BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGEto

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EARLY MODERNISM

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bauhaus1921

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The Bauhaus was more than just an art school it was “a v i b r a n t l a b o r a t o r y f o r redefining artistic practice in the modern age.” and “the most influential school of art, design a n d a r c h i t e c t u r e o f t h e twentieth century.”

Museum of Modern Art

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◍ The Bauhaus School was

founded by Walter Gropius in 1919 in Weimar , Germany (1919-25) and eventually found it’s home in Dessau (1925-32) and then in Berlin (1932-33).

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architectureceramicscostume designfurnituregraphic designindustrial designpaintingphotographysculpture textilesP

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Gropius formulated a manifesto for the Bauhaus which started "The final goal of

all artistic activity is architecture.". The following Bauhaus principles are

summarized by Alfred Barr, the Director of the Museum of Modern Art in 1938,from the book Bauhaus.

bauhaus manifesto6

Most student should face the fact that their future should be involved primarily with industry and mass production rather than with individual craftsmanship.

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Georg

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JosephAlbers

Walter

Gropius

Paul Klee

VaslilyKankinsky

Oskar

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Teachers in schools of design should be men who are in advance of their profession rather than safely and academically in the rear guard.➁

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➃It is harder to design a first rate chair than to paint a second rate painting-and much more useful.

➂The schools of design should, as the Bauhaus did, bring together the various arts of painting, architechture, theatre, photography, weaving, typography, etc., into a modern synthesis which disregards conventional distinctions between the "fine" and "applied" arts.

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A school of design should have on its facul ty the purely creat ive and disinterested artist such as the easel painter as a spiritual counterpoint to the practical technician in order that they may work and teach side by side for the benefit of the student .

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Manual experience of materials is essential to the student of design- esperience at first confined to free experiment and then extended to the practical workshop.➅

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The study of rational design in terms of techniques and materials should be only the first step in the development of a new and modern sense of beauty.

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Because we live in the 20th century, the student architect or designer should be offered no refuge in the past but should be equipped for the modern world in its various aspects, artistic, technical, social, economic, spiritual, so that he may function in society not as a decorator but as a vital participant.

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"The Bauhaus does not pretend to be a crafts school; contact with industry is consciously sought...the old craft workshops will develop into industrial laboratories: from their experimentation will evolve standards for industrial production...The teaching of a craft is meant to prepare for designing for mass production.”

Walter Gropius

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Oskar Schlemmer. Bauhaus Stairway. 1932. Oil on canvas. 63 7/8 x 45" (162.3 x 114.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Philip Johnson. © 2009 Estate of Oskar Schlemmer, Munich/Germany

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Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture and modern design. The Bauhaus had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design and typography.

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Walter Gropius

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Pat Haussman

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JOHANNES DRIESCH BREAKFAST SERVICE 1922

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Marguerite Wildenhain.

French-American, (1896-1981) born Lyon, France.

The first of only seven ceramic students at the Bauhaus Foundation in Weimar, Germany and the only woman in the group

Wildenhain became an internationally known as both an artist and teacher.

“Let us use the hands for what they were meant to be: the tools of a creative man, not just the repetitive instrument of unimaginative procedures.”

–Marguerite Wildenhain,  from her Open Letter to Bernard Leach, 1953

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“Fig Vase,” circa 1958, Clay,

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Wildenhain died in 1985 in California.

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BLACK MOUNTAIN, North Carolina

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BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE

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•Founded in 1933, Black Mountain College was a progressive experiment in American Education. With the fine arts at its core

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•Dramatics, music, and the fine arts were regarded as an integral part of the life.

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The emphasis was that

learning and living are

intimately connected.

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• No student held a job through college but everyone, faculty and students alike, participated in work on the farm operated by the college, constructed buildings, did maintenance work, served meals, etc.

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Communal living was combined with an informal

class structure, Black Mountain created an

environment conducive to the interdisciplinary work that

was to revolutionize the arts and sciences of its time.

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• Many classes were held at night and none were scheduled in the afternoons in order to allow time for work on the campus. There was no organized athletic program as it was thought there should be no sharp distinction between work and play

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Black Mountain College71

• By the late 40s, word of what was happening in North Carolina had started to spread throughout

the country. With a Board of Directors that included William Carlos Williams and Albert Einstein and

impressive programs in poetry and photography, Black Mountain had become the ideal of American

experimental education. Its concentration on cross-genre arts education would influence the programs

of many major American institutions.

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Faculty

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Buckminster Fuller

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walter gropius82

Willem de Kooning

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John Cage

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There is no such thing as silence. Something is always happening that makes a sound."

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Robert Motherwell

RobertMotherwell

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Franz Klein

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JacobLawrence

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Merce Cunningham

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Merce Cunningham

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Robert Turner96

M. C. Richards

m.c. richards

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karen karnes

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Marguerite Wildenhain

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Bernard Leach100

Shoji Hamada

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Soetsu Yanagi

Soetsu Yanagi102

Peter Voulkos103

Warren McKenzie

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Daniel Rhodes

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David Weinrib

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students 107

Robert Rauschenberg

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Kenneth Noland

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Cy Twombly

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Kenneth NolandSusan Weil

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Joel Oppenheimer

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Ed Dorn

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film* Inside (1996)

* Penn & Teller Get Killed (1989) * Dead of Winter (1987)

* Target (1985) * Four Friends (1981)

* The Missouri Breaks (1976) * Night Moves (1975)

* Little Big Man (1970) * Alice's Restaurant (1969) * Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

* The Chase (1966) * Mickey One (1965)

* The Miracle Worker (1962) * The Left Handed Gun (1958)

] Stage * Two for the Seesaw (1958) * The Miracle Worker (1959)

* Toys in the Attic (1960) * An Evening With Mike Nichols

and Elaine May (1960) * All the Way Home (1960)

* Golden Boy (1964) * Wait Until Dark (1966)

* Sly Fox (1976) * Fortune's Fool (2002)

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Albert EinsteinWilliam Carlos Williams,

Buckminister FullerJoseph Albers

William Gropius Willem DeKooning

John Cage

Robert MotherwellFranz Klien

Margarite WildenhaimMerce Cunningham

Jacob Lawrence Robet Turner MC Richards

Karen KarneBernard Leach Shoji Hamada Soetsu Yanagi Peter Voulkos

Warren McKenziek Daniel Rhodes

Robert Rauschenberg Kenneth Noland

Cy TwomblySusan Weiul

Joel OppenheimerArthur Penn

Ed Dorn

WOW!121

• Black Mountain proved to be an important precursor to and prototype for many of the alternative colleges of today ranging from the University of California, Santa Cruz and Marlboro College to Evergreen State College, Bennington College, Shimer College, Goddard College, New College of Florida and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston among others.

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“In 1953, as many of the students and faculty left for San Francisco

and New York, those still at Black Mountain saw the shift in interest and knew the school had run its

course. Black Mountain had existed on its own terms, and on its own

terms had succeeded in expanding the possibilities of American

education. Realizing that they had essentially achieved their goals, they closed their doors forever”

Black Mountain's legacy however, continued former students bringing the revolutionary spirit

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Black Mountain College Closed in 1956.

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end.

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