a found portfolio wilbur niewald:
2 - may 23, 2026
a found portfolio
april 2 - may 23, 2026
Wilbur Niewald: A Found Portfolio brings together a rare group of eleven watercolors spanning several decades of the artist’s career, from the 1960s onward. Ten of these works were recently discovered by the artist’s daughter in a previously unseen portfolio; the eleventh hung in Niewald’s own kitchen for decades. Together, they offer an intimate view into a lifelong practice, one that moved fluidly between abstraction and observation, landscape and still life. Whether loosely structured or closely observed, each work reflects Niewald’s enduring commitment to painting as a direct, sustained engagement with what is seen and felt.
A central figure in Kansas City’s artistic community for over seventy years, Niewald balanced a rigorous studio practice with a profound dedication to teaching, shaping generations of artists while continuing to evolve his own work. As he described the shift in his practice after 1970, he turned from “looking for the universal” to “dealing with the particular… The ideal was the real.” These watercolors embody that ethos: at once grounded in lived experience and yet attentive to larger formal concerns. This exhibition marks an opportunity to encounter Niewald’s work through a body of paintings that remained, until now, unseen.
Still Life with Bowl of Oranges Watercolor on paper ca. 1980
19” x 24”
Landscape
Watercolor on paper
ca. 2002
17” x 22”
Virginia
New Mexico Landscape Watercolor on paper ca. 2006
17” x 22”
Colorado Landscape Watercolor on paper
18” x 24”
ca. 1962
Hillside with Trees
Watercolor on paper
20” x 27”
Cliffs
Watercolor on paper ca. 1963
20” x 27”
Central Park
Watercolor on paper
18” x 24”
Watercolor on paper
1971
Rock Ledge
18” x 24”
Rocks and Trees
Watercolor on paper ca. 1962
20” x 27”
Plate of Onions with Blue Cloth
Watercolor on paper
13” x 18”
Formal Garden Watercolor on paper ca. 1990 17” x 22”
