Ida Rittenberg Kohlmeyer, 1912-1997

Ida Rittenberg Kohlmeyer studied with Hans Hofmann, Mark Rothko, and Ashile Gorky, as well as many instructors at Newcomb College. Her work is part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Women in the Arts, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Ogden Museum, and the New Orleans Museum of Art. In 1980, the national Women’s Caucus for Art honored her with their highest award, alongside Anni Albers, Louise Bourgeois, Lee Krasner, and fellow New Orleanian Caroline Durieux.

In addition to this and other national recognition, Kohlmeyer maintained a steady allegiance to her hometown, always thanking Newcomb College for beging part of her background, maintaining an interest in her garden of roses in the city, and in supporting other artists of New Orleans. Her work is also explored in art historian Michael Plante’s book, Ida Kohlmeyer: Systems of Color, as well as in a number of printed catalogs including the Morris Museum’s Ida Kohlmeyer: Recent Works, and the Mint Museum’s: Ida Kohlmeyer: Thirty Years. At the time of her death in 1997, she was Louisiana’s most renowned artist.