The Hamburger Bahnhof presents the first comprehensive exhibition in Germany devoted to the legendary Black Mountain College. Founded in 1933 in North Carolina, USA, Black Mountain rapidly rose to fame on account of its progressive teaching methods and the many prominent figures who taught and studied there. Its influence upon the development of the arts in the second half of the 20th century was enormous; the performatisation of the arts, in particular, that emerged as from the 1950s derived vital impetus from the experimental practice at Black Mountain.
The founders wanted to establish a democratic, experimental, interdisciplinary educational facility in line with the forward-thinking pedagogical ideas of philosopher John Dewey.
The exhibition traces the history of this university experiment in its main outlines. In the first few years of its existence, the college was strongly shaped by German and European émigrés – among them several former Bauhaus members such as Josef and Anni Albers, Alexander “Xanti” Schawinsky and Walter Gropius. After the Second World War, the creative impulses issued increasingly from young American artists and academics, who commuted between rural Black Mountain and the urban centres on the East and West Coast. Right up to its closure in 1957, the college remained imbued with the ideas of European modernism, the philosophy of American pragmatism and teaching methods that aimed to encourage personal initiative as well as the social competence of the individual.
The show displays works both by teachers at the college, such as Josef and Anni Albers, Richard Buckminster Fuller, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Shoji Hamada, Franz Kline, Xanti Schawinsky and Jack Tworkov, and by a number of Black Mountain students, including Ruth Asawa, Ray Johnson, Ursula Mamlok, Robert Rauschenberg, Dorothea Rockburne and Cy Twombly, within an architectural environment designed by the architects’ collective raumlabor_berlin.
At Black Mountain, the sciences and the arts were taught on an equal footing. The arts were seen as an essential component of a rounded education that would equip students to become responsible members of society. As time went by, however, the artistic disciplines shifted increasingly to the fore and attracted many students to apply for a place at the college. Teachers were free to structure their classes entirely as they wished, and students chose the courses that particularly interested them. Although there was no fixed curriculum, students were encouraged to take courses in a mixture of scientific and artistic subjects. Responsibility for the college was borne jointly by the teaching staff and the students, and everyone was expected to contribute on a voluntary basis to the daily running of the community as well as to evening programmes, field work and construction projects. Black Mountain was accessible right from the start to female as well as male students and staff, and contrary to contemporary practices of racial discrimination also accepted a number of Afro-American students.
Venue.- Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart. Invalidenstraße 50/51, D-10557 Berlin, Germany.
Dates.- Until 27th September 2015.
