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Hazel Larsen Archer / Black Mountain College Photographer |
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 Exhibition:
Hazel Larsen Archer / Black Mountain College Photographer
Friday, April 21, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Opening Reception + Publication Party
Exhibition Dates: April 21 - August 12, 2006
$3, Free for BMCM+AC members
Tour:
Tour the Black Mountain College Campus
Friday, April 21, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.
BMC scholar Mary Emma Harris (The Arts at Black Mountain College) will
lead a tour of the buildings and grounds of the Lake Eden campus of
Black Mountain College. A rare opportunity!
In partnership with the Asheville Art Museum. Space is limited.
Pre-registration required: call 350-8484 to reserve a space
$20 / $15 for members of BMCM+AC or AAM
Workshop:
Finding Your Photographic Vision
Join award-winning photographer Benjamin Porter for 3 sessions of
hands-on instruction and exploration into your personal image-making
potential. Please bring your own film or digital camera. All ages
welcome. Space is limited. Call 828-350-8484 to register.
Saturdays May 13, 20, 27 10:00a.m. - 12:00p.m.
$75 / $60 for BMCM+AC members + students
Lecture/Presentation
Merce Cunningham + Hazel Larsen Archer at Black Mountain College
Monday, June 26, 7:00 p.m.
David Vaughan, archivist for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and
contributing author to the publication Hazel Larsen Archer/Black
Mountain College Photographer, will speak about Cunningham, the
dancer/composer, and Larsen Archer the photographer and their
connections to Black Mountain College.
$7 / $5 for BMCM+AC members + students
"Hazel Larsen was an intrinsic part of the Black Mountain experience."
- Merce Cunningham
Hazel Larsen Archer has been called the archetypal Black Mountain College photographer. More than any other single photographer associated with the college, Archer created a strikingly beautiful and historically important collection of images based on the place itself and the people who lived in the BMC community during the late 1940s and early 1950s. This long overdue exhibition will give an in-depth look at Archer's photographs from her nine years at the college both as a student and a teacher. BMCM+AC will publish a 92 page, fully illustrated book to accompany the exhibition.
 Hazel Larsen Archer died in 2001 after a productive life spent
primarily as a photographer and teacher in North Carolina and then
Arizona. She first attended Black Mountain College in 1944 after
hearing an enthusiastic report from another student at Milwaukee State
Teachers' College. She stayed at BMC for nine years, first as a
student, then as a teacher of photography. Later describing her
acceptance to the college, she said, "Unbeknownst to me, a blessed star
fell on my head."
Though certainly less known than other photographers who spent time at
Black Mountain College (notably Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind) Hazel
Larsen Archer did something that they were unable to do simply because
their time at BMC was limited. She photographed the life of the
community, its people, and significant places.
She photographed Merce Cunningham dancing...in a sequential format to
communicate movement through space and time. She photographed the doors
of the Quiet House (a small meditation structure built in memory of a
deceased faculty child) over and over, watching the changing patterns
of light and shadow. She was particularly interested in photographic
portraiture, close-up studies of people in the college community. Thus
we have fine early portraits of John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Willem de
Kooning, Ruth Asawa, Josef and Anni Albers, Buckminster Fuller
surrounded by his amazing array of geometric models, and others. She
was immersed in the life of the community and saw that her role
included documenting the gifted individuals and their activities as
life unfolded at BMC. It is interesting to note that Hazel Larsen
Archer was a polio survivor, having contracted the disease at the age
of ten, and was therefore limited to a wheelchair. This is certainly
not apparent from the photos, however, and only comes to our attention
through anecdotes told by her subjects.
Due to a fire in the science building which housed the college's
darkroom, most of the photographer's early negatives were destroyed.
Many of the remarkable images in this exhibition and book were made in
the summer of 1948 during the Summer Institute arranged by Josef
Albers. It was an extraordinary summer by any measure. Buckminster
Fuller and his students attempted to build the first large-scale
geodesic dome (it failed to rise and was thus named the Supine Dome);
Arthur Penn co-directed (with Helen Livingston) a play by Erik Satie,
The Ruse of Medusa, with cast members Buckminster Fuller, Merce
Cunningham and Elaine de Kooning, piano accompaniment by John Cage and
set design by Willem and Elaine de Kooning. Among the outstanding
students enrolled that summer were artists Kenneth Noland, Ray Johnson,
Pat Passlof, Kenneth Snelson, Joe Fiore, director Arthur Penn, and of
course, photographer Hazel Larsen Archer. Also that summer, Cunningham
and Cage were developing their collaborative projects as well as
teaching dance and music composition; there were frequent concerts,
lectures and performances all contributing to the fertile climate of
creative challenge in the air.
The era during which Hazel Larsen Archer was at Black Mountain College
is acknowledged by many as one of the college's peaks in terms of
intellectual and artistic activity and synergistic, cross disciplinary
innovation. The college was transitioning from a predominantly European
sensibility to one that was distinctly American. These years at BMC
were the genesis for much of American culture in the second half of the
twentieth century. We at BMCM+AC feel fortunate that such a gifted
photographer was present at Black Mountain College during this fertile
time and that her images are now available to be seen and appreciated.
This exhibition and book have been made possible through the generous
support of the following: Asheville Savings Bank, John Cram, Joe and
Cynthia Kimmel, Joscelyn W. Hill, North Carolina Arts Council, Western
Carolina University Fine Art Museum, Rob Pulleyn, Mary Holden
Thompson, F/32 Photo Group, and Jack and Helga Beam.
Image citations:
Photographs by Hazel Larsen Archer
1. Ray Johnson
2. Buckminster Fuller in his Dome, 1949
3. Merce Cunningham dancing
Courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer
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