Black Mountain COLL(A)GE

Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center presents Black Mountain COLL(A)GE, an exhibition tracing the presence of collage through the history and legacy of the renowned liberal arts college. Combining work by Black Mountain College artists with select contemporary collagists, the exhibition foregrounds transformation as a radical strategy, assembling an ever-shifting picture of collage as medium, method, and memory.

From Josef Albers’ matière exercises to the collaborative 1951 “Glyph Exchange” between Charles Olson, Ben Shahn and Katherine Litz, cutting up and rearranging found material was a way of life at Black Mountain College. Some of the 20th century’s most influential collage practitioners, including Robert Rauschenberg and Ray Johnson, studied at BMC. Many other students took up collage as a life-long medium, including Irwin Kremen, William Douglas McGee, Jo Sandman, John Urbain, Mary Parks Washington, and Susan Weil. Still others continued to experiment with cut-ups while working in other realms of creative production, such as the writer and critic Suzi Gablik. Today, collage continues to exert a powerful influence on our art ecosystem. Selected works from contemporary collagists contextualize the medium’s trajectory and provide a window into the future. Curated by Kira Houston, this exhibition pieces together a wide array of stories to encapsulate a visual and sonic exploration of Black Mountain COLL(A)GE.

ARTISTS

The exhibition features works by Black Mountain College artists including Roberta Blair, Margaret Balzer Cantieni, Fielding Dawson, William Douglas McGee, Jorge Fick, Joseph Fiore, Suzi Gablik, W.P. Jennerjahn, Elizabeth Jennerjahn, Ray Johnson, Irwin Kremen, Robin Morey, Robert Motherwell, Faith Murray Britton, Mary Parks Washington, René Pinchuk, Robert Rauschenberg, M.C. Richards, Jo Sandman, John Urbain, Jean Varda, and Susan Weil. Contemporary works by artists Lucas Samaras, Julian Jamaal Jones, Elias Sime, Andy Gambrell, Christopher Hamilton + Steve Pescatore, Drones in the Garden, and Swannatopia will explore permutations of collage beyond BMC.

ABOUT BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE

Founded in 1933, Black Mountain College was one of the leading experimental liberal art schools in America until its closure in 1957. After the Bauhaus in Germany closed due to mounting antagonism from the Nazi Party, Josef and Anni Albers readily accepted an offer to join the Black Mountain College faculty. During their 16-year tenure in North Carolina, the Alberses helped model the college’s interdisciplinary curriculum on that of the Bauhaus, attracting an unmatched roster of teachers and students including R. Buckminster Fuller, Elaine and Willem de Kooning, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Mary Caroline (M.C.) Richards, Ruth Asawa, and Robert Rauschenberg.

Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (BMCM+AC) was founded in 1993 to celebrate the history of Black Mountain College as a forerunner in progressive interdisciplinary education and to celebrate its extraordinary impact on modern and contemporary art, dance, theater, music, and performance.

The Museum is committed to educating the public about the history of Black Mountain College and promoting awareness of its extensive legacy through exhibitions, publications, lectures, films, seminars, and oral histories. Through our permanent collection, special exhibitions, publications, and research archive, we provide access to historical materials related to the College and its influence on the field.

BMCM+AC provides a forum for multifaceted programming in a dynamic environment in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. Our goal is to provide a gathering point for people from a variety of backgrounds to interact – integrating art, ideas, and discourse.

More about BMCM+AC: blackmountaincollege.org