“Conversations with Carl and Wilma”

PRESS RELEASE

Art House
1009 Laurel Ave.
McAllen, Texas 78501
(956) 688-6461, (956) 490-5507
arthouse1009@sbcglobal.net
www.mcallenartwalk.com

Re: Art Exhibit, “Conversations with Carl and Wilma”.
October 5, 2007- November 31, 2007

The Art House of McAllen, TX is proud to present, “Conversations with Carl and Wilma”, an exhibit featuring selected works from the personal collection of artists’ Wilma Langhamer and her late husband Carl Mohner. The exhibit will explore the passion, dedication, and love that these two artists had for each other, and for their art. “Conversations with Carl and Wilma” opens Friday, October 5, 2007 at 6pm during McAllen’s monthly Art Walk and will be on view till November 31, 2007.

Carl Mohner was born in Vienna, Austria in 1921. Mohner, a WWII veteran, was a prolific and award winning artist, and also a successful and famous international actor who appeared in over 60 major motion picture films from the early 1950’s to 1976. Some of the movies he starred in include, “The Last Bridge”, “Rififi”, “Sink the Bismark”, “Cleopatra”, and “The Kitchen”. Mohner was also awarded the coveted Cannes Film Festival’s Golden Palm Award three times. Regardless, Mohner once made the comment that acting was his profession, art was his life. Two of his films, “Rififi” and “The Kitchen” will be featured on an outdoor projector at the Art House this Friday during Art Walk.
In looking at Mohner’s art, one will notice the simplicity and child-like innocence in his paintings. His art is playful, yet seems to carry a sense of power and strength. Perhaps this is because Mohner put his heart and soul into every painting he created, and in this light, his art reflects feeling and expression from within. It is also interesting to note that Mohner worked spontaneously without sketches and let his subconscious lead him in creating his art. Mohner was also personally attached to each work of art he made as the subject matter for his paintings encompassed reflections of his own life experiences, as well as current events. He was influenced by impressionism, abstract expressionism, minimalism, collage and figurative expressionism, and his art has been said to resemble that of Joan Miro and Paul Klee. His personal favorite artist however was Pablo Picasso whom he felt an emotional and spiritual connection with. In 1988 Carl was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, however this did not stop him from making art, he continued to paint and create art with the love and support of his wife Wilma Langhamer. He painted until the day he passed on January 14, 2005 in McAllen.
Carl Mohner’s art is in the collections of Paul Getty Jr., Robert and Mike Pollock, Executive Producers of the TV Series Dynasty, The Smithsonian Institution, the International Museum of Art and Science, and the Albertina Graphic Museum in Vienna, Austria.
Mohner worked in various mediums such as acrylic, oil, crayon, ink, oil marker, pencil, pen and objects. The tools he used to create his art included brush, plum of feather, stick of wood, his fingers, and ink droppers.

Wilma Langhamer, born in karlsbad, Germany, started painting at the age of 15. Before devoting herself full-time to painting and following her dreams as an artist, Wilma had a career as a fashion designer and a medical nurse in Germany. For Langhamer, painting and creating art is a form of meditation through which time seems to lose its importance. In her paintings she is known to intertwine the imaginary with the real. Flowers, castles, hot air balloons, and landscapes floating in air or appearing on clouds seem to dominate her canvases. Many of her paintings depict real buildings and landscapes, but Langhamer alters and changes them, adding her own artistic twist and perspective to create an air of fantasy. Langhamer is influenced by medieval and renaissance art as well as Botticelli and the Florentine school. Her art was coined by her husband Carl as “Romantic Realism”, a term he came up with to define her style of painting. Carl was not only her husband, but her art advisor, critic and promoter. With all his contacts from the film industry, he helped Wilma’s art gain popularity and develop a fan base. Her art has been on the cover of notable publications such as Reader’s Digest in the U.S., Germany and Japan. As well as the cover’s of Southwest Art, Houston Symphony Magazine, and the 1984 Neiman Marcus Christmas catalogue. She has also done commissions for BMW Headquarters, Rolls Royce, UNICEF, and the White House where she painted an Easter Egg for the White House Easter Egg Roll, as well as a painting for the White House National Christmas Pageant of Peace. Her Easter Egg is now part of the Smithsonian Institution Easter Egg Collection. Along with this, her art has appeared in various international magazines and has been reprinted as posters, art prints, books, calendars, and greeting cards. Recently one of Langhamer’s paintings was chosen by Rosalynn Carter to be the 2006 Christmas greeting card for The Carter Center and was sent to 4 million people. In February 2007 Langhamer donated a painting to The Carter Center which was auctioned off for charity at $16,000. Lately Langhamer’s art has taken on the themes of love and music, reflecting on the joy, vibrance and peace of mind that these two themes inspire.
Langhamer mainly paints with oil on canvas and oil on Ambersand hardboard.

In 1974, Carl and Wilma met in a hospital in Munich where Wilma was volunteering as a student nurse and Carl was recovering from an appendix surgery. It was here during his convalescence that the couple fell in love. Carl and Wilma married in 1978 and shortly after their marriage, they moved their lives from Europe to South Texas’s subtropical Rio Grande Valley in 1979. In a Sharyland, Texas ranch house, surrounded by pets and peacocks, Carl and Wilma started their new lives and devoted themselves to creating art, and forming their Orange Hill Studio, Inc.
Although Wilma’s art is very different from Carl’s in both technique and form, both artists evoke a whimsical aesthetic and sense of nostalgia in their art. Also, both Wilma and Carl’s art have an enlightening and refreshing quality. The Art House exhibit, “Conversations with Carl and Wilma” will leave you with no doubt that Wilma and Carl inspired one another both as husband & wife, and artist & artist. Art House Gallery Director Mayra Brown has selected a collection of works that depict their partnership and the exchange of ideas that they shared with one another. This exhibit tells a story of a beautiful couple and partnership that blossomed with love through art.