Leap before you look
Subtitle: Black Mountain College, 1933-1957
By: Helen Molesworth ; with Ruth Erickson
Contributors: Erickson, Ruth, author; Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston, Mass.); Hammer Museum; Wexner Center for the Arts; Black Mountain College (Black Mountain, N.C.)
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 399
ISBN-13: 9780300211917
Subjects: American Art; Black Mountain College (Black Mountain, N.C.); Exhibitions
Description: In 1933, John Rice founded Black Mountain College in North Carolina as an experiment in making the arts central to learning. Though it operated for only twenty-four years, this pioneering school played a significant role in fostering avant-garde art, music, dance, and poetry, and an astonishing number of important artists taught or studied there. Among the instructors were Josef and Anni Albers, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, R. Buckminster Fuller, Karen Karnes, Willem de Kooning, and M.C. Richards, and students included Ruth Asawa, John Chamberlain, Ray Johnson, Robert Rauschenberg, and Cy Twombly. Leap Before You Look is a singular exploration of this legendary school and the work of the artists who spent time there. Scholars from a variety of fields contribute original essays about diverse aspects of the college--spanning everything from the college's farm program to the influence of the Bauhaus--and about the people and ideas that gave it such a lasting impact. Catalogue entries highlight selected works, including writings, musical compositions, visual arts, pottery, and weaving. The book's fresh approach and rich illustrations convey the atmosphere of creativity and experimentation unique to Black Mountain College that served as an inspiration to so many. This timely volume will be essential reading for anyone interested in art, radical pedagogy, and the enduring legacy of the college.
Notes: "Published on the occasion of the exhibition Leap before you look : Black Mountain College, 1933-1957.  Organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. Curator: Helen Molesworth with Ruth Erickson.  Curatorial assistant: Bryan Barcena.  The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, October 10, 2015 - January 24, 2016. Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, February 21 - May 14, 2016. Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University, Columbus, September 17, 2016 - January 1, 2017."--Colophon.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Director's foreword / Jill Medvedow; title: Curator's acknowledgements / Helen Molesworth.; title: Imaginary landscape / Helen Molesworth; title: A progressive education / Ruth Erickson; title: Josef Albers. Photographs of matières / Michael Beggs; title: Bauhaus in America / Jeffrey Saletnik; title: Xanti Schawinsky / Spectodrama (Black Mountain Stage Studies) / Jeffrey Saletnik; title: Marguerite Wildenhain. Large jar / Jenni Sorkin; title: Arnold Schoenberg and musical interpretation at the Black Mountain College Summer Music Institute of 1944 / Jonathan Hiam; title: Building autonomy. Creating community: The farm and work program at Black Mountain College / David Silver; title: The Design-Build Program at Lake Eden / Lauren Bellard; title: A. Lawrence Kocher. Stool and side table / Ruth Erickson; title: Josef and Anni Albers: Mexico and modernity / Brenda Danilowitz; title: Josef Albers. Graphic tectonic lithographs / Michael Beggs; title: Weaving / Jenni Sorkin; title: Anni Albers. Free-hanging room divider / Brenda Danilowitz; title: Ray Johnson. Untitled / Ruth Erickson; title: There is another way: Hazel Larsen Archer. Photographer, educator / Alice Sebrell; title: Musical cosmopolitans at Black Mountain College: John Cage, Lou Harrison and Stefan Wolpe / Brigid Cohen; title: Texture of the South: Roland Hayes and integration at Black Mountain College / Bryan Barcena; title: Jacob Lawrence. Watchmaker / Bryan Barcena; title: Leo Amino. Carnivorous Plant #22 / Bryan Barcena; title: Summer Session 1948 / Eva Díaz; title: R. Buckminster Fuller. Great Circle Sphere Model / Bryan Barcena; title: Emerson Woelffer. Last Internment / Jennifer Gross; title: Stowaways / Eva Díaz; title: Elaine De Kooning. Untitled Drawing and Untitled #16 / Helen Molesworth; title: Willem De Kooning. Asheville / Harry Cooper; title: Cage, Tudor, and the visual language of indeterminacy / Nancy Perloff; title: John Cage. "Defense of Satie" / Martin Brody; title: Ceramics at Black Mountain College 1949-1956 / Cindi Strauss; title: Shōji Hamada. Vase / Ruth Erickson; title: Karen Karnes. Untitled (Candleholder) / Jenni Sorkin; title: Peter Voulkos. Rocking Pot / Jenni Sorkin; title: M.C. Richards / Jenni Sorkin; title: The 1950s: Ways of life / Ruth Erickson; title: Lou Harrison. Rapunzel / Martin Brody; title: Theodoros Stamos. North Carolina Landscape / Harry Cooper; title: Harry Callahan. Eleanor, Chicago / Ash Anderson; title: Arthur Siegel. Untitled (Nude against Glass Block) / Ash Anderson; title: Aaron Siskind. North Carolina 11 / Ash Anderson; title: Chance encounters: Theater Piece No. 1 and its prehistory / Ruth Erickson; title: Franz Kline. Painting / Jennifer Gross; title: Robert Rauschenberg. Untitled (Night Blooming Series) / Helen Molesworth; title: Robert Rauschenberg. Untitiled (a birthday picture for Hermine) / Jeffrey Saletnik; title: Charles Olson / Steve Evans; title: Charles Olson. Mayan Letters / Steve Evans; title: Ben Shahn. Song / Ruth Erickson; title: Between media: The Glyph Exchange / Ruth Erickson; title: Cy Twombly. MIN-OE / Jennifer Gross; title: Robert Duncan. The Song of the Borderguard / Steve Evans; title: Black Mountain Review / Steve Evans; title: Joseph Fiore. #7-54: The Gathering / Bryan Barcena; title: The formation of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company / Katherine Markoski; title: Ruth Asawa. Dancers / Jennifer Gross; title: Intentional communities / Gloria Sutton