“Past Revisited,” a solo exhibit of the sculpture of the late Dr. Richard Neidhardt (1921-2009) is on display through July 1 at Houston’s Hooks-Epstein Galleries.
Neidhardt was a member of the Austin College art faculty from 1967 to 1986. As professor emeritus, he continued for 20 more years to create and show work from his Sherman studio, which his daughter Eve currently manages. Neidhardt’s work is in public collections at Austin College, the Texas Sculpture Garden, IBM, ARCO, Atlantic Richfield, the Geometric MADI Museum, the Rose Museum at Brandeis, the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, and in the collections of a long list of individuals.
After earning a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Florida, Neidhardt won Fulbright and Danforth grants and other prizes during his years of mainly geometric painting. He later earned a Ph.D. at Ohio State University. In mid-life, a philosophic urge to “say more” pushed him, and he began creating 3-D humanistic figures in wood, some later cast in bronze, each suggesting an existential theme. His years as a WWII transport pilot contributed deeply to his life and art.
Find more information about Neidhardt’s work. Hooks-Epstein Galleries is located at 2631 Colquitt in Houston.