Black Mountain COLLAGE
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
Summer 2026
From left to right, top to bottom: Ray Johnson, NOITHNG, c. 1980s. Altered Carl Co. necktie. Collection of BMCM+AC. Gift of Michael and Hanna Manes. | William McGee, Untitled, 1990. Paper collage on vintage postcard. Collection of BMCM+AC. Gift of Connie Bostic. | Suzi Gablik, The Tangled Bank #6, 1978. Collage and paint on canvas, 30 x 30 inches. Collection of BMCM+AC. Gift of the Artist. | Roberta Blair, Untitled [Color Study], c. 1944. Construction paper mounted on matboard. Collection of BMCM+AC. Gift of David W. Lowden | John Urbain, Green Sky, 1988. Mixed media and paper collage on masonite. Collection of BMCM+AC. Gift of Catherine and Michael Urbain.
From Josef Albers’ matière exercises to Charles Olson’s 1951 “Glyph Exchange,” cutting up and rearranging found material was a way of life at Black Mountain College. Techniques of accumulation, selection, and reinterpretation—broadly interpreted here as collage—can encompass two-dimensional visual works, three dimensional assemblages, poems, performances, and more. This exhibition traces the presence of collage through the history and legacy of the renowned liberal arts 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. Finally, collage continues to exert a powerful influence on today’s art ecosystem. Selected works from contemporary collagists will contextualize the medium’s trajectory and provide a window into the future. This exhibition pieces together a wide array of ever-shifting stories, rearranging the moving parts to assemble a visual and sonic exploration of Black Mountain COLLAGE.
Curated by Kira Houston