Art at Black Mountain College

 Black Mountain College: Breaking Barriers in Art through Inclusiveness and Individuality



​​​​​​​Art at Black Mountain College

"Art is doing . Art directly deals with life"
~ Ruth Asawa

"Art is something that makes you breathe with a different kind of happiness"
~ Anni Albers

"It became kind of recognized (at BMC) that art could be anything, and could be made out of anything... They thought, between theatre, the visual arts, dance, music, etc., that you could mix all this up and make a multi-media, or enviormental art."
~ Kenneth Noland

As the world experienced rapid change in the mid-20th century, the art changed too. The barriers that society had put up over what art should be were broken by artists at BMC and elsewhere.  The experimental style of the college helped break those barriers by challenging artistic norms and producing art that reflected individuality and freedom of expression, and was abstract as opposed to the realistic style of the time.

Some examples of art created at BMC:

"A gelatin silver print of Lake Eden, by Nancy Newhalltitle 'Mae West'" Courtesy Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College, 1933-1957

"A photo of the watercolor. 'still leaves' by Ati Gropius Johansen" Courtesy Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College, 1933-1957

"A photo of a candleholder sculpted by Karen Karnes 1950" Courtesy Leap Before: Black Mountain College, 1933-1957

"A photograph of an oil painting by Jack Tworkov titled 'House of the Sun'" Courtesy Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College, 1933-1957

"A photo of one of Josef Albers leaves on paper studies titled 'leaf Study IX' C. 1940" Courtesy ​​​​​​​Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College. 1933-1957

Courtney Blair and Emma Grace Palmer

 Black Mountain College: Breaking Barriers in Art through Inclusiveness and Individuality

Junior Group Website

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Process Paper: 468

Multimedia Time: 3:51