Exhibit to display 60 years of Nierengarten's artistry

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- For over 60 years, Catherine Ellen Winter Nierengarten has documented artistically area farming landscapes, local German architecture, as well as scenes in Italy and Mexico.

Much of her art is very personal, documenting her family's growth, but don't forget her paintings of nude figures. What has evolved is a surprisingly eclectic mixture of styles.

"This exhibition represents a lot of my styles, as well as the different periods I've gone through," she explained. "For example, there's the watermelon period when I painted nothing but melons. Just ask my kids about that."

Now, the 85-year-old artist is having her first-ever public exhibition of 62 paintings, drawings and collages at the Kiesling House Gallery during Heritagefest.

Sponsored by the Council for the Arts in New Ulm, the "Catherine and Her Art" exhibition opens on Saturday with a reception from 2-4 p.m. and runs three weekends: July 7-8, 14-15 and 21-22.

Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturdays and 1-4 p.m. Sundays. The exhibition also can be viewed by appointment by calling 507-354-7874.

So, how does it happen that an artist who has an art degree and has been making art for over 60 years is just having her first exhibition?

"I just didn't have any desire to have an exhibition or put any art in galleries," she said. "For years, it was for sale in my shop, and that was enough. I'm not on any ego trip. If it hadn't been that my family insisted, I wouldn't be having this exhibition now."

Her daughter, Barbara Jean Nierengarten-Smith of St. Louis, Mo., though recovering from back surgery, came home to direct setting up the family-inspired exhibition.

For some 20 years, Nierengarten owned and operated an art and antique shop called "Arts Catherine" in New Ulm while continuing her artistic career.

The shop drew a number of national and international visitors who became acquainted with her art while visiting her shop. Visitors such as then-U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy who displayed several of her paintings in his Washington, D.C., office.

"I've been into antique and old stuff since childhood," she recalled. "I loved going to auctions."

Her love of art has been just as enduring.

"I was drawing as a young child," she said. "I originally studied art at St. Benedict's College (in St. Joseph) but found it to be too conservative."

She transferred to the University of Minnesota where she got an art scholarship and her bachelor of arts degree. Since then, she has taken art courses at Minnesota State University at Mankato and Mesa Community College in Mesa, Ariz.

Following her marriage to New Ulm attorney Edward Nierengarten, she began raising a family, but she kept working on her artistic skills.

"I made use of the time I had," she recalled. "I'd take my sketch pad along when I took the kids to the park and sketch every chance I got. My kids were very involved in my art."

While the vast majority of the exhibition works are done in watercolor, Nierengarten uses a wide variety of mediums, including acrylics, pen and ink, pencil, charcoal, chalk and pastels/crayons. Her exhibition also includes three watercolor collages. She particularly enjoys incorporating ink into her watercolors.

Two things you won't see at the exhibition are abstract and oil paintings.

"Abstract just doesn't appeal to me," she said, "and I get too impatient with oils."

She prefers acrylics to oils because the water-based medium sets up faster and is more workable.

Her self-professed lack of patience is also the reason she hasn't tried teaching art, she said.

There's no hint of impatience in her paintings, however; the eclectic nature of her paintings only reflects an artist with enormous interest in everything around her.