“A renowned Southern artist born one of four children in New Orleans to Polish immigrants from Bialystok, Joseph and Rebecca Rittenberg.

After graduating from Newcomb, Kohlmeyer married Hugh Kohlmeyer, and the two took their honeymoon to Vera Cruz and Mexico City, Mexico in 1934. It was there that Kohlmeyer became inspired by and interested in the art of South and Central America.

Kohlmeyer reached the height of her career later in life, completing several major commissions, including a project for the Equitable Life Assurance Society building at 1515 Poydras Avenue and a still-standing major installation of twenty painted metal sculptures for the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas on the Mississippi riverfront, titled Aquatic Colonnade. Kohlmeyer died on January 24, 1997 at Touro Infirmary in New Orleans.

After her death, Kohlmeyer’s daughters, Jane Lowentritt and Jo Ellen Bezou, mobilized funds from the Ida and Hugh Kohlmeyer Foundation to establish the Ida Kohlmeyer Study Center at the Ogden Museum, consisting of 24,000 items from the Kohlmeyer estate. In 2004, the Newcomb Art Gallery organized Systems of Color, an exhibition and accompanying book, dedicated to Kohlmeyer.”