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Hazel Larsen Archer
Hazel Larsen Archer
John Cage
Vintage gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer
John Cage taught music in the BMC Summer Sessions of 1948 and 1952. He provoked controversy within the college community with his series of concerts of the music of Erik Satie and his lectures which were critical of the music of Beethoven. He often described his role within modern music as that of an “inventor”. Throughout a long career he continued to challenge and stretch artistic boundaries.
Hazel Larsen Archer
R. Buckminster Fuller
Summer 1948, Vintage gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer
Bucky Fuller taught architecture at BMC during the Summer Sessions of 1948 and 1949. His exuberance, optimism, wide-ranging knowledge, and ability to lecture non-stop for many hours attracted much attention. He was invited back to serve as Faculty Head of the 1949 Summer Session.
Hazel Larsen Archer
Josef Albers
Gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer
Josef Albers and his wife Anni were the first of many brilliant teachers to come to BMC as émigrés fleeing the Nazi dangers in Europe. Albers brought the modernist design philosophy of Germany’s Bauhaus to his teaching of art at the college from 1933 to 1949. He was perhaps the most influential of all the BMC faculty, finally leaving to head the Department of Design at Yale University and to continue his artistic career.
Hazel Larsen Archer
Anni Albers
Vintage gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer
Anni Albers taught weaving and textile design at the college from 1933 to 1949. Like her husband Josef, she was a strong proponent of the Bauhaus-derived modern style of simplicity and abstraction. A number of her textile designs were put into production, and she also continued an active career as a fiber artist.
Hazel Larsen Archer
Willem de Kooning
Summer 1948, Vintage gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer
Willem de Kooning taught art at the college during the summer session of 1948. This was a brief but crucial period at BMC in which an amazing number of creative people came together, influenced one another and, like de Kooning, later became major 20th century artists.
Hazel Larsen Archer
Ray Johnson in his Study
Gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer
Ray Johnson was a student at BMC from 1946 to 1948. He became an enigmatic but important artist in the New York scene. He is perhaps best-known for his founding of the New York Correspondence School, creating the new medium of “mail art”.
Hazel Larsen Archer
Paul Williams
Vintage gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer
Paul Williams began at BMC as a student, served as a student teacher of architecture in 1950, and was a guest lecturer in 1953. Williams also designed the campus Science Building and the Pottery Shop.
Hazel Larsen Archer
Buckminster Fuller inside his Geodesic Dome
Summer 1949, Gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer
Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome of 1948, made of Venetian blinds, collapsed immediately because the materials were not strong enough. Undaunted, he returned for the summer of 1949 with a group of students and several domes made of new materials. These innovative and successful domes were erected on the campus throughout the summer to the delight of Fuller and the whole college community.
Hazel Larsen Archer
M.C. Richards
Gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer
M.C. Richards came from the University of Chicago to Black Mountain in 1945 and taught literature and drama until 1952. While there, she also became intensely interested in the creative process through making pottery. This led to her long and extraordinary career as an artist, philosopher, and writer. Just one of her many accomplishments was her ground-breaking 1964 book Centering, which is still in print.
Hazel Larsen Archer
Ruth Asawa
Vintage gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer
A Japanese-American, Ruth Asawa was released from a U.S. internment camp to attend college. After a stint at a Wisconsin school, Asawa came to BMC in 1946, where she studied art with Josef Albers and others. While at the college, she met her future husband Albert Lanier. In 1949 Asawa and Lanier moved to San Francisco, where they raised six children. Asawa has also carried on a noteworthy career as a sculptor and an educator.
Hazel Larsen Archer
Charles Olson
Vintage gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer
The poet Charles Olson was the dominant faculty figure at BMC in the 1950s. Imposing both in manner and in size (6’8” tall), Olson served as Rector of the college until its close in 1956. Olson was responsible for placing a much greater emphasis on the literary arts, and the college was one of the centers of activity for what became known as “the new American poetry.”
Robert Rauschenberg
Vintage gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer
The renowned artist Robert Rauschenberg studied at BMC in 1948-49 and during the summers of 1951 and 1952. He credits the college with giving him direction in his art and the confidence to become an iconoclastic figure in the turbulent New York City art scene of the 1950s. In turn he brought to the college an immense capacity for artistic innovation and enthusiasm for collaboration across the arts.
Hazel Larsen Archer
Joan Stack
Vintage gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer
Hazel Larsen Archer
Delores Fullman
Gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer
Hazel Larsen Archer
Susan Weil
Vintage gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer
Sue Weil attended BMC during the school year 1948-49, with a focus on studying art with Josef Albers. Like many others, she found Albers a tough and demanding but stimulating teacher. Weil has continued to be active as a painter and printmaker in New York City.
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