Béla Martin

Bela John Martin's artistic career seems to have been limited to his time as an attendee of Black Mountain College. Nonetheless, his life and work are representative of many of the students who flocked to the school for its alluring creative environment.

Martin's parents immigrated to the United States from Hungary and became naturalized citizens in 1937. The given name ‘Bela' is a common male Hungarian name meaning bravery or character–an apt moniker for Martin, who would dedicate the majority of his life to United States military service. Martin was born in Roanoke, Virginia, but was living in Louisville, Kentucky, as a teenager. He attended Louisville Male High School where he did well in athletics. In 1935 he and a classmate, Morton Steinau, hitchhiked to western North Carolina. Their goal was to reconnect with a former teacher, Robert Wunsch, who was teaching drama and creative writing at Black Mountain College (BMC). The late 1930s was a period of growth and change for BMC; enrollment doubled to almost eighty students, and the college purchased acreage for a permanent campus at Lake Eden. After years of student-led building and garden construction, the school relocated in 1941. Martin and his friend arrived during this surge of creativity, which convinced them to stay. They decided to enroll, even though Martin had been offered football scholarships at other colleges. Martin was a protégé of Wunsch who inscribed a volume that he had co-authored, Studies in Creative Writing, "For Bela Martin whose work will appear in Volume II of the series, W.R. Wunsch." Although the school did not offer formal accreditation, Martin achieved the BMC equivalent of a master's degree in 1940, and Steinau stayed on and became the office manager until 1943.

Martin took drawing and art classes with Josef Albers, alongside fellow student Robert de Niro; his extant paintings display similar interests with those of his instructor: flat plans of diverse color that explore spatial perception. Along with most of the campus community, including Xanti Schawsinky and his wife Irene, Martin took part in drama productions. In 1938 the performance was Xanti Schawinsky's The Danse Macabre: A Sociological Study, and he played the role of death.

Following graduation, Martin became an art instructor and coach at John Burroughs School, a liberal arts-heavy college preparatory school in St. Louis, Missouri. During World War II, Martin trained as a Navy pilot. He saw action in the Pacific: Pearl Harbor, then Fiji and Guadalcanal, and in a F6F Hellcat flew escort in the Solomon Islands, and held the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade United States Naval Reserve. A letter from him written in Florida appeared in the 1944 Black Mountain College bulletin: "Since I am in a state of rest until my physical examination in the first part of next month, the Navy has had a time trying to decide what to do with me. I will now be an instrument instructor, taking up pilots. … While at Miami I sat behind a desk making out flight schedules which could at times be an awful headache. Also I gave three lectures in the auditorium on fighter tactics and experience while flying in the South Pacific." Following the war Martin became a corporate pilot until his retirement in 1976, after a career of thirty-five years.