Our times are totally clear: money dominates everything

05:15 AM  July 20. 1987

cool, cloudy, refreshing mountain air in northern New Hampshire

The miracle of life remains unaltered - no matter how often it occurs. (Whoever loses this sense for it will know their existence is off course - and in need of fundamental and massive help).

For another 14 days I will be here, with Sarah and her immediate family. To the German language lessons-- we never had time, since everyone is working to make cold cash. Absolutely sad if these dear friends (7 of them) could only see their plight. No, I can utter not a single word. it is of no use when so much determination for such money need is present people are caught up or trapped to that extent. They can not see. Their perception is that of: this is the only way. And the terror is, the more they make, the more they spend, the more they need ---------------- the less they have.
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the ultimate terror to me is - in that engagement they lose the only thing they EVER had =
their youth, their time.
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one myth is = our times are confused.
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to unravel
to reveal - we confuse ourselves
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our times are totally clear:
money dominates everything.
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a few, careful people, live with "less" than they could afford. They look to all others as being rich.

Therefore I define richness = to live with a happy heart on less than we already have.

this is identical to saying = we have time to think.

to have time to think, is, again = equal to having time to feel, time to act; since these three (action, feeling, thinking) are one.

To you, dear Phillip, I can speak this with ease, since you know this so well and since you live out of an understanding of this.

Mountain greetings,
Your Wolfram

P.S.

Phillip, you may wonder what I do here?

the bathroom floor was rotting out
water was standing in the carpet, etc.
the furnace made a noise, vibrating the floor.
the switch did not work in the living room.
the stove needed cleaning.
the window screen was torn.
the radiator leaking.
the concrete steps were cracked, on the outer porch.
the trees needed trimming of dead branches.
drawers and doors were stuck or unhinged

and so on.
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His wife, Julie, was instrumental to buy this house about 10 years ago. She died 2 years ago. Heart, - passive smoker. Everyone is smoking still!
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When I came here this summer and saw the condition of the house I promised myself to restore the main parts, so everyone can feel well about Julie, who suggested to buy this specific house as summer retreat - 4 months. (it is rented out for 6 months during fall & winter to skiers). Julie, 52 years old, was a student of the sculpture class and art history (1982-85)

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September will see the begin of casting bronze in the Wisconsin studio.     Love    Wolfram

"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)

"Bronze Bust of Gov. Warren P. Knowles..." (1968)

A Bronze bust of Gov. Warren P. Knowles and his wife, being presented to the couple at a luncheon Sunday as gifts from a Bayside furniture designer, are described by the donor as a gift in gratitude for the Republican executive's encouragement of Wisconsin business activity. John W. Boughton, who commissioned German-born sculptor, Wolfram Freidrich Niessen, for the works, said the gifts to the Knowles reflect thanks from those "who have felt the impact of what they have done for people in a creative field of business." Broughton, president of Willowbrook Corp. of Thiensville, said gratitude is due Mrs. Knowles for her encouragement of what he called "artistic efforts in Wisconsin". Niessen is an assistant art professor at Northern Michigan University. He began work on the busts in August. He also was on the art faculty of Stout State University in Menomonie for two years until last spring. His work of the governor is of patina-ed bronze, and that of Mrs. Knowles is of polished bronze.

Eau Claire Leader, 12 Jan 1968