Richard Neidhardt (1921-2009), was a native of Tennessee. He earned a B.A. from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, an M.F.A. in painting from the University of Florida, and a Ph.D. from Ohio State University. Neidhardt served as art director at the University of Florida Press in the early 1950s. He then became an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Florida from 1954 to 1961. From 1961 until 1966, he was Art Department Chair at Hardin-Simmons University (Abilene, TX). Neidhardt was the Director of Art at Angelo State University (San Angelo, TX) for a year, before joining the Austin College faculty in 1967. He served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Art and retired in 1986 as Professor Emeritus. In 1973, he was awarded the Cullen Grant for Research in Egypt, in addition to Richardson Grants for Research to Southern France in 1975 and to Greece in 1982. His sculptures and paintings have been shown in various solo and group exhibitions throughout Texas.
In his art, Neidhardt expressed himself in two different ways. Whereas his paintings are formal and abstract statements with little subject matter, his sculptures came from a side of him keenly aware of the world and its follies. “During World War II, as a pilot flying foreign routes, I became interested in the cultures and arts of Europe, South America, Africa, the Middle East, and India. I then began the study of art as a painter, searching for a kind of purity free from worldly stress and the vulnerable condition of being human,” Neidhardt wrote, “The energy of color’s language, the drawn line’s vitality, and the aesthetics of mathematics appealed to me and became basic to my work.” However, speaking of his sculptures, Neidhardt stated, “They came from a side of me aware of being a fellow inmate of the earth with all of its absurdities, a possible justification for being a part of this great mystery.”
