Yale University Press Art & Architecture, Podcast
A detailed study of the role and legacy of weaving at the legendary Black Mountain College
In the mid-twentieth century, Black Mountain College attracted a
remarkable roster of artists, architects, and musicians. Yet the weaving
classes taught by Anni Albers, Trude Guermonprez, and six other faculty
members are rarely mentioned or are often treated as mere craft
lessons. This was far from the case: the weaving program was the
school’s most sophisticated and successful design program. About ten
percent of all Black Mountain College students took at least one class
in weaving, including specialists like textile designers Lore Kadden
Lindenfeld and Else Regensteiner, as well as students from other
disciplines, like artists Ray Johnson and Robert Rauschenberg and
architects Don Page and Claude Stoller. Drawing upon a wealth of
unpublished material and archival photographs, Weaving at Black Mountain College rewrites
history to show how weaving played a much larger role in the legendary
art and design curriculum than previously assumed.
The book
illustrates dozens of objects from private and public collections, many
of which have never been shown in this context. Essays explore
connections and networks fostered by Black Mountain weavers; the ways in
which weaving at the college was linked to larger discourses about
weaving and craft; and Bauhaus influences transmitted by way of Anni
Albers. The book also includes works by five contemporary artists that
connect and respond to the legacy of weaving at Black Mountain College
today.
Distributed for the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
Hardcover, 216 pages, 90 color + 60 b-w illustrations, $40
