Black Mountain College (1933 - 1957) the experimental spirit

Europes’s Finest Minds

Before its closure in 1957, the tiny college, which had fewer than 1,200 students, grew into a combination of a liberal arts school, summer camp, farm school, pioneering village, refugee camp, and religious retreat. It survived with little money and few facilities. Still, its faculty included some of Europe’s finest minds, many of whom had migrated as refugees to America. In this manner, the college was influential in America in reinterpreting and assimilating European modernist thought.

Influences

Josef Albers, who came in 1933, brought Bauhaus ideas with him. Kenneth Noland and Robert Rauschenberg, who were both professors, were to be significant influences.

The college was predominantly connected to two communities in the 1960s: the Black Mountain Poets, the John Cage (1912-92) and Merce Cunningham’s (1919-2009) circle of writers, singers, musicians, and performers.

Sources

Falconer, M. (2001). Black Mountain College. In The Oxford Companion to Western Art. : Oxford University Press. Retrieved 24 Jan. 2021

More on Design Education

Domus (1928) magazine devoted to design & architecture

Gio Ponti founded Domus in 1928, this journal devoted to architecture and design, originally named “L’ Arte della Casa,” has been at the forefront of design debate in Italy. In the 1930s, it was mainly concerned with a Novecento aesthetic, but it also paid attention to more radical tendencies, as Persico’s 1934 article “A New Start for…
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture is a place for artists to live and work, and is one of the only U.S. schools to teach the ancient art of fresco. Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture raised $21 million to help young artists and create an archive of over 700 lectures. LEARN MORERead More →
Victor Papanek (1923 – 1998) socially responsible Design Prophet

Victor Papanek was a socially responsible designer. Design for the Real World, his book, was released in 20 different languages. TELL ME MORERead More →
Black Mountain College (1933 – 1957) the experimental spirit

Black Mountain College was founded by John Andrew Rice and a group of dissident, radical academics in North Carolina’s mountains in 1933. It symbolised academic freedom and the experimental spirit of American culture.Read More →
Rhode Island School of Design – Prestigious Design Education

Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877 and now offers bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes in 19 different fields. It is affiliated with Brown University, with which it shares a College Hill campus.Read More →
Gillo Dorfles (1910 – 2018) Italian art critic, painter, and philosopher

Gillo Dorfles (1910 – 2018) was an Italian art critic, painter, and philosopher. He was born in Trieste and active in Milan.Read More →
Standardization of Design – Design Ideas

Standardization is a critical feature of designs designed for industrial mass production. It allows componentsRead More →
Bracket Foot – What is it?

Bracket foot. In furniture, a right-angled foot, with each Inner and Curt. Bracket feet may be straight or ogee (a double curve also known as a cyma curve, typical in Chippendale Designs) or French ( a flared foot standard in the furniture of Hepplewhite and his successors).Read More →
Garniture – Decorative set of Porcelain

Usually on a fireplace mantel. Garnitures were put on furniture and ledges or niches around a room’s walls, notably over doors or fireplaces.Read More →
National School of Fine Arts, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The Escola de Belas Artes (School of Fine Arts) is a former colonial school that is now part of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.Read More →
École de Nancy – Art Nouveau artisans and designers

Between 1890 and 1914, the École de Nancy, or Nancy School, was a group of Art Nouveau artisans and designers based in Nancy, France. The furniture designer Louis Majorelle, the cabinet maker and glass artist Jacques Grüber, the glass and furniture designer Émile Gallé, and the Daum crystal factory were important contributors.Read More →
Top 9 – Encyclopedia Design Posts – Friday 12 November 2021

Check out post updates for Encyclopedia Design – 150 Years of Decorative and Applied ArtsRead More →
Slade School of Fine Art

A training school for artists established in 1871 as part of the University College of London. It is named after the art collector Felix Slade (1788–1868), who in his will endowed chairs of fine art at the universities of London, Oxford and Cambridge. Read More →
École Estienne (Paris) – 120 years of design training

In honour of the Estienne family, the school was named after a famous family of printers from the 16th century, including Henri Estienne (elder), Robert Estienne and Charles Estienne. Its mission was to address the poor printing and book-making qualifications and standards, covering theoretical and practical aspects.Read More →
“Just in time” design concept

Just in time” design concept, this practice became an increasingly important aspect of economic manufacturing and distribution. The ability to link sales data from retail outlets and checkout terminals with centralised corporate manufacturing and distribution systems ‘just in time’ eliminated the need for manufacturer-retailers like Benetton, an Italian clothing company, to keep large amounts of…
Glasgow School of Art students give new life to CitizenM lobby furniture

In early 2021, students from the interior design master’s degree course at the Glasgow School of Art were invited to take part in the project, reimagining the 2006 ‘Alcove’ two-seater sofa by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, the 1970 ‘Amoebe Highback’ by Verner Panton, and Charles and Ray Eames’ lounge chair from 1956.Read More →
The Bauhaus school of design inspires the shapes of these vases!

Finding the perfect vase for flowers is sometimes the most fun when arranging bouquets. Bunchier flowers deserve a bulkier, more bulbous vase. While more delicate flower arrangements could use a skinny, minimalist vase. You know the right vase when you see it.Read More →
Surrealism – Art & Design Term

Surrealism was one of the most influential and disruptive trends of the twentieth century, flourishing especially in the 1920s and 1930s and offering a radical contrast to Cubism’s rational and formal features. It emphasised the positive rather than the nihilistic, unlike Dada, from which it derived in many aspects. Surrealism aimed to gain access to…
Kansei Engineering Applied to Design

A conceptual dimension in web design, development and thinking is called “Kansei engineering” a deeply held philosophy that every web site should be designed and developed to provide strong emotional as well as functional satisfaction to its user.Read More →
Defining Asymmetrical Balance and Determining Its Use in Art and Design

Design principles are the foundation of a good design. The design principles you learned will guide you in creating visual media. An efficient design will guide the viewer to see what you intend for them to look in the way you intended for them to see it.Read More →

École Estienne – 120 years of design training – Encyclopedia of Design
L’école Estienne is the traditional name of the École supérieure des arts et industries graphiques (ESAIG) (Graduate School of Arts and Printing Industry). The property is located in the 13th Paris district of Boulevard Auguste-Blanqui, at 18, not far from the Butte-aux-Cailles. The front façade of the École Estienne.

TU Wien – Vienna University of Technology – Encyclopedia of Design
One of the foremost universities in Vienna, Austria, is TU Wien (TUW; German: Technische Universität Wien; also known in English as the Vienna University of Technology from 1975-2014). The University has gained comprehensive international and domestic recognition in both teaching and science and is a highly respected partner of innovation-oriented enterprises.