Black Mountain College
From the time of its founding in
1933,
Black Mountain College, located near
Asheville, North Carolina, was known as one of the leading progressive schools of art in the United States. Experimental by nature and committed to an interdisciplinary approach, Black Mountain College attracted a faculty which included many of America's leading artists and poets. Among those who taught there in the
1940s were
Josef and Anni Albers,
John Cage,
Merce Cunningham, Willem and Elaine de Kooning,
Buckminster Fuller,
Walter Gropius,
Lou Harrison, Franz Kline,
Jacob Lawrence,
Charles Olson, M. C. Richards, and Ben Shahn. Guest lecturers included
Albert Einstein,
Clement Greenberg, and
William Carlos Williams.
Among the notable alumni of Black Mountain College are Robert Rauschenberg, Kenneth Noland, Ruth Asawa, and Kenneth Snelson. The college closed in 1956.