PHYLLIS WIENER:

Phyllis Wiener (née Zager) was born in Iowa City, Iowa on September 17, 1921. After graduating high school, she married artist Allen Downs, with whom she had four children: Gareth, Allison, Amy, and Barbara. She attended the University of Iowa (1940), the University of Missouri at Columbia (1944-1945), the University of Minnesota (1951-1952), and the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico (1961).

From a young age Phyllis was interested in art, working in many mediums and genres throughout her life, including oils, acrylics, watercolors, sculpture, landscapes, portraiture, and abstraction. At the University of Minnesota, Cameron Booth acted as her mentor in abstract expressionism and influenced her abstract style, for which she became most known. She was a leading member of the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM) during the 1970s, acting as editor for the WARM journal and participating in their Landmark Exhibition in 1984. She started exhibiting her art in 1944 and exhibited her work in individual and group shows in the Twin Cities, Chicago, and New York. During her career, Phyllis created artwork under the last names of Downs (1939-1961), Ames (1962-1968), and Wiener (1971-2013).

As an educator, Wiener taught at the Walker Art Center, the University of Minnesota, the Minnetonka Art Center, Normandale Community College, and the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Along with exhibiting her art, Wiener was also a member of the National Book Critics Circle, reviewing books for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. She later married Daniel Wiener, who passed away in 1998. Phyllis Wiener died at the age of 91 on January 1, 2013 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Phyllis Wiener Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 17,472

Location of Master Files:

Digital masters of the audiovisual material and digital video are maintained on the Society's secure digital collections storage servers and is managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.

The original videocassette and videodisc were disposed after the material was digitally reformatted into MOV and MP4 files.

Digital masters of the files are maintained on the Society's secure digital collections storage servers and are managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.

Processing Information:

Processed by: Shelby Edwards, August 2017; Madeleine Schense, August 2017; and Leif Kopietz, March 2025

Catalog ID number: 9989878140204294

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Art -- Study and teaching.

Art teachers -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Art, American -- 20th century.

Feminism and art -- Minnesota.

Expressionism (Art).

Women artists -- Minnesota.

Women painters -- Minnesota.

Organizations:

College of St. Catherine, author.

University of Minnesota, author.

Walker Art Center, author.

Women's Art Registry of Minnesota, author.

Katherine E. Nash Gallery (University of Minnesota), author.

Document Types:

Exhibition catalogs.

Interviews.

Photographs.

Sketchbooks.

Video recordings.

Color slides.

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