black mountain college

In Asheville, the establishment of a new experimental college brought numerous international artists to North Carolina in the 1930's and 1940's, many of who were refugees from war-torn Europe. The Black Mountain College (1933-1957) demonstrated the promise of Modernism as a beacon of pioneering ideas and explorations led by Josef Albers, an artist native of Germany. Albers brought many of the teaching ideals from the Bauhaus and helped develop a fusion of Modernism and progressive explorations in a deeply intellectual and creative community. Among the many artists to teach and study there were Walter Gropius, Willem de Kooning, Barbara Morgan, Buckminster Fuller, Cy Twombly, and Robert Rauschenberg. In their collective work, Black Mountain College and its students considered areas like action painting, existential art, pop art, decollage and assemblage, beat art, op art, and kinetic art.

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