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I love, love, love this Ida Kohlmeyer painting! The colors, the brush strokes and most of all the meditative, serene feeling I experience while looking at it.

Ida Kohlmeyer was an American painter and sculptor who lived and worked in Louisiana. She took up painting in her 30’s and achieved wide recognition for her art in museums and galleries throughout the United States.

After receiving her MFA from Tulane University in 1956, she taught for seven years and was a portrait painter of children. Wanting more inspiration and a deeper meaning in life, she became a student during a summer at Hans Hofmann’s Abstract Expressive Arts School in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She was also a student and friend of Mark Rothko. In her words, she came to realize “Painting need not be a painting of something, not an imitation, but should be a revelation to the viewer and artist. It need not be instructional or socially critical. The support, (in this case, masonite) is flat, so a little bit of depth may be needed, misty/atmospheric usually - not perspective wise. Work progresses by unconscious impulses, one color calling for another, one shape after another.”

Why are we attracted to non-representational or object free art? Expressive Abstract art frees our brain from the dominance of reality, enabling the brain to flow within its inner states, create new emotional and cognitive associations and activate brain-states that are otherwise harder to access. This process is rewarding as it enables the exploration of yet undiscovered inner territories of the viewer’s brain.

Kohlmeyer’s painting is part of Brahm’s permanent collection and is currently on the upper level. Come relax, restore and rejuvenate!

This Docent’s Corner is brought to you by Kat Leahey