Kathy Muehlemann, a beloved and influential abstract artist, has died following a battle with cancer.
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According to her online obituary, the painter and teacher “died peacefully” in her studio on July 9, with her husband by her side. The 76-year-old Lynchburg, Virginia, resident had been battling pancreatic cancer prior to her passing.
Lynchburg’s Randolph College confirmed the artist’s passing in a post on Facebook.
“It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of Kathy Muehlemann,” the college wrote alongside a candid snapshot of Muehlemann. “Kathy was a professor of art at the College and retired in 2021.”
Muehlemann lived and painted in New York City from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, becoming part of a vibrant artistic community. In 1994, she was invited to exhibit at the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College (now Randolph College) in Lynchburg and was hired as an assistant professor of art. Her exhibition, Astray in a Dark Wood: Works by Kathy Muehlemann, opened there in January 1995.
During her 27-year tenure at the college, Muehlemann rose to full Professor of Art. According to her obituary, her contributions to the Maier were “seminal,” including curating numerous exhibitions, advising on artwork purchases, and bringing artists to campus who left a lasting impact on the college.
Kathy Muehlemann’s Prolific Art Career
Kathy Muehlemann was born on February 9, 1950, in Austin, Texas, and graduated from the State University of New York in 1979. She exhibited her work in solo shows at prominent New York City galleries, including Pamela Auchincloss, Virginia Zabriske, Oscarsson Siegeletuch, and Oscarsson Hood. Critics at The New York Times, ArtForum, and Arts Magazine reviewed her paintings and works on paper.
Muehlemann received numerous prestigious honors throughout her career, including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship (1987), a Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome (1987–1988), and a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship Grant (1994). She was also the recipient of a Purchase Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2017.
Kathy Muehlemann "Goya's Light" pic.twitter.com/naG0ibAuRp
— Dr. D'Arlyn Bell (@DArlynKBell1) August 16, 2017
In 2014, Muehlemann received the Kathryn Graves Davidson Scholarship Award for curating the 103rd Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art, A Menagerie of Metaphors. She retired as Professor Emeritus in 2021. In January 2026, the Maier hosted The Moon and Reverie: Works by Kathy Muehlemann, a retrospective of 40 years of her paintings and drawings, displayed in the same gallery as her 1995 exhibition.
Kathy Muehlemann leaves behind her husband of 57 years, Jim Muehlemann (also an artist and professor at Randolph College), and her sisters Anne Wythington and Lynn McCarthy. Several nieces and nephews across Oregon, Missouri, and Illinois also mourn her passing.