Leonardo Digital Reviews

Black Mountain College: Experiment in art

Edited by Vincent Katz with essays by Martin Brody, Robert Creeley, Vincent Katz and Kevin Power
MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 2002
335 pp., 470 illus. b/w, col. Trade, $75.00
ISBN: 0-262-11279-5.

Reviewed by Chris Cobb

ccobbsf@hotmail.com

This is the long-awaited, definitive book on Black Mountain College. In a statement directly influenced by the Bauhaus, Albers said “we stress economy of form, that is the ratio of effort to effect.” (p.34) And boy did he mean it! As head of Black Mountain College (1933-1956) Albers helped create what became arguably the most important and influential American school for art in the 20^th Century. Its teachers included Josef Albers, Ilya Bolotowsky, Willem de Kooning, Buckminster Fuller, Franz Kline, and Robert Motherwell. Students there included John Chamberlain, Kenneth Noland, Robert Rauschenberg, Ruth Asawa, 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, John Wieners, Francine du Plessix Gray, Charles Olson, M. C. Richards and Robert Duncan.

The four essayists open a window on the relationships of the individuals and the way things were done. Vincent describes Joseph Albers as both a vulnerable human being and a very powerful intellectual. His detail gives the impression that he was right there in the room with him, watching over his every move. Robert Creeley discusses his teacher Charles Olson and the importance of knowing him. Composer Martin Brody explains the connection between Black Mountain and the contemporary music world of the time. The College did, after all, have among its teachers one of the most influential of 20^th century composers, John Cage. And where Cage was, Merce Cunnignham was too. Cunningham was a counter balance to Cage’s theoretical and zen practices. Many students, especially Robert Rauchenberg were deeply effected by Cage and Cunningham. Not long agter leaving the College, many of the lessons learned at Black Mountain were put into practice in front of the New York art world. Kevin Power helps readers understand the place for poets among a colony of artists. A very illuminating aspect of his essay is the connection between Black Mountain poets and the so called New York School of Poets who would go on to redefine how art was written about in the 20^th century. Interviews with many of the participants reveal both the little-known and well-known histories of Black Mountain artists.

This volume is packed with hundreds of previously unpublished photographs and art pieces from this amazing college. The fantastic reproductions and carefully worded essays make it all too clear this book was a labour of love.