"Niessen's Uncluttered Style" (1966)

Mr. Niessen explained in an interview in the Yellow Door Gallery that his work "unclutters life." He feels his expression "simplifies life without removing its complexity." Mr. Niessen's most sincere motive of styling is his life's experience, he said. He wants the spectator to share his understanding of life in an active capacity. His works are simple statements of complex events. "Simplicity is needed to convey the imminence of it's (an event or a relationship) complexity, bringing it down to its essential. This opens all avenues for the viewer on his own he said. This unity of concept becomes evident through close examination of each medium. He stays within a medium for a given length of time, choosing that medium which best suits the complexity he wants to convey. Alabaster is perhaps, externally, his simplest expression. The poly-rotunda figures have a grace and softness that makes one almost want to caress them. They are meant to be handled and placed at different angles. Here the complexity of all existence is seen in the complexity of planar relationships. As in human experience, there arc mild and powerful aspects to the character of the stone. Mr. Niessen's bronze works are of a more intimate nature. They are smaller and more delicate than the other works. The subject matter always contains the potential monumentality of experience. This potential is especially evident in Young Mother, a small statue of a pregnant woman. The bonds of human relationships are given strength due to their media. Mother and Child, done in iron-wood, depicts a mother holding her child with no physical division between the two figures. This sensitive event, done in so powerful an expression, allows for universal involvement. Similarly, Family Portrait, done in granite and having no individuating features, shows the family as an indivisible unit. The complexity of this relationship becomes more evident through the texture of the stone. Mr. Niessen finds love through form. His life experience breaks through the shapes which he feels "have the original in the deep rooted and well-founded working of the universe." Meditation and intuition give him an insight, the ultimate source of which cannot be traced, but which is intimate with universal events. His drawings arc the culmination of his personal experiences which can't be relived. They are the result of a development of his thoughts and ultimately become a perfection of experience. The technicality of relationships is further evident in his brass works. The viewer becomes aware of the infinite number of angles and ways of looking at a particular subject. Sea Foam, a fascinating movable work done with copper and iron, allows for a certain adaptability and harmony in complexities. Wolfram Niessen feels his works are for everybody, and he likes to talk about them. Now a professor at Stout State University at Menomonie, Wisconsin, he finds great satisfaction in teaching. His intensity and appreciation of human response give him an unlimited depth in his expression.

"The Yellow Door: Niessen's Uncluttered Style" by Frances Cohen (Winnipeg Free Press, 26 Feb 1966)