Barry Bergdoll asks What Was the Bauhaus?

Today in an editorial at The New York Times (NYT) the former chief curator of architecture at the Museum of Modern Art, Barry Bergdoll, talks about some of the complexity and mystery that continues to shroud the Bauhaus – the earliest and most notable modern art school, which operated in Germany between 1919 and 1933.  Bergdoll is a professor of art history at Columbia University, and was 10 years ago was one of the key people who supported my campaign to preserve Atlanta’s largest public library from being demolished. 

The Atlanta-Fulton Central Public Library is of historic importance for numerous reasons, including that it was the last building designed by Marcel Breuer, who was early in his life a student at the Bauhaus, thereafter becoming an instructor, and thereafter a Harvard professor and one of the most renowned architects of the 20^th century. 

In 2009, Berdoll and I were interviewed by Metropolis Magazine, which also included interviews with Isabelle Hyman, and John Szabo, who was then director of Atlanta’s public library system, and is now director of Los Angeles’ public library system.

In his article NYT piece, Bergdoll makes some good points about that are frequently misunderstood, pointing out that the misunderstanding comes from the school’s rapid evolution and remaking over a short period of time.   In some respects he’s preaching to the choir, which historians are often guilty of, myself included.

Curiously, also today Google celebrates the life of Ruth Asawa with a Google Doodle.  Asawa was not a part of the Bauhaus, but she was the favorite student of Josef Albers, who taught at the Bauhaus, and later moved to the US where he taught for many years at Black Mountain College before teaching at Yale.   And it was at Black Mountain College where he met Asawa.

The Bauhaus Influence in Chicago and Detroit

Foyer of the Bauhaus-University Weimar, with Jugendstil staircase

In recognition of the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus, my latest article looks at the school's influence on architecture and urban planning in Chicago, and Detroit.  The piece also examines some lesser known history about key players of the Bauhaus, including some perplexing aspects of the career trajectory of famed architect and furniture designer Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe.  See images and read more here.

The Legacy of Galka Scheyer: The "Maven of Modernism"

In my research for my book, From Bauhaus | To Black Mountain, I'm gaining a more complete picture of the historical evolution of the modernist movement.  There were many facets of modernism growing in tandem in Eastern and Western Europe, in the US, in parts of Africa, and in the Middle East.

So while the Bauhaus served as the educational center of the modernist movement in the first half of the 20th century, the Bauhaus certainly did not exist in a vacuum.

One of the people key to the exportation of Bauhaus ideas from Europe to the US, especially in California, was Galka Scheyer.

Last year the Norton Simon Museum created an exhibition and presentation on Scheyer, which included the following video:

From Bauhaus | To Black Mountain seeks "Berlin Prize" research award

In addition to a "Summer Stipend" grant through the National Endowment for the Humanities, I'm also applying this year for a "Berlin Prize," which is administered by The American Academy in Berlin, Germany.  This award would enhance my ability to perform additional research for From Bauhaus | To Black Mountain, and another parallel book I'm working on, The Agency of Art: War, Pedagogy and Social Change in the Western World - 1915 to 1965.

The narrative for my "Berlin Prize" project proposal totals 7 pages, and what follows are the first 2 pages:

Proposed Project

20^th Century Perspectives: 
Radical Renaissance and Social Change in the Age of Global War

My proposed project is a request for support toward the greater research of 2 parallel book projects, whose titles are From Bauhaus |To Black Mountain: A Transcontinental Renaissance in the Age of Global War, and The Agency of Art: War, Pedagogy and Social Change in the Western World – 1915 to 1965.  Both books deal with historic aspects of the Weimar Republic, and Staatliches Bauhaus (1919 – 1933), a school founded by Walter Gropius that begin in Weimar, moved to Dessau and closed in Berlin.  Both books also examine the impact of some Bauhaus alumnae who migrated to the United States (US) to continue their pioneering social and artistic lives at Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina.

By investigating one of the most enduring spans of the 20th century—from 1919 to 1933 and directly thereafter 1933 to 1957—representing the respective years of operation for Staatliches Bauhaus (the Bauhaus) in Germany and Black Mountain College (BMC) in the United States—my proposed book project goes beyond existing tropes and conversations on the subject to provide a captivating narrative on the transatlantic art and education interactions at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College (BMC); two schools that ultimately produced many of the 20^th century’s leading artists, architects, designers and bleeding-edge dramatists.

What began at the Bauhaus—a small, radical, German art school which greatly transformed European thought on visual art and architecture, urban planning, interior aesthetics and design—continued across the Atlantic Ocean to inspire the foundational DNA for yet another small, radical school with a heavy focus on the arts, yet thousands of miles away.  In From Bauhaus |To Black Mountain: A Transcontinental Renaissance in the Age of Global War, there are 9 areas of study – asking and answering:

·         What was the manifesto and core principles supporting the Bauhaus?

·         How were these core principles implemented – what did they look like in practice?

·         In addition to Walter Gropius, who were some of the Bauhaus’ key players?

·         Throughout its changes in leadership and various relocations, how did the Bauhaus remain cohesive?

·         At its end in 1933, how had the Bauhaus impacted the culture-at-large?

·         In 1933 BMC came into being as a result of what culminations?

·         Who were some of the key Bauhaus alumnae that were also at BMC?

·         BMC was similar to and different from the Bauhaus in what ways?

·         By its closure in 1957, how had BMC impacted the culture-at-large?

An expanded historical survey of the mid-20^th century is examined in The Agency of Art: War, Pedagogy and Social Change in the Western World – 1915 to 1965, where a total of 5 radical art and liberal arts schools of the 20^th century, including the 2 aforementioned, take center stage to speak more directly to the impact of the Two World Wars and the Great Depression, inclusive to the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt, specifically as it relates to the creation of the Works Project Administration (WPA), and as well to how women’s liberation and the emergence of America’s 1950’s and 60’s civil rights movement shaped and colored theses schools, which then shaped and colored the world.

Perspectives on Jacob Lawrence and Black Mountain College

The relocation of Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Centers ushers in a new season of fantastic showings, beginning with an exhibition featuring a large collection of widely-sourced works by Jacob Lawrence.

The show is entitled "Between Form and Content: Perspectives on Jacob Lawrence and Black Mountain College," and a new article by Alli Marshall offers a critique:

When Jeff Arnal stepped into the role of executive director at Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center just about two years ago, one of his first initiatives was to apply for a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The subsequent $25,000 Art Works award from the NEA, along with $60,000 from the Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts, was earmarked for the curation of...read more.

2 Articles and an Exhibition Highlight the Women of Back Mountain College

"The Spiral Headed Man" sculptural installation by Lorna Blaine Harper (Image: Max Eternity)

Anni Albers is perhaps the best known woman to have passed through Black Mountain College (BMC).  She was one of the original "weavers" at the Bauhaus in Germany, where here husband, Josef Albers, also taught and practiced.  And there are other notable women who graced the halls and grounds of BMC who have received a fair amount of recognition through the years, like photographer Hazel Larsen Archer, and one of my personal favorites, a painter and sculptor named Lorna Blaine Halper whose work was included in a feature article I wrote in 2015 about the Asheville Art Museum.

In recent years, BMC has garnered more attention in the press and the world of art history, in no small part due to the hefty book, Leap Before You Look by Helen Molesworth, and touring exhibition curated by Molesworth and Ruth Erickson, as well as the many years of tireless work carried out at the Black Mountain College Museum + Art Center.

And earlier this year, 2 new articles continue the trend of celebrating BMC, of which both highlight the contributions of women.  Appearing this spring at Artsy.net was a piece entitled "8 Pioneering Women Artists of Black Mountain College," and in July at Hyperallergic an article entitled "Revisiting the Legacy of Women at Black Mountain College" speaks to an exhibition in Maine at the Yvette Torres Fine Art, entitled "Women of Black Mountain College: Nevertheless They Persisted."

Shared History: Black Mountain College + Arts Museum Celebrates 25th Anniversary

(Screenshot)

This summer in Asheville, North Carolina, The Black Mountain College +Arts Museum celebrated their 25th Anniversary with an exhibition entitled Shared History.  Having gained funding for a new and larger location a few years ago, the Shared History exhibition will be the last at their present site.

From the BlackMountainCollege.org website:

2018 marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of BMCM+AC. As the last exhibition to be held in our 56 Broadway gallery before the move to 120 College St. on Pack Square Park in downtown Asheville, Shared History highlights not just the museum’s origins, programs, exhibitions, partnerships, {Re}HAPPENINGs, conferences, and notable collection pieces, but the many ways that this organization has created a space for connection and creativity, fulfilling its original promise to BMC alumni to be not merely a museum memorializing the past, but a center geared towards building community in the present and fostering forward-thinking creativity.

Global tour of exhibitions celebrate the Bauhaus centenary

A global exhibition has begun in recognition of the 100th anniversary of Germany's legendary art school, the Bauhaus.  From Artnet.com, an article speaks to the touring collections that make up the "Bauhaus Imaginista" exhibitions:

Next year, a major series of shows titled “Bauhaus Imaginista” will explore the interaction between the Bauhaus and non-European Modernist movements in celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the establishment of the German art school.

A series of exhibitions will be staged at different art and design museums and institutions in Japan, China, Russia, and Brazil from March 2018, leading up to a landmark exhibition in Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt in 2019, the Bauhaus’s centenary year.  Read more.

Mesoamerican Homage: Josef Albers at the Guggenheim

An article at the New York Times this month reviews the latest exhibition of artwork by Josef Albers.  On display at the Guggenheim in New York, the show entitled Homage to Mexico: Josef Albers and His Reality-Based Abstraction, displays Mesoamerican inspired artwork by Albers, much of which was created while he taught at Black Mountain College in the 1930's and 40's.

From the New York Times piece:

Art rarely thrives in a vacuum. It is by definition polyglot and in flux, buffeted by the movement of art objects, goods and people across borders and among cultures, and also by individual passion. This much, especially the passion part, is demonstrated by “Josef Albers in Mexico,” a quietly stunning exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum that contrasts Albers’s little-known photographs of the great Mesoamerican monuments of Mexico with his glowing abstract paintings.  Read more.

Black Mountain College: A Thumbnail Sketch

In 1989 independent filmmaker, Monty Diamond, made a documentary short on Black Mountain College, which contextualizes the emergence of the school within the global context of rapidly shifting political and educational trends in of the early 1930's.

Harassment and Intimidation of BMC by Federal Government Revealed by Investigative Report

In 2015, an investigative report by Carolina Public Access revealed that US Government perceived Black Mountain College (BMC) as an "internal threat."  This led to a multi-year investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that found no wrong doing, but did create turmoil at the school.

Written by by John Ellison, the report states in part that:

In the early 1940s, for example, the bureau recruited an informant in a class taught by the college’s anthropology professor, Paul Radin, to spy on him, according to Radin’s FBI file. The bureau suspected that Radin, a self-professed radical leftist, was a Communist operative. 

The informant, reporting on classroom discussions, told the FBI that Radin was a staunch advocate for racial integration and indeed a Communist Party member, according to historian David Rice’s 2004 book, Threatening Anthropology: McCarthyism and the FBI’s Surveillance of Activist Anthropologists. 

No less than Buckminster Fuller, the famous futurist and inventor who was a visiting professor at BMC in 1948 and ’49, also garnered an FBI file, which was recently released.

The report is entitled "FBI investigation of Black Mountain College revealed in newly released file" and can be read in full here.

Barry Bergdoll, "Learning from the Americas: Gropius and Breuer in the New World"

In 2010, I interviewed Barry Bergdoll in relation to my work educating the public about Marcel Breuer, which had become a necessary aspect to the preservation effort to save Breuer's final building, The Atlanta-Fulton Central Public Library, from demolition.  I had been leading that effort for a number of years, and along the way Bergdoll and many others signed the petition I drafted on behalf of the building and its terraced plaza and monumental sculpture by Richard Hunt, entitled The Wisdom Bridge.  At the time, Bergdoll was (is) a professor at Columbia University, and he also held the title of Chief Curator of Architecture at the Museum of Modern Art.  What follows below is a video from a lecture Bergdoll gave in 2015 at Harvard University, entitled "Learning from the Americas: Gropius and Breuer in the New World."  For those who may be unaware, Walter Gropius was the founder of the Bauhaus, and Breuer was one of his star students, and subsequent partner on numerous collaborations in Europe and the United States.  Also, they both taught at Harvard in the years after the closing of the Bauhaus - before, during and after the end of World War II.

SYNOPSIS: From Bauhaus | To Black Mountain

Without the past there can be no present or pathway to the future, and with the knowledge that the telling of history determines who is most enfranchised in the everyday, there is at least one story about the history of art and education in the 20th century deserving a much closer and careful examination.

By investigating one of the most enduring spans in the history of modern art—from 1919 to 1933 and directly thereafter 1933 to 1957—representing the respective years of operation for the Bauhaus school, which closed the same year that Black Mountain College opened—renowned artist, writer and historian, Max Eternity, goes beyond familiar tropes and conversations on the subject.  Eternity illuminates a multitude of crucial transatlantic arts and humanities relationships in the Western world during those times, whereby sharpening and refining the historical lens.

Observed in the study of Germany's Bauhaus and the United States’ Black Mountain College, and by playing close attention to the social impact of these educational (forums) institutions and their respective players, From Bauhaus | To Black Mountain presents an intriguing and voluminous, yet concise, historical record in a manner accessible to layperson, practitioner, and academic.

In the malleable present and within the great hallways of collective memory, From Bauhaus | To Black Mountain offers an intellectually exciting and richly detailed understanding of the roots, and other aspects, of early to mid-century modernism’s family tree.

Triadisches Ballett von Oskar Schlemmer - Bauhaus

Walter Gropius - The Dessau Bauhaus

A film by Frédéric Compain

Andrew Reach on From Bauhaus | To Black Mountain

“I think you are writing a very important book on the subject of the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College—in a way not touched in academia, as far as I know—inclusive to the interconnections with the Jim Crow South, and shedding light on new territory about African American modernists. I think also your perspective is fresh, in comparison to the usual suspects in mainstream academia who have dominated the subject. On a side note, the cover art you created for this project is beautiful, and connects with the modernity of the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College.” 

Andrew Reach

Architect | Artist

www.andrewreach.com

Convergence | Divergence | Emergence: A New Conversation on Bauhaus + BMC (Part Two)

Convergence | Divergence | Emergence: A New Conversation on Bauhaus + BMC (Part Two)

By Max Eternity


On a visit to Asheville, North Carolina, last year, I spent time at the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center. I interviewed Alice Sebrell while there, at which time the museum was exhibiting a show called Convergence | Divergence: Exploring Black Mountain College and Chicago’s New Bauhaus / Institute of Design.

Harriet Sohmers Zwerling, The Studies Building, ca. 1949, gelatin silver print. Gift of the artist.

In Part One of the interview, Sebrell talked about the interconnectedness of the [original] German Bauhaus with Black Mountain College (BMC) and the New Bauhaus, both in the United States. We talked also about how the exhibition came together—the endeavored work of Michael Reid, who curated the show.

Now in the continuation and conclusion of our conversation, Sebrell recalls the preservation effort I led for the Atlanta-Fulton Central Public Library, which was the final building built by Bauhaus alumni, Marcel Breuer. We also talked briefly about some of the art and textiles at the Bauhaus, and at BMC, including works by master weaver, Gunta Stotzl. Thereafter, Sebrell and I talked about the campus buildings at BMC—the first campus and the second campus—and specifically about E. W. Grove, who was the property developer responsible for initially building the BMC site, and other notable sites in the area.

What follows is the end of our recorded conversation and some snapshots of the catalog for Convergence / Divergence: Exploring Black Mountain College Chicago’s New Bauhaus / Institute of Design.

Conversations: Ruth Erickson, Curator @ ICA Boston, Part Four

Conversations: Ruth Erickson, Curator @ ICA Boston, Part Four

By Max Eternity

In the final segment of my podcast interview with Ruth Erickson, the conversation concludes with a discussion about Merce Cunningham.  A link to Part One is here, a link to PartTwo is here, and a link to Part Three is here.  And below is a Youtube video from a 1966 performance:

Cunningham was born in 1919:  the same year that World War One ended and the same year that the Bauhaus school was opened.  Years later, in the summer of 1953 while teaching at BMC, Cunningham would form the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

From the Merce Cunningham Trust:

MERCE CUNNINGHAM (1919-2009) was a leader of the American avant-garde throughout his seventy year career and is considered one of the most important choreographers of our time. Through much of his life, he was also one of the greatest American dancers. With an artistic career distinguished by constant innovation, Cunningham expanded the frontiers not only of dance, but also of contemporary visual and performing arts. His collaborations with artistic innovators from every creative discipline have yielded an unparalleled body of American dance, music, and visual art.

What follows now is my discussion with Erickson, as we talk about Cunningham and some of the other important, though lesser known, choreographers and dancers at BMC:

Convergence | Divergence | Emergence: A New Conversation on Bauhaus + BMC

Convergence | Divergence | Emergence

A New Conversation on Bauhaus + BMC

By Max Eternity

There are so many things to be learned about Black Mountain College (BMC)—about how the school came into being in 1933 and what went on for the 24 years of its existence, as well as studying the institution’s unrivalled broad appeal to artists and intellectuals of that era, within the Americas inclusive to African-Americans and ad other minorities, and all the contributors of Europe.

(NOTE:  After returning to California, I decided to redesign all of the websites within the Eternity Group, which is why this interview material is just being published a year later.)

The [original] Bauhaus of Germany, Staatliches Bauhaus, and the New Bauhaus of the United States, located in Chicago, Illinois, both had impacts on BMC.  It seems evident, as well, that the Harlem Renaissance (school) and The New School, both in New York City, helped to shape BMC.

I first began formal documentation and writing about the Bauhaus | Black Mountain continuum in 2008, when I led a campaign to preserve the Atlanta-Fulton Central Public Library from demolition.  Before that time and since my work on the subject(s) has manifested n some form or another, including channeling some of the creative ideas of that collective movement into my own art and design.     
         

"Color Charm" by Max Eternity.  ca. 2006

“Invasion of the Spiders”  by Max Eternity.  1996. 

                                             

In addition to writing a new book, entitled From Bauhaus | To Black Mountain, for which this blog is dedicated.  I am also exploring new research for a [proposed] PhD dissertation, entitled The Agency of Art:  War Pedagogy and Social Change in the Western World - 1915 to 1965, whose primary research question is:

How did a transcontinental intersection of Western artists, educators and moralists harness the global upheaval of the Two World Wars toward achieving high-minded social change between 1915 and 1965, particularly as it relates to the Harlem Renaissance (School), Staatliches Bauhaus and Black Mountain College?

Here now, however, is the first podcast segment of an onsite interview I conducted with Alice Sebrell about an exhibition, entitled Convergence | Divergence Exploring Black Mountain College and Chicago’s New Bauhaus / Institute of Design, while I was visiting the East Coast last year. 

László Moholy-Nagy, Plexi-Chrome Sculpture, 1947, vintage gelatin silver print, 8.875 x 6.25 inches. Collection of Michael Reid.

Sebrell is the program director at the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, and in this multi-part interview our conversation starts off with Sebrell saying “we knew there were common faculty members and students between Bauhaus, Black Mountain and Chicago, but the extent of those intersections and connections we didn’t really know.”  The curator of the show, Michael Reid, was the person, however, who “did tons of research and made a lot of discoveries that hadn’t really been articulated and pulled together,” says Sebrell.  And she also talks about the involvement of Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer at BMC:

Conversations: Ruth Erickson, Curator @ ICA Boston, Part Three

Peter Voulkos, Rocking Pot, 1956, stoneware with colemanite wash, 13 5⁄8 x 21 x 17 1⁄2 inches. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Gift of the James Renwick Alliance and various donors and museum purchase © Voulkos Family Trust

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In Part One of my talk with Ruth Ericson, she explained the layout of the Leap Before You Look exhibition while it was still on display in Southern California.  As that show was in its final week, in Part Two of the conversation was published, in which Ericson and I talked some about the architects involved with Black Mountain College, most notably Lawrence Kocher.

The exhibition has since traveled to the Wexner Center for the Arts (the Wex) at Ohio State University, where it opened on September 17^th.

   

Ruth Asawa, Dancers, c. 1948, oil on blotting paper 12 x 19 inches. Weverka Family Collection. © Estate of Ruth Asawa. Image courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

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Moving on to Part Three of our conversation, Ericson and I first talk about pottery at BMC.  And thereafter, Ericson shares details about Ruth Asawa’s prolific body of work created while at BMC.  I then mentioned Jacob Lawrence, who taught at BMC and was one of the most renowned Black artists of the 20^th century, also inviting Ericson to talk about some of the other] African-Americans involved with Black Mountain College(BMC), where she replied in part that “Black Mountain made the decision after a heated debate in 1944, which is a full 10 years before Brown vs Board…and it was an African-American female singer who came, and her name was Alma Mae Stone Williams.”  

Jacob Lawrence, Watchmaker, 1946, tempera and graphite on paper, 30 1⁄2 x 21 1⁄2 inches.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution. Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. Photo by Lee Stalsworth. 

© 2015 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS)

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Ericson also talked about Roland Hayes, who taught at BMC in 1945, and who was—according to the Harris Arts Center and other arts institutions—considered “the first African-American classical singer to have an international career on the concert and operatic stage.”

What now follows is a statement by the Wex, and thereafter Part Three of my podcast with Ericson:

This fall, step into an immersive, sweeping exploration of one of America’s most important artistic legacies. Featuring 200 works by 90 artists, Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933–1957 sheds light on an experimental school in North Carolina that has had an extraordinary impact on contemporary art. Its influence is still profoundly felt today…