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From the time of its founding in 1933, Black Mountain College, located near Asheville, North Carolina, was known as one of the leading progressive schools of art in the United States. Experimental by nature and committed to an interdisciplinary approach, Black Mountain College attracted a faculty which included many of America's leading artists and poets. Among those who taught there in the 1940s were Josef and Anni Albers , John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Buckminster Fuller, Walter Gropius, Lou Harrison, Franz Kline, Jacob Lawrence, Charles Olson, M. C. Richards , Ben Shahn, and Jack TworkovJack Tworkov ( 1900 1982) was born in Biala, Poland and immigrated to the United States when he was thirteen. Tworkov studied at Columbia University as well as the National Academy of Design. During the Depression Era, Tworkov met Willem de Kooning, and t. Guest lecturers included Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein ( March 14 1879 April 18 1955) was a theoretical physicist who is widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the 20th century. He proposed the theory of relativity and also made major contributions to the development of quantum mechanics, Clement GreenbergClement Greenberg ( January 16, 1909 May 7, 1994) was an influential American art critic who was closely associated with the institutionalization of abstract art in the United States. In particular he promoted the Abstract Expressionist movement led by Ja, and William Carlos WilliamsBiography William Carlos Williams ( September 17, 1883 March 4, 1963), often abbreviated with the initials "WCW", was an American poet during the Modernist movement. He attended public school in Rutherford, New Jersey until 1897, then was sent to study at.Among the notable alumni of Black Mountain College are Robert RauschenbergRobert Rauschenberg is a painter, sculptor, and graphic artist known for helping to redefine American art in the 1950s and '60s, providing an alternative to the then-dominant aesthetic of Abstract Expressionism. Born Milton Ernest Rauschenberg on October, Susan Weil , John ChamberlainBorn in 1927 in Rochester, Indiana, but raised in Chicago, John Chamberlain attended the Art Institute of Chicago (1951 52) and Black Mountain College (1955 56). He is best known for creating sculptures from wrecked automobiles (or parts of) that bring th, Ray JohnsonRay Johnson ( 1927 1995) was an important post- Surrealism, pre- Pop collage artist. Johnson was also the founder of the New York Correspondance School, and therefore the originator of "correspondance art," the inter-disciplinary art form that uses the po, Kenneth NolandKenneth Noland (born 1924) is an American painter. Born in Asheville, North Carolina, Noland attended the experimental Black Mountain College. He is identified as an abstract expressionist. He became friends with Morris Louis, and the pair of them adopted, Ruth Asawa , Robert De Niro, Sr. , Cy Twombly , Basil King , and Kenneth Snelson. The college closed in 1956.
