The Art of Black Mountain College; AC Chapel Hill

Sequestered in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, Black Mountain College was a living laboratory for creative experimentation and interdisciplinary collaboration, attracting artists, musicians, dancers, poets, and thinkers from around the world. Operating between the years 1933 and 1957, the school’s roster included luminaries of the burgeoning American modern art scene—Josef Albers, Ruth Asawa, Elaine de Kooning, Ray Johnson, Robert Motherwell, Kenneth Noland, Pat Passlof, and Robert Rauschenberg—groundbreaking artists who would play vital roles in shaping twentieth century aesthetics. Although short-lived, the principles and people of Black Mountain College unleashed a tide of innovation that continues to influence contemporary art.