What do you think?
Rate this book
Black Mountain College: Experiment in Art
Although it lasted only twenty-three years (1933-1956) and enrolled fewer than 1,200 students, Black Mountain College was one of the most fabled experimental institutions in art education and practice. Its art teachers included Josef Albers, Ilya Bolotowsky, Willem de Kooning, Buckminster Fuller, Franz Kline, and Robert Motherwell, and among their students were John Chamberlain, Kenneth Noland, Robert Rauschenberg, Dorothea Rockburne, and Cy Twombly. The performing arts teachers included John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Lou Harrison, Roger Sessions, David Tudor, and Stefan Wolpe, and among the literature teachers and students were Robert Creeley, Fielding Dawson, Ed Dorn, Robert Duncan, Francine du Plessix Gray, Charles Olson, M.C. Richards, and John Wieners.
This book, which accompanies an exhibition organized by the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, contains nearly 500 color and black and white illustrations, many never before published.
Most of the images directly support the ideas and evidence presented in the book's four essays, all commissioned for this book. Poet Robert Creeley recounts his first meeting with his mentor and friend Charles Olson. Composer Martin Brody gives a history of the musical world of the 1930s to 1950s, in which Black Mountain played a significant role. Critic Kevin Power looks at the history and content of the experimental literary journal The Black Mountain Review , which was instrumental in the launching of the Black Mountain school of poetry. Curator Vincent Katz discusses the philosophy of the college's founders, the Bauhaus principles followed by art instructor Josef Albers, and the many interactions among the arts in the college's later years. The book also contains detailed histories of the careers of sixty-five Black Mountain artists, drawing on new interviews with John Chamberlain, Robert Creeley, Merce Cunningham, Fielding Dawson, Joseph Fiore, Richard Lippold, Kenneth Noland, Pat Passlof, Arthur Penn, Dan Rice, Dorothea Rockburne, Gerald van de Wiele, Susan Weil, and John Wieners.
This book, which accompanies an exhibition organized by the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, contains nearly 500 color and black and white illustrations, many never before published.
Most of the images directly support the ideas and evidence presented in the book's four essays, all commissioned for this book. Poet Robert Creeley recounts his first meeting with his mentor and friend Charles Olson. Composer Martin Brody gives a history of the musical world of the 1930s to 1950s, in which Black Mountain played a significant role. Critic Kevin Power looks at the history and content of the experimental literary journal The Black Mountain Review , which was instrumental in the launching of the Black Mountain school of poetry. Curator Vincent Katz discusses the philosophy of the college's founders, the Bauhaus principles followed by art instructor Josef Albers, and the many interactions among the arts in the college's later years. The book also contains detailed histories of the careers of sixty-five Black Mountain artists, drawing on new interviews with John Chamberlain, Robert Creeley, Merce Cunningham, Fielding Dawson, Joseph Fiore, Richard Lippold, Kenneth Noland, Pat Passlof, Arthur Penn, Dan Rice, Dorothea Rockburne, Gerald van de Wiele, Susan Weil, and John Wieners.
328 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
4 people are currently reading
270 people want to read
About the author
Vincent Katz
77 books13 followersVincent Katz is a poet, translator, art critic, editor, and curator.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 8, 2022
One of my recent favourites ❤️. Absolutely essential for anyone interested in how community can nurse the creative spirit.
May 27, 2014
"...in a basic sense art cannot be taught, and we do not try to. Yet paradoxically, it can be learned--in the beginning from other artists, and then from oneself."
--Robert Motherwell
This is another deep and broad examination of one of the currents in 20th century art. Like Kay Larson's examination of John Cage, it reflects history and a much larger cultural reach than just the tiny community that was for 25 years Black Mountain College.
It's amazing that so much ground can be covered in 300 pages. From its conception as a visual art-oriented school led by the Bauhaus-influenced ideas of Josef Albers, to its literary disintegration under poet Charles Olson, with explorations in textiles, music, performance, and publishing along the way, Black Mountain incubated and birthed many of the threads that continue to influence all of American culture today.
Somehow Katz manages to touch on all the permutations of Black Mountain. For it did evolve and change continuously, and it ended when it seems to have exhausted its momentum for renewal.
The collaborative and reciprocal experience at the school cannot be overemphasized. The students and instructors learned by doing with others. They were challenged and supported, fed and given room to experiment and explore. Process, not product. There was no "core curriculum" of facts to be learned and parroted back. Education, deliberately, was not "standardized". Albers, though he could be rigid in his own work and viewpoint, set the tone by encouraging many artists with a "multiplicity of approaches" and temperaments, to come and share their ideas.
"...there were many people and many possibilities..."
--John Cage
"We try to become alert and watchful of the world around us and we begin to see."
--Black Mountain Bulletin, 1950
"These pieces were like sparks which glowed, briefly, and were done."
--Pete Jennerjahn
"...how to use oneself, and on what."
--Charles Olson
"...it is not the things in themselves but what happens between things where the life of them is to be sought."
--BMC prospectus, 1952
"It was real, we felt it."
--Fielding Dawson
Who, today, would make such statements about their education? Where, today, is our Black Mountain, our Bauhaus? Where is the vision, the give-and-take, the mingling or ideas, and where is the excitement in learning? The place for new ideas to be formed, for nurturing a fresh eye and an open mind, away from test scores and "likes"?
Teachers, artists, musicians, performers, writers, visionaries--reading the list of names in the index alone is overwhelming. The book is also profusely illustrated, and connecting the work to the people gives real dimension to the text.
You could go many places from here.
Which is exactly the point.
--Robert Motherwell
This is another deep and broad examination of one of the currents in 20th century art. Like Kay Larson's examination of John Cage, it reflects history and a much larger cultural reach than just the tiny community that was for 25 years Black Mountain College.
It's amazing that so much ground can be covered in 300 pages. From its conception as a visual art-oriented school led by the Bauhaus-influenced ideas of Josef Albers, to its literary disintegration under poet Charles Olson, with explorations in textiles, music, performance, and publishing along the way, Black Mountain incubated and birthed many of the threads that continue to influence all of American culture today.
Somehow Katz manages to touch on all the permutations of Black Mountain. For it did evolve and change continuously, and it ended when it seems to have exhausted its momentum for renewal.
The collaborative and reciprocal experience at the school cannot be overemphasized. The students and instructors learned by doing with others. They were challenged and supported, fed and given room to experiment and explore. Process, not product. There was no "core curriculum" of facts to be learned and parroted back. Education, deliberately, was not "standardized". Albers, though he could be rigid in his own work and viewpoint, set the tone by encouraging many artists with a "multiplicity of approaches" and temperaments, to come and share their ideas.
"...there were many people and many possibilities..."
--John Cage
"We try to become alert and watchful of the world around us and we begin to see."
--Black Mountain Bulletin, 1950
"These pieces were like sparks which glowed, briefly, and were done."
--Pete Jennerjahn
"...how to use oneself, and on what."
--Charles Olson
"...it is not the things in themselves but what happens between things where the life of them is to be sought."
--BMC prospectus, 1952
"It was real, we felt it."
--Fielding Dawson
Who, today, would make such statements about their education? Where, today, is our Black Mountain, our Bauhaus? Where is the vision, the give-and-take, the mingling or ideas, and where is the excitement in learning? The place for new ideas to be formed, for nurturing a fresh eye and an open mind, away from test scores and "likes"?
Teachers, artists, musicians, performers, writers, visionaries--reading the list of names in the index alone is overwhelming. The book is also profusely illustrated, and connecting the work to the people gives real dimension to the text.
You could go many places from here.
Which is exactly the point.
July 9, 2020
I liked a lot about this book. The images were striking and it did well representing many art forms involved; however, it made the book seem far more like a college of professional or expert artists and did not seem to include enough student voices.
June 25, 2011
This...this is my all time favorite art book. And I'd own a copy of it if it wasn't out of print and being sold for 200+ dollars.
A lot of folks are familiar with the Black Mountain area, but how many are familiar with its artistic past and the role it played on the national level? Artists from all areas, visual, performing, dance, music, sculpture came together to teach others and hone their craft. They created a school that attracted some of the best in the world and the work produced by them was mind blowing. This book captures it all in candid and posed photographs with easy to read history of this remarkable place.
This is a must read for any fan of art, regardless of time period or type. It shows what can happen when people can come together and create.
Comment
A lot of folks are familiar with the Black Mountain area, but how many are familiar with its artistic past and the role it played on the national level? Artists from all areas, visual, performing, dance, music, sculpture came together to teach others and hone their craft. They created a school that attracted some of the best in the world and the work produced by them was mind blowing. This book captures it all in candid and posed photographs with easy to read history of this remarkable place.
This is a must read for any fan of art, regardless of time period or type. It shows what can happen when people can come together and create.
Comment
August 24, 2008
Elegant, intelligent, and balanced. If you don't know anything about BMC, except what you've heard, go here first.
September 4, 2008
This is a great book on Black Mountain College, a fascinating place. There's a lot of stuff out there & this is a good one to start with.
July 5, 2018
A great (and exhaustive) overview of Black Mountain College that suffers from repetitive descriptions and dry delivery.
March 28, 2010
A beautiful, heavy book chronicling the story of Black Mountain College from several different perspectives. The Brody chapter on music had the best information on the early 1950s and the music created by Lou Harrison and John Cage that I've found anywhere.
February 20, 2013
Underwhelming. Only the barest mention of Ruth Asawa?
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews