Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933-1957

"We do not always create 'works of art,' but rather experiments; it is not our ambition to fill museums: we are fathering experience." - Josef Albers

On May 6th, I visited the Hammer Museum to explore the Leap Before You Look exhibit before it ended.

(Selfie in the entrance of the exhibit at the Hammer Museum)

The first thing that caught my attention was the enormous visual timeline spreading across three walls in the entrance. Dating back to 1933, Black Mountain College in North Carolina was the first "experimental college [that] placed the arts at the center of a liberal arts education in an effort to better educate citizens for participation in democratic society." Black Mountain College gave equal attention and focus on visual arts as well as applied arts and architecture, poetry, dance, and music.

(Black Mountain College)

Similar to SymbioticA, an artistic laboratory in Australia, both were created and founded with the intention of becoming environments where people can expand their horizons and leap outside of their specific areas of study - their comfort zones - and together create things the world has never seen yet.

From everything that I saw, a few primary artists from BMC and pieces really stood out to me.

Above is Josef Albers Sanctuary piece from 1942. Josef and his wife Anni were both pioneers at BMC. As a teacher, writer, painter, and color theorist, Josef is best known for the Homages to the Square that he pained in 1950 and his innovative publication Interaction of Color that he published in 1963.

Next we have Ilya Bolotowsky and his piece titled Upright in Gold and Violet from 1945. Bolotowsky was one of the leaders of abstract art where he aimed to "search for philosophical order through visual expression embraced cubism and geometric abstraction." (The Art Sack)

(Asawa & Buckminster Fuller, 1970)                            (Untitled S.262)

Lastly, we have Ruth Asawa and her Untitled (S. 262) abstract sculpture. Her crochet nine-foot copper wire sculpture really stood out to me as it hung from the ceiling with such poise. One of her most important mentors at BMC was Josef Albers who taught classes on basic design and interactions between different colors.

I highly recommend attending this exhibit the next time it's open and available to you. After all, learning about how the different cultures are to be combined and connected not only for innovation but because that's how it's always meant to be in nature is always something I would recommend.

Sources:

 "Black Mountain College." Black Mountain College. Web. 04 June 2016. <http://archives.ncdcr.gov/Public/Digital-Collections-and-Publications/Resources-By-Subject/Black-Mountain-College>.

"Black Mountain College - Ruth Asawa." Ruth Asawa. Web. 04 June 2016. <http://www.ruthasawa.com/life/black-mountain-college/>.

"In-Gallery Performances." The Hammer Museum. Web. 04 June 2016. <https://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2016/leap-before-you-look-black-mountain-college-1933-1957/>.

"Josef and Anni Albers Foundation." Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. Web. 04 June 2016.

"SymbioticA." : : The University of Western Australia. Web. 04 June 2016. <http://www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au/>.

"Upright in Gold and Violet by Ilya Bolotowsky." My Favorite Arts. Web. 04 June 2016. <https://theartstack.com/artist/ilya-bolotowsky/upright-gold-and-violet>.