enamel on steel - dhaemers

      As I sort through the estate files and pull together pieces of art made of the same materials I have come across the medium of enamel-on-steel. As Reinhold Marxhausen ventured into sculpture it was his instructors at Mills College who guided him. Robert Dhaemers was the one who introduced Marxie to glass enamel on steel in 1961.

Below, photo of Dhaemers and two examples of his jewelry. Dhaemers was described as an organic modernist.

Robert A Dhaemers was influenced by Metal Art Guild founder Bob Winston. More on Bob Winston and  resources at http://metalartsguildsf.org/category/blog/

(Records of Reinhold Marxhausen coursework of Mills College, courtesy of Marxhausen Estate and Concordia University, Aug. 8, 2015)

(Photo of Dhaemers from Obituary, accessed Aug.8, 2015 http://easthamptonstar.com/Obituaries/2014403/Robert-Dhaemers-Artist# .) (Photos of Dhaemers jewelry, accessed Aug.8, 2015 http://www.mschon.com/damerubnk.htm)

Questions to explore further (beyond this blog post):

• How does modernism show up in Marxhausen's sculpture?

• Dhaemer paid attention to the patina and surface treatment of his sculpture, did Marxhausen display the same treatment? In which pieces? How may Marxhausen's enamel work have differed from Dhaemer's?

• Dhaemer was interested in the sculpture seen in the round. Marxhausen treated his enamel on metal works in the round as well.

 

Like his instructor, Marxhausen experimented with some ornamental forms, see ABOVE.

Sculptor Arthur Geisert remembered one specific work by Reinhold Marxhausen.

  "You dad did a sculpture. It was a bright red pomegranate. It was enamel on metal. He did enamel on metal at Mills." 

(Courtesy of phone interview with Karl Marxhausen, Sept. 16, 2014, from 2:15-2:30 pm)

"I remember the smell of baked enamel. Dad had one plate for me to scribble on and one for my brother. I don't remember the specifics, but you can look at the items yourself, and guess what that process might have been. Glass powder on metal, heated in a kiln, taken out and drawn on with a metal wire, all under the watchful eye of my father. It's seems dangerous now. But the orange enamel matches the orange used for the pomegranate. My hunch is that he shaped the metal first and then paint on the glaze and heated to melt the powder."         Karl Marxhausen

The piece Dad helped me with measured 8 by 12 3/4 inches, BELOW.
I was age 6.

My brother's piece BELOW. It measures 14 3/4 by 4 3/4 inches. He was age 3 years when Dad helped him with it.

Marxie made a work entitled "Compatibility" while at Mills College.
The enamel on steel dates the piece to 1962. Close up below.

My father also welded decorative metal flowers in the school studio for graduates. Seen next to the four-plex apartment, BELOW, at  3237 64th Street in Oakland, California, ABOVE. (City map, courtesy of Google and Douglas Johnston, an alum of California Concordia College, which was also called Triple C)

Grad student Reinhold Marxhausen

Our family (left to right):

Paul, Karl, Dorris, and Reinhold (who preferred being called Marxie)

in on it

"The backyard show in Long Beach was Art's idea, I'm sure."      Richard Wiegman, Portland,Oregon

(Above, left to right: Gerry Brommer, Arthur Geisert, Dick Wiegman, Reinhold Marxhausen) Double click on images to see more details.

In 2014 I asked Geisert about the backyard exhibit. He told me all the metal and ceramic works were done by Marxhausen. Watercolors were by Brommer. Oil paintings were by Wiegman and Geisert. The seated woman and boy subjects were by Geisert. He said he had painted a copy of Van Gogh’s “Potato Eaters.”

I asked Geisert who Gerald Brommer was.

"He was an art teacher at the Lutheran High School. Dick Wiegman and myself attended that school. Dick was a year ahead of me. We both went to Concordia in Seward."  Sept 29, 2014 

 

Brommer was instrumental for sending talented high school graduates, like Wiegman and Geisert, on to Concordia Teachers College in Seward, Nebraska, now known as Concordia University.

There was a story I had heard growing up about bicycling to Nebraska.

Geisert answered:
"In 1959 John Anderson and myself bicycled from California out to Seward. We camped out and slept along the road. It took us 6 weeks to get to Seward. Sometime later, Dick and I bicycled back to California. That took 5 weeks to get back. Road construction had gravel piles

which were easier to scoop out nest to sleep in, rather than on the hard ground. Back then, we’d biked 80 miles a day. There were two mountain ranges. We rode up to the top of a pass and spent the night. It was COLD. Next day we coasted 10 or 12 miles down the other side."   Sept.29, 2014  

 Both Geisert and Wiegman were taking art classes at Seward prior to and after this photo. During Christmas break of 1961 Geisert hatched the idea of having an impromtu art show in his parents backyard. His parents lived in Lakewood, CA. Both Wiegman and Geisert had returned home over the break and brought current art projects with them for that one day exhibit. Reinhold Marxhausen with his wife Dorris, and sons Karl and Paul were living in Oakland, CA. Marxhausen had just completed the fall term of graduate classes at Mills College. He was working toward his Master in Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in sculpture. Reinhold, also known as "Marxie," hand-lettered the sign for the exhibit on his car (see top photo).

According to Gerry Brommer, the college art professor had spoken to an conference of Southern California Lutheran school teachers in 1960, one year before he moved his family to Oakland and his sabbatical graduate classes began (click above). 

"I believe he was the keynote speaker. He might have spoken on creativity. He may have showed slides of a farm where an art event was held. I remember he stayed at our house. He came out a day earlier. He and I drove down to the Los Angeles Harbor and spent time painting where the big ships and fishing boats are. I painted too. He ended up with my paintings and I with his. My wife tells me the painting has the date 1960 on it." Jan. 19, 2015

Los Angeles Harbor by Reinhold Marxhausen

Brommer on Marxie:

"He was a strong influence, I’m sure. Maybe more so, since you were in his family. I have a couple things he made for me. Some plaques he designed just for me, made of metal and ceramics. He was prolific. January 19, 2015

 

Gerald F. Brommer LINK  Richard Wiegman LINK  Arthur Geisert LINK   Reinhold P. Marxhausen LINK

(quotes from phone interviews with Karl Marxhausen. Richard Wiegman - October 22, 2014; Gerald Brommer - January 19, 2015; Arthur Geisert - September 29, 2014; photos courtesy of Marxhausen Estate LTD, Seward, Nebraska)