prepared site

One Saturday I met a man who had known my father. He and my dad became friends and colleagues while teaching at Concordia University in Seward. But before they ever met --- Harvey Lange was impressed by the mural Reinhold Marxhausen painted on the east wall of the Brommer Dining Hall. (Drawing sketch, next. Estate photo, an excerpt from The Witness, January 1953. Golden Embers 1953 yearbook photo, page 62)

Marxy, as he was known on campus, had depicted "God's majestic hand," Lange told the Alumni Gathering on Homecoming weekend. The Aid Association for Lutherans printed the color image of the mural for its 1953 calendar. Double click to enlarge images.

Both Harvey and his wife Carol were very struck by that painting. As of yet they had not met Marxhausen. Lange wrote to Marxy and paid him 100 dollars to do a Christmas painting.

The work measured 36 by 24 inches. It consisted of a blazing flame in the shape of the Holy Spirit, a shaft of light which pierced through a night sky of blue. The earth below was black. Marxy told Lange the swirling figures within the light were based on figures Van Gogh had done. In the foreground one could make out the little town of Bethlehem. Marxy called the piece "a radiant hallelujah chorus."

Marxy told Harvey Lange that the painting was not on canvas but on hard masonite. He painted it with auto lacquer. Which made the work child proof. Nothing would mess up the painted surface.

From the same photos --- that the Concordia repository now has on Reinhold Marxhausen --- I recognize the white garage behind my father, the sidewalk that had been recently poured, the same one Dad had us boys draw in. There were cars in the background, across the street in the gravel parking lot, that years later would become the Campus Center. Our address was 199 College Avenue. The yard where my brother Paul and I played. My dad painted the hallelujah chorus around 1960. Later, when our family moved over to Columbia and Lincoln, that white house and the white garage would become the first Art Annex for the college in 1965. Still later, the same building was torn down to make way for the Dorcas dorm.

In 1964 Harvey and Carol Lange moved to Seward, Nebraska. They lived at 2nd and Moffitt. Harvey taught Religion classes at Concordia.

During the early 60's Dad built a studio behind our house on Columbia, in order to assemble the mosaic murals for the Nebraska State Capitol.

 
In 1977 Marxy gave Lange a welded sculpture he had made called "Victory." It depicted a germinating seed pushing through clods of earth. A motif Marxhausen used to represent Christ's resurrection from the dead. Marxy had created the piece when he was at Mills College in 1962. He only asked that the work be always available for any exhibit that came up.

When his illness had taken hold of Marxy, his wife Dorris told Harvey not to expect much conversation from him. Determined, Lange brought up the subject with Marxy. What he got instead was a conversation about the need for visual arts within the church. Congregations have a minister of music. They should consider having a minister of art.

Lange conferred with collegue Chuck Dull. Dull had started the Director of Christian Education (DCE) program at Concordia University. At one time this ministry did not exist. Then the program became established at Concordia and it continues to this day to send out qualified workers to serve congregations.

Lange foresaw a foundation for Concordia Teachers College. A liturgical art faculty. He had seen the what Arlen Meyer had done over the years for the St. John Church in Seward - visually celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Marxy had created sculptures for the church narthex, which corresponded with the pastor's sermon. Lange could see a program established to foster liturgical art. Lange said it was paramount to get input from churches and then design a means for carrying it out.

Lange asked Arlen Meyer to bring this idea before the Art Department. To hire a part-time person. The reply was that their hands were already full. After much consideration the Board of Regents approved it.

It turns out that Harvey Lange, the man I have now met, has greatly helped to fund the Center for the Liturgical Arts for the past twelve years. The Center began in 2003 under Ken Schmidt. It continued under Mike Strand and now Mark Anschutz.  Who knew? I had not. But I know now.

Harvey Lange acknowledges the hand of the Lord.

Yes yes yes yes. That is to say, some One is leading. The hand of the Lord is leading. I believe Marxy was led to Seward. And he followed. The Lord led him toward each project. The Brommer mural, the State Capitol murals, stardust on the David Letterman show --- Marxy, being both a teacher and a learner himself. The creating process as a believer and as an artist is about listening, honoring, being led, and giving thanks to that Hand of God - For He IS ABLE.

Soon ground will be broken on what once was the Marxhausen property. It was gifted to the university by the family. A new facility for the Center. Impossible things have become possible. It is the activity of our engaged Lord.

Harvey Lange is correct. What is going on it truly miraculous!!!!!

Three minutes. In 2013 the house where my brother and I grew up was still standing at 540 North Columbia in Seward, Nebraska. My mother Dorris still lived at the Arbors in Lincoln. My father was laid to rest in 2011. His grand daughter, my niece, Anne Marxhausen resided at the house and took care of the property. This was how the yard and studio looked back then. Anne had her own projects going on in the studio. You can see the landscaping and greenery my mother had planted. Aspens tall and seedlings from the Poconos in Jersey.

Three minutes. In 2016 the Marxhausen property was given to Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska. The former house was taken down and the lot prepared as the future site of the Center for Liturgical Arts. Plans have been drawn up to include the existing Reinhold Marxhausen studio, and to build additional studios on the same lot.  

Actual drawings of the planned center (photos by Paul Marxhausen)

X-ray view, side elevations, note the echo of the existing studio, 

 floor plan

site plan, smaller square is existing studio.

The front door will be what Marxy did for the 540 North Columbia house, gorgeous in satin polyurethane.

administrative desk in the basement of Jesse Hall.

Worship song. Karl Marxhausen (1989) Four minutes.

"Celebration is more heart than head, more faith than sight, more confession than consumption as we live under God's promise in Christ. We are the Lord's. Here is the Celebration."  Harvey Lange     (1971 Tower yearbook, page 86)Lange

Right photo, "Harvey Lange was making an intense point to my brother Karl.  It was great to talk with Harvey and Carol and understand the depth of their commitment to the CLA project."    Paul Marxhausen


Karl Marxhausen interview with Harvey Lange, Saturday, October 8th, 2016. Phone conversation, October 20th, 2016.