ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 14

International Conference

October 13-15, 2023 in Asheville, NC

Thematic Focus: Material + Structure

The 14th annual Reviewing BMC International Conference included a keynote and featured speaker conversation, the contributions of over 65 scholars, curators, and artists from around the world, and the opening of the exhibition Weaving at Black Mountain College: Anni Albers, Trude Guermonprez, and Their Students.

Keynote Speaker: Brenda Danilowitz

Brenda Danilowitz is an art historian and chief curator at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. She is the author and editor of numerous books and essays on the work of Josef and Anni Albers and has organized exhibitions of their work in the US, Europe, Mexico, Peru and Brazil. Her publications include: Anni Albers: Selected Writings on Design, ed. and introduction (Wesleyan University Press, 2001), Josef Albers: To Open Eyes (with Frederick A. Horowitz) (Phaidon, 2006), Anni and Josef Albers: Latin American Journeys (Hatje-Cantz, 2007), The Prints of Anni Albers: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1963-1984 (Editorial RM, 2009), The Prints of Josef Albers: A Catalogue Raisonné (Hudson Hills, 2001) and contributions to Black Mountain: An Interdisciplinary Experiment 1933–1957 (Spector Books, 2015), Anni Albers: Camino Real (David Zwirner Books, 2020), Anni and Josef Albers, L’art et la vie, (Paris-Musees, 2021), and Josef Albers:Discovery and Invention, the Early Graphic Work, (Art/Books London, 2022)

Keynote Speaker: Erica Warren

Erica Warren is a decorative arts and design curator and scholar, and is currently the editor of Craft Quarterly the James Renwick Alliance for Craft’s magazine. From 2016-2022, Dr. Warren was a curator of textiles at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she organized numerous installations, including the critically acclaimed exhibitions Bisa Butler: Portraits and Weaving beyond the Bauhaus. Her recent publications include the essay “Fission: Design and Mentorship in the Dorothy Liebes Studio” for the catalog accompanying the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s exhibition A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes (2023). In 2021, her essay “Beyond Weaving: Transdisciplinarity and the Bauhaus Weaving Workshop,” was published in Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture.

Weaving at Black Mountain College: Anni Albers, Trude Guermonprez, and Their Students

Weaving at Black Mountain College: Anni Albers, Trude Guermonprez, and Their Students is the first exhibition devoted to textile practices at Black Mountain College. Celebrating 90 years since the college’s founding, the exhibition reveals how weaving was a more significant part of BMC’s legendary art and design curriculum than previously assumed. BMC’s weaving program was started in 1934 by Anni Albers and lasted until the College closed in 1956. Despite Albers’s elevated reputation, the persistent treatment of textile practices as women’s work or handicraft has often led to the discipline being ignored or underrepresented in previous scholarship and exhibitions about the College; this exhibition brings that work into the spotlight at last.

The exhibition’s opening event took place on Friday, October 13th in conjunction with ReVIEWING 14. The opening featured a performance by Jen Bervin, one of the contemporary artists featured in Weaving at BMC.

Curated by Michael Beggs and Julie J. Thomson

Photo Gallery:

The Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center preserves and continues the legacy of educational and artistic innovation of Black Mountain College. We achieve our mission through collection, conservation, and educational activities including exhibitions, publications, and public programs. For more information, visit blackmountaincollege.org or call 828-350-8484.

Special thanks to our 2023 Foundation, Business, + Individual Supporters: BMCM+AC Board of Directors, UNC Asheville Office of the Chancellor, Lake Eden Preserve, Lake Eden Events, Catherine Frank, and Susan Rhew Design.