In the aptly named “Form and Function” section of Modern Magazine‘s Winter 2016 issue, Margot Ammidown remarked that “of all the institutions with a Bauhaus legacy, Black Mountain retains the image of a creative arcadia that produced many of the great artists of the mid-twentieth century.”
Ammidown, reviewing our recently closed CONVERGENCE/DIVERGENCE: Exploring Black Mountain College + Chicago’s New Bauhaus/Institute of Design, which was on view from September 4, 2015 – December 31, 2015, highlights moments of cross-pollination between the two schools but also discusses each school’s unique legacy – namely the reinstitution of the New Bauhaus as the Institute of Design, and Black Mountain College’s unique emphasis on experimentation rather than industry.
We are sorry to see the objects, works, ephemera, and images of CONVERGENCE/DIVERGENCE go, but in a few weeks we will be thrilled to open the doors for our next exhibition: Ray Spillenger: Rediscovery of a Black Mountain College Painter, opening January 22, 2016 on view through May 21, 2016.
Ray Spillenger studied with Willem de Kooning and Josef Albers at Black Mountain College during the summer of 1948. This exhibition comprises two decades of his work from the BMC era to the late 1960s. Spillenger’s paintings demonstrate a total commitment to abstraction and a passionate love of color.
After leaving Black Mountain College, Spillenger moved to New York City, where he became a member of “the Club,” Cedar Tavern regular, and friend to Abstract Expressionist luminaries including Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, and Philip Guston. Despite significant contributions to the formation of the New York School, Spillenger did not find commercial and critical success. Ray Spillenger: Rediscovery of a Black Mountain Painter invites a re-examination of 20th-century American art history through a corpus of work never shown to the public. A full color catalogue will accompany the exhibition.
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