhausen was going through a "Formica phase" in the early 1970s.

It was clearly inspired by Christ's parable of the sower:

Then he told them many things in parables, saying: 'A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.' Matthew 13:3-8 (NIV)

This piece was photographed and included in a series of posters shared with LCMS teachers across the country, However the original is not just a flat, two-dimensional image, so one can appreciate it better by looking at it from more than one angle:

- Duncan