Passion for Beauty Celebrates and Life and Work of Marjorie Nuhn

 

Passion for Beauty:
Marjorie Nuhn, Water Colorist

Passion for Beauty presents the art and biography of Marjorie Nuhn. Nuhn was an accomplished artist who had studied at Grant Wood's Stone City Art Colony and painted watercolors for over forty years. However, she also had undergone personal trauma as a young woman that shaped her experience. Her story is a complex one, and it is told here for the first time in print.

 
Editor Heather Skeens, who also serves as director for the Hearst Center for the Arts, which holds the largest single collection of Nuhn’s work, says of the collection that “The writings that follow tell a complicated story with its beginning in the traditional midwestern community of Cedar Falls, a community that, perhaps urged along by the university it houses and a cast of progressive civic leaders, embraced literature and the arts. This embrace provided support for Marjorie throughout her life. And yet, she struggled against the societal norms of the time.”

 
This collection features the previously unpublished biography written by Marjorie Nuhn's brother, Ferner Nuhn, as well as essays by Robyn Groth and Barbara Lounsberry that provide context for the life and work of Marjorie Nuhn. Also included in the collection is a selection of 19 full-color plates reproducing some of Marjorie Nuhn's most significant watercolors as well as a list of her extant works.

 
Final Thursday Press is an award-winning literary press that focuses on work by Cedar Valley writers. Recent publications include Winsome/Bend of the Sun by Grant Tracey and Circumference by Anne Myles. Support for this publication was provided by the Cedar Falls Community Foundation’s Saul and Joan Diamond Arts & History Fund.

Passion for Beauty: Marjorie Nuhn, Water Colorist can be purchased locally at locations including the Hearst Center for the Arts, UNI Bookstore and the Ragged Edge. It can be purchased online directly from Final Thursday Press or at amazon.com. For more information on Marjorie Nuhn, visit thehearst.org/marjorienuhn.