#susanweil

[vortexstreet]

Susan Weil and Robert Rauschenberg, Untitled, 1951, Monoprint on cyan-blueprint paper, 72 x 48 inches. 

[bmcmuseum]

Robert Rauschenberg is shown here with his future wife and fellow artist Susan Weil at BMC in the summer of 1948, photographed by Hazel Larsen Archer. After this summer, they created their first collaborative “blueprint paintings.” These prints, created by using light to expose an object onto paper, exemplified the spirit of experimentation and collaboration at the heart of Black Mountain College. The couple have created a painting without brushstrokes, but which shows the "hand” of the artist in an undeniable way. They are reliant upon the unpredictable reaction of the blueprint paper to light. Both in the conceptualization and realization of this print, Weil and Rauschenberg are intertwined. 

While their marriage ended in 1953, Weil and Rauschenberg continued to support and inspire each other until Rauschenberg’s death in 2008. Weil still creates and exhibits her art internationally and is one of the key influencers of the Abstract Expressionist movement. 

Hazel Larsen Archer, “Robert Rauschenberg and Susan Weil,” c. 1948. 

Robert Rauschenberg, Susan Weil. “Untitled [Double Rauschenberg],” c. 1950. Exposed blueprint paper. Cy Twombly Foundation.

[vortexstreet]

Susan Weil and Robert Rauschenberg, Untitled [feet and foliage] 1950, Monoprint- exposed cyan-blueprint paper, 58 x 41 inches. Museum of Modern Art, New York

[bmcmuseum]

We’d like to introduce ourselves! We are a Museum + Arts Center in Asheville, NC that is dedicated to the history of Black Mountain College and its legacy. This Tumblr will be a spot to post updates on our exhibition and programs, never before seen photos from our permanent collection and archival photos like this one. 

The story of Black Mountain College begins in 1933 and comprises a fascinating chapter in the history of education and the arts. Conceived by John A. Rice, a brilliant and mercurial scholar who left Rollins College in a storm of controversy, Black Mountain College was born out of a desire to create a new type of college based on John Dewey’s principles of progressive education. The events that precipitated the college’s founding occurred simultaneously with the rise of Adolf Hitler, the closing of the the Bauhaus school in Germany, and the beginning of the persecution of artists and intellectuals in Europe. Some of these refugees found their way to Black Mountain, either as students or faculty. Meanwhile, the United States was mired in the Great Depression.

The founders of the college believed that the study and practice of art were indispensable aspects of a student’s general liberal arts education, and they hired Josef Albers to be the first art teacher. Speaking not a word of English, he and his wife Anni left the turmoil in Hitler’s Germany and crossed the Atlantic Ocean by boat to teach art at this small, rebellious college in the mountains of North Carolina.

Black Mountain College was fundamentally different from other colleges and universities of the time. It was owned and operated by the faculty and was committed to democratic governance and to the idea that the arts are central to the experience of learning. All members of the college community participated in its operation, including farm work, construction projects, and kitchen duty. Twenty minutes east of Asheville, the secluded environment fostered a strong sense of individuality and creative intensity.

Legendary even in its own time, Black Mountain College attracted and created maverick spirits, some of whom went on to become well-known and extremely influential individuals in the latter half of the 20th century. A partial list includes Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Josef and Anni Albers, Jacob Lawrence, Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Cy Twombly, Kenneth Noland, Susan Weil, Vera B. Williams, Ben Shahn, Ruth Asawa, Franz Kline, Arthur Penn, Buckminster Fuller, M.C. Richards, Francine du Plessix Gray, Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, Dorothea Rockburne and many others who have made an impact on the world in a significant way. Even now, decades after its closing in 1957, the powerful influence of Black Mountain College continues to reverberate.

(Hazel Larsen Archer, Josef Albers’s color theory class, n.d.)