Reinhold Pieper Marxhausen was born in Vergas Minnesota in 1922. Marxhausen was a renowned artist who worked in painting, mosaics, sculpture, and found object art. Marxhausen knew at a young age he wanted to be an artist. He attended Dunwoody Technical School in interior design and opened a painting and wallpaper business. Unfortunately, he had to close his business when he was drafted for WWII, where he served in the Philippines and New Guinea. During his service, he would make trinkets from objects he found on the islands.
When he returned from the war, he attended the Ray-Vogue Community Arts School, Valparaiso University, and the Art Institute of Chicago. He took a few workshops at the University of Minnesota in Duluth, but his GI Bill ran out and Marxhausen began hitchhiking around the country selling watercolors to make ends meet.
Marxhausen sold some paintings to a magazine by the Ford Motor Company called the Ford Times. The president of Concordia College in Seward, Nebraska was shown some of Marxhausen’s paintings in this magazine and wrote a letter to him to offer him a position to teach art and start the art department. He eventually took the job and worked there for 40 years.
Marxhausen won a contest to create two of the six remaining murals in the Nebraska State Capitol. Out of the four artists selected for the honor, he was the only one who lived in Nebraska.
Marxhausen retired from Concordia in 1991 and died in Seward in 2011. During his years in Seward, he inspired many young minds and was an evangelist for the arts.
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