Art Education in America

Bauhaus After World War I, the nation state of Germany under the direction of architect Walter Gropius created a "consulting art center for industry and the trades" (Bayer 12). Called Bauhaus, "house for building," the school combined the role of artisans and craftspeople and included everything from architecture to theater to typography. When the school was forced to close during the Nazi regime in 1932, many of its artists moved to the United States to find freedom to pursue their own artistic expression.

Here, Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe among others, helped to spread the Bauhaus ideology. Gropius consulted with educator John A. Rice, who opened Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Based on John Dewey's principles of progressive education, the school became home of many of the most progressive and innovative artists. Josef and Anni Albers, also from Bauhaus, combined Rice's progressive educational theories with their own disciplined approach to teaching art and created an entirely new approach to learning.

Despite the struggles and challenges that occur whenever educators, artists and innovators work together, Black Mountain became a monument to which colleges can aspire. Established in Weimar in 1919, the Bauhaus' philosophy largely stressed the integration of modern design principles with their industrial implementation.

As the first director of the organization, Walter Gropius stated about the difference between this school and previous schools: "The tool of the spirit of yesterday was the 'academy.' It shut off the artist from the world of industry and handicraft, and thus brought about his complete isolation from the community." However, in earlier "vital epochs," the artist enriched all the community's arts and crafts because he had a part in its vocational life and gained through practice "as much adeptness and understanding as any other artist who began at the bottom and worked his way up." (Harrison & Wood 339).The Bauhaus would once again end the isolation of artists and make them a part of industry and handicraft.

The credo of Bauhaus was to "strive to coordinate all creative effort, to achieve, in a new architecture, the unification of all training in art and design" (Harrison & Wood 340).

The ultimate, if distant, goal of the Bauhaus, said Gropius, was "the collective work of art -- the Building -- in which no barriers exist between the structural and the decorative arts." The curriculum included both practical and theoretical studies "to release the creative powers of the student, to help him grasp the physical nature of materials and the basic laws of design." Bauhaus avoided concentration on any stylistic approach to break down earlier preconceptions and biases.

As a result, "The Bauhaus did more than any other organization, either in the nineteenth or twentieth centuries to reconcile man and his man-made environment" (Naylor 7). Noted Gropius at its opening: Let us create a new guild of craftsmen, without the class distinction which raise an arrogant barrier between craftsman and artist.

Together, let us conceive and create the new building of the future, which will embrace architecture and sculpture and painting in one unity and which will one day rise toward heaven from the hands of a million workers, like the crystal symbol of a new faith. (Harrison & Wood 340) Gropius enlisted the support of avant garde artists such as Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy to stimulate the creative process. He believed, with their help, he could breathe life into the dead product of a machine.

However, the Bauhaus was involved in political intrigue on many different levels from the time of its opening to its closure. There were continual conflicts between the institution, state and city parliament funding agents and eventually between Bauhaus and the Nazi Party. In 1923, for example, the Bauhaus held "Art and Technics: A New Unity," a huge exhibition of art and objects in Bauhaus buildings or the newly built model house. Although the international reaction was very positive, local critics were hostile (Etlin 291).

As with earlier exhibitions, Bauhaus was called a "Spartacist-Bolshevist" institution with un-German influences. Gropius said these charges were "nationalistic and anti-Semetic slander." In 1924, the proto-Nazi groups in parliament refused to refund the school and it moved to the industrial city of Dessau. Once again, there was local opposition and Gropius was asked to resign. After a couple of more directors left and Nazi majority was gained in the Dessau town council, funding for the Bauhaus was completely terminated in 1932 and the school's buildings were turned into a Nazi training camp.

Although it had such a rough history, Bauhaus architects and artists made a major impact on Western Europe and the United States. Moholy-Nagy used the school as a laboratory to examine the formal principles of abstraction in painting, photography, and sculpture. He also explored the influence of technology, which had a major impact on his work and ideas and helped him develop a new kind of theater that took space, composition, motion, sound, movement, and light into a fully integrated, abstract form of artistic expression.

Josef Albers explored abstraction and color; Russian painter Kandinsky developed abstraction and became one of the most important innovators in modern art; American-born German painter/illustrator Feininger specialized in analytical cubism, made use of rhythmic interpretations of natural forms and studied the effects of transparency and prismatic planes; Lucia Moholy's documentary photography broke new ground; and architect Mies van der Rohe perfected the international modern architectural style based on advanced structural techniques and Prussian Classicism (Etlin).

When the Nazi Party gained power in Germany, laws were passed to rid the country of its "undesirables," which included many of the dissident and nonconformist artists. Most of the Bauhaus staff headed to the United States. In 1933, Joseph and Anni Albers began teaching at the newly founded Black Mountain College in North Carolina, which had been developed with the insights of Gropius. In addition, Gropius was appointed head of the Harvard School of Architecture in 1937. That same year, Mies van der Rohe joined the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Moholy-Nagy founded a New Bauhaus, renamed Institute of Design, in Chicago. Thus, the Bauhaus ideals and teaching methods began to be adopted by colleges throughout the U.S. (Naylor 153). By 1942, emigres had achieved critical mass in America. "Yet the activities of one early emigre figure, Hans Hofmann, proved to be crucial" (Johnson 4).

"Before arriving in the United States in 1930, Hofmann had managed to assimilate the main elements of most of the important European artistic movements of his time, including fauvism, expressionism, cubism, abstractionism and surrealist automatism." After moving to America, he opened a school for modern art in New York in 1934 and thus began his careers as "the most important teacher of modern art in America" (Johnson 4).

His own work featured improvisation, where he adopted the technique of pouring paint three years before Jackson Pollock and the use of color as the main element of form. In his essay "On the Aims of Art," Hoffman noted his reverence for art: Art is spiritual, a result of introspection, finding expression through the natural entity of the medium .. The artist intensifies his concepts, condenses his experience into a spiritual reality complete in itself and thus creates a new reality in terms of the medium.

Thus is the work of art a world in itself, but reflecting the sensorial and emotional word for the artist. (Harrison & Wood 354) In 1933, New York Herald Tribune announced the opening of Black Mountain College. It was to be led by John Rice who had been asked to resign from Rollins College over issues of tenure, teaching methods, and academic freedom.

Black Mountain was to give Rice an opportunity to create a new educational environment that would, he hoped, put as great an importance on the creative arts as the development of intellect. He wanted to create a college "based on an idea of community among individuals working and learning together" (Duberman). The emphasis was that learning and living are intimately connected, and dramatics, music and the fine arts are an integral part of college life.

Although no student held a job, faculty and students alike worked on the farm operated by the college, constructed buildings, did maintenance work and served meals. Many classes were held at night and none in the afternoons to allow time for work on the campus. There was no organized athletic program, since it was believed that no distinction should exist between work and play. The school's curriculum was divided into the Junior and Senior Divisions, with all entering students placed in the lower division despite prior education.

Entrance into the Senior Division and graduation did not depend on the courses successfully completed, but by the results of comprehensive oral and written examinations and the student's achievement record. There were no required courses, but each student prepared with his advisor a plan of work and was expected to complete a well-rounded course of study. Classes, which were a combination of recitations, lectures, tutorials and seminars, met at the discretion of the teacher and attendance was voluntary.

Poet and critic Vincent Katz, who wrote about the school, stressed that Rice envisioned an educational collective run by its teachers with input from the students instead of directives from a governing board. Students at the deliberately nonaccredited school took the courses they wanted and, when they felt ready to graduate, requested an examination to be administered by someone outside the college.

Black Mountain was not planned as an art school -- courses were always offered in science and mathematics -- but Rice believed the arts held a central place in a liberal arts education. The courses included painting, writing, drawing, constructions and assemblages, weaving, music, drama, architecture, photography, typography dance and design. Like the Bauhaus, Black Mountain College was a center for cultural production. The guiding principle was "that a strong liberal and fine arts education must happen simultaneously inside and outside the classroom" (Dawson).

Soon enough, many of the era's well-known individuals like Bauhaus artists Gropius, Willem de Kooning, John Cage and Charles Olsen were on the faculty. The Board of Directors included poet William Carlos Williams and Albert Einstein. Students such as painter Robert Rauschenberg, publisher Jonathan Williams and poet John Wieners found themselves at the center of such wide ranging innovations as Buckminster Fuller's Geodesic Dome, Charles Olson's Projective Verse and some of the first performance art in the U.S.

According to Bowles, "Black Mountain College occupies a near-mythic position in the history of American modernism." The Albers brought their particular vision of the Bauhaus to the United States. In 1944, exile Arnold Schoenberg and his followers met to develop their approach to 12-tone music. Black Mountain was also the legendary place where, in 1952, composer Cage staged the event so often called "the first Happening," and where Rauschenberg met and began collaborating with Cage and dancer Merce Cunningham.

During their first performance, Cage read a lecture, Cunningham danced, David Tudor played the piano and Rauschenberg played records with his white painting hanging from the rafters. Olson and others projected slides and movies. Rauschenberg also found his greatest influences at Black Mountain. Albers, who ran the art department, sent students to find objects that could be deemed aesthetically interesting. This project prompted Rauschenberg's later fascination with "found" items that were incorporated into many of his works.

Robert Bliss, a student who immersed himself in this process and later became an architect, recalls: "Those were the best years at Black Mountain -- working together on something that would last and was essential to the community, finding a profession you loved, learning from some extraordinary teachers. Of course everyone had a different experience there at different times, and everyone says his or her years there were the best Black Mountain years." However, it was difficult to keep this level of community with such different and emotionally charged individuals.

Duberman relates how by 1938, the faculty discovered they were no longer receiving the same salary and that Rice was making decisions where some individuals, including himself and Albers, were paid at least 25% more. In the wake of that controversy, Rice led a charge to dismiss several faculty members for poor teaching quality and lack of community involvement. Battles ensued among the faculty leading to dismissals and several resignations.

With his wife and son and daughter still on campus, Rice had an affair with a student, making him further disliked among faculty and students. "Rice's temperament being akin to natural force, abhorred a vacuum. He sought controversy more than most men seek repose" (Duberman 142). By 1939, the faculty had eased Rice into a leave of absence, followed by a sabbatical, followed by resignation. Another issue soon arose. Faculty member Clark Foreman had worked for the New Deal and was active in race relations.

Although Black Mountain had promoted some external black events, the issue became contentious when the discussion of admitting black students arose. A compromise was to have institutes in music and art during the summer of 1944, where several black students would be chosen to attend. Eventually, several students became one older black female (Duberman 184). Afterwards, things simmered down until two female students were questioned about their sexual pursuits and other students and faculty about their "Bohemian" activities.

Politically, there was the also the clash regarding Communist leanings by some of the teachers. The basic problem was that a school, which was supposed to revolve around the community, could not handle differences. There was a shift of students and faculty and questions remained about direction of the school. In the spring of 1949, after a year of dissension and bitter conflict, the Albers and other faculty resigned. The Albers had been at the college since its beginnings and provided continuity and structure.

At this point, there remained a community divided within itself about the future direction of the college. The character and focus of Black Mountain College continued to shift, according to the makeup of the faculty and students. Personal and ideological conflicts were common and sometimes lead to major changes in the college community. Lack of funds fueled the problem, as did the school's physical isolation and its occasional strained relations with the local residents. Eventually, the student enrollment and available funds dwindled until the college was forced to close in 1956.

Duberman adds (411): In the fall, with only a handful of faculty and students in residence, Olson announced he did not feel like teaching any more. The others agreed that there was not much left, and they all decided not to open for winter quarter. Olson, his new wife and his son would stay on to see to the legal disbursement of property. Several others thought they would stick together to start something new in San Francisco or New York.

But there was not enough community spirit to make any definite plans, and finally they just dispersed: "People simply got in their cars and -- usually after a farewell drink with Olson -- scattered to their various destinations." However, the majority of students who attended Black Mountain, as well as those individuals who left their European roots and joined this new community, note how this experience -- for good and sometimes not so good -- changed their lives completely.

It offered an environment that fostered community and creativity and some of the best art work during this generation. As Eric Bentley remarked: Where, as at Black Mountain, there is a teacher to every three students the advantage is evident .. A means to the most concentrated and lively interchange that any education could afford.

Where the faculty are a separate world the students continue their high-school habit of avoiding study, boasting of idleness, and the like; at Black Mountain, on the other hand, diligence is de rigueur." (Reynolds) There were about 1,000 alumni of Black Mountain and several hundred former faculty members. Considering Rice's concept concerning emotion in learning, many individuals probably carried their experiences with them after leaving the school. The artist Bob Bliss once recalled dreaming of an experimental college within a traditional university setting.

He settled instead for "trying to get the message across in smaller ways" in his position as dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Utah. Gerald Heard, who first visited Black Mountain with his friend Aldous Huxley in 1937, was so impressed with the idea.