Homage to Ilya Bolotowsky

Hailing from Ohio, Joseph Fiore decided to pursue art when he read an article about Black Mountain College. After serving in the Army in World War II, he was finally able to enroll in 1946. Fiore was particularly influenced by his instructors Josef Albers and Jacob Lawrence, but Ilya Bolotowsky, who encouraged creative autonomy, inspired Fiore the most.

After a stint in San Francisco, he returned to BMC to teach. A fire destroyed most of Fiore’s belongings in 1953, and few of Fiore’s works from Black Mountain survive today. Fiore was one of BMC’s longest tenured professors, but after BMC’s dissolution, he moved to the Northeast to exhibit and teach with great success. After his time at BMC, Fiore’s subject matter shifted from abstract technical explorations to landscapes with an environmentalist focus. He also incorporated prehistoric symbolism from his travels in France.