Tuesday, October 28, 2014

lead anchors steel washers

Last Thursday I heard from Clyde Baade. He was a student in 1966 at Concordia University when my father was gluing sections of the "Spirit of Nebraska" to plywood in his backyard Seward studio. (see next photo) Listen to what this science major has to share.
     "Yes, I not only helped take both Mosaics to Lincoln, I used my own tools and helped install both of them.  
I was working in construction with Reinhardt Mueller while I was going to Concordia, at the time, and he loaned me for the project. It was a wonderful project, and Reinhold and I got along very well.  I don't know how many details you want, but would be happy to provide more if they would be of value. 
My Mom moved to Seward from Iowa so we could have a Lutheran Education and my brothers and sisters went to the High School."   Clyde Baade  (Oct 23, 2014)   
double click to see images enlarged 

    Clyde regards a photo that was in the Lincoln Journal newspaper (below). In that photo, Baade stands to the left and Reinhold to the right.
      "That is me in the picture, and thank you so much.  I did not know any one took one, so that was a real thrill for me to see it, and a treasure. "
"Your dad did rent a truck to haul the murals. As you know they are mounted on exterior plywood and he cut them in many pieces and numbered them so they would go up in the correct order.
What we did not have:
We did not have lasers to determine the plane of the wall which was very uneven.
We did not have super glue.
We had tape measures, pencils, hand drills with masonry bits (many).
Your dad would take a panel and remove 4 mosaic (glass tiles) from near the 4 corners.  I would drill mounting screw holes through the wood.  He would hold the panel in the correct location, and I would mark the holes in the concrete.  Then he would take the panel down and we would drill the holes in the concrete and install the lead anchors. We would insert the screws and put stainless steel washers on the back. Being careful not to lose any washers we would try to insert the screws into all 4 lead anchors.  If the panel was the correct distance from the wall,  we could tighten it.  More likely we would have to take the whole thing down and add washers to one or more screws.  That is where super glue and lasers would have been real nice.  When the panel was secure, Reinhold would re-glue the tile in the 4 corners and any that had to be removed when the panels were cut."     Clyde Baade

In 1967 Baade aided Marxhausen installing a mural called the "Building of the Capitol." This second mural  was also designed and installed by the professor of art from Seward, Nebraska. Next, scaffold going down to the floor.
I don't remember exactly how many days it took for the murals, but your Dad must have been satisfied with my work, because he let me come back for the 2nd one. I was just too busy and enjoying the experience too much to worry about time.  It had to be very noisy with all those hours of drilling in that great space, but I don't know of anyone complaining.  Since I was facing the wall most of the time, I don't even know who else was there.
When we finished, I was just a science major again and rarely saw the professor, but it was wonderful while it lasted.  Thank you for allowing me to share.    Clyde Baade (Oct 25, 2014)
 
West side of Great Hall, the farthest left is the mural Reinhold Marxhausen and Clyde Baade installed on a narrow scaffold, high above the floor. Below, looking up at installed mural on East side of Great Hall.

The late Norman Geske discusses the integration of symbolism and art into the design of the Nebraska State Capitol, in particular the six mosaics in the great hall. Reinhold talks about his design for "The Spirit of Nebraska". Video is nine minutes.  Reinhold kneels below gluing tiles in his Seward studio (circa 1966)
 
 glued wood pieces


glued glass mosaic pieces

The "Spirit of Nebraska" is very big. 
It filled a niche that was 13 by 18 feet.

Photos from Marxhausen LTD, Seward, Nebraska

More on Capitol at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska_State_Capitol
View all six Great Hall murals, click and scroll down, http://capitol.org/building/rooms/foyer/  accessed Oct 28, 2014.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

daisy mosaic - where in lawrence

Cut glass
glued to a rectangle of wood
double click on image to enlarge
a stand of daisies
on a cement wall in Lawrence
Kansas
 
where is this?
Address please.
Still standing?
photos by reinhold marxhausen
 

Monday, October 6, 2014

digging required !!!!

     Sleuths come in many forms. Most have questions that drive their curiosity. My brother and I are betting sleuths will come snooping once the bone yard is set up for exploration.  (DOUBLE CLICK ON IMAGES)

       Our father lived a DOUBLE life. To us he was the one who led us on adventures every Sunday afternoon, exploring creek beds, following the old rail routes out into the countryside, climbing over sand piles at the brick yard, making pathways through tall dried weeds. (CLICK HERE)
He made sandboxes for us to dig in, underneath the boughs of a willow. And he stayed with our mother all our lives. He worked, he put a roof over our head, he sent us to school, he read and thought and prayed, he drove us to the city swimming pool and was the first one in EVERY time. Running into the blue depths, ready to receive us, help us to float on our backs, or coaxing us to hold our breath and swim down and under, through his legs and up back to the surface. That was the life we knew and experienced, it shaped us and made us who we are today. Boys with a father. Boys with a MAN in their lives.

     His OTHER LIFE was less defined. Him going off to work. What he did during those hours. Who he associated with. How he got into it in the first place.

     We had heard some stories. Pieces of information lost on boys who were young and living their own lives at school, among classmates, eating lunch, playing tether ball, wrestling, talking on blocks of wood as if they were really walkie-talkies, hiding in the yard during hide and seek, doing our homework, practicing our piano lessons before school, getting to watch SOME television, getting ready for bed.

      Like, when he got out of the army on the GI bill, he went to college, he was at the Chicago Art Institute, waiting for his teacher to show him HOW to paint. The FURY and disappointment he felt when the painting instructor told him "to just START painting!!!!!" How he went at it with ambition, "like-there-was-no-tomorrow,"  "painting day-and-night," furiously. Doing that thing.

     We enjoyed the FAME HE HAD. Yep, it is true, our dad DID complete two giant murals for the Nebraska State Capitol. Yep, he completed against lots and lots of people and HE won, he got the prize, he got the job. That was OUR dad.

      We got to ride in the cool station wagon he painted with its crazy colors and stripes. The off balance circle of white on the tires, that made the wheels look like they were wobbling and soon to fall off!! The back tailgate painted silver. The large unseen red bulls-eye on the top of the car, that no one but the airborne birds could see from above, and could bomb that target with their bird poop. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Dad was so funny. What a great idea.

                 In 1960 - cement, steel rods, and a tall crane was used to lift up the heavy earth-formed "BOOK" on the campus of Concordia University in Seward Nebraska.


      But IN THE MIX of it all, I was NOT INSIDE his brain, I did not see his struggle or his thought process, or how he approached his projects, or the engineering required, or the permission he sought out from third parties. When I was out of college, on my own --- I thought I was destined to become like Dad. That his fame would automatically come my way for me. With the same notoriety I perceived of him. Alas, it did not turn out that way for me. I was his son, to be sure. But my PATH was not assured, not the same, and the One I was most mad at, eventually worked out all the kinks and attitudes and presumptions that I carried with me, thru tears and into His joy.

     So, now, years later, my father gone on to be with Jesus his Lord,
I am looking through time lines scrawled on paper, and thinking about that "other NAME"  his colleagues called him: "Marxy." A fictious character. Distant, cloaked, with me, a 59 year old grownup wondering, what each of these moments in his life, blessed him with.
     Others, perhaps YOU, will make the trek and find a piece of the puzzle. That is what sleuths do. They ask a question, then poke around on the Internet, seek out others who were inspired by Marxy, make a premise, test a theory, test and seek, and form a conclusion from their own perspective. Maybe - - - - post it in a thesis paper - - -OR online -- or in a book- - OR on Twitter -- OR blog about it. They might read what others have written, like Josh Duncan and Abbey Lange Groth.. Wikipedia has not weighed in on the matter.
     My brother hopes we will both live long enough to see and build a specialized website, which will hold much evidence, photos, lines of conjecture, and LOTS of bones. "the compilation of 13,000 images."

      Get a shovel ready.

      If you knew Marxy, please add a comment below for others to read.