Wilbur Niewald (1925–2022) was a professor emeritus of painting at the Kansas City Art Institute, where he studied, taught, and served as chair of the Painting and Printmaking Department for twenty-eight years. The school is recognized as one of the leading traditionally based undergraduate art programs in the United States. Throughout his long tenure in the college’s esteemed painting department, he profoundly influenced generations of students.

Niewald also taught in summer programs at the New York Studio School, Yale University, Boston University, Vermont Studio Center, and Chautauqua Institution. He was the recipient of numerous accolades, including a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the Lifetime Achievement Award from Kansas City’s Charlotte Street Foundation, an Artist-in-Residence appointment at Grand Canyon National Park, and the Distinguished Teaching of Art Award from the College Art Association. He was also a member of the National Academy of Design.

Exhibitions of Niewald’s work include retrospectives at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Rider University, and the Kansas City Art Institute, as well as exhibitions at Haw Contemporary (Kansas City, MO), Wright State University (OH), New York Studio School, Dorry Gates Gallery (MO), Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Zeuxis Gallery (NY), National Academy Museum, and the Ingber Gallery (NY).

Niewald’s work is part of the collections of numerous museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art.

Website

2019 Watercolors and Drawings, Haw Contemporary, Kansas City, MO (details)

2017 Recent Paintings, Haw Contemporary, Kansas City, MO (details)

2017 Works from the '50s & '60s, Haw Contemporary, Kansas Cty, MO (details)

2014 Still Life, Figure, Landscape, Haw Contemporary, Kansas City, MO (details)

2012 The Studio Portrait, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO

2007 Dolphin Gallery, Kansas City, MO

2006 Dolphin Gallery, Kansas City, MO

2004 Retrospective Exhibition, Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, St. Joseph, MO

2001 Morgan Gallery, Kansas City, MO

2014 Painted Faces, Sherman Smith Family Gallery, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK

2012 Exhibition of the Oppenheimer Collection, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS

2012 The Figure: A Midwest Paint Group Exhibition, Leedy-Voulkos Gallery, Kansas City, MO

2010 Landscape Exhibition, Dolphin Gallery, Kansas City, MO

2009 60 years- Three Dedicated Artists, Teachers, Friends, Baker University, Baldwin, KS

2003 A Fine Line: Drawings by National Academicians, National Academy of Design, New York, NY

2001-02 Serial Thinking, a Traveling Exhibition, Zeuxis, New York, NY

2000 Charlotte Street Fund, H&R Block ArtSpace, Kansas City, MO