Untitled - The Chinati Foundation

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education, Rice and his co-defectors perceived that Rollins’s autocratic president had transgressed the faculty members’ academic freedoms. Whatever other doctrines of progressive education the founders of Black Mountain College embraced, the twin ideals of democracy and freedom became their overarching raison d’être. 18 For John Andrew Rice, this meant, specifically, not having to kowtow to the dictates of trustees and donors. The fact that the college was entirely owned and run by its faculty was perhaps one of its most revolutionary aspects. 19 The individuals who provided the seed money in 1933 gave as a matter of faith. They chose to remain anonymous for many years and did not expect a return on their investment. Faculty members, once appointed, were free to teach what and how they wished. Students were free to select their classes and attend—or not—as they chose. There would be no examinations and no grades. College government was based on a method of “mutual consultation and voluntary agreement.” 20 The fact that freedom reigned was confirmed for Anni Albers (always a close observer of detail) the first day that she arrived at Black Mountain College: “The secretary, a very healthy, luscious girl greeted us on the porch and I remember that her fat little pink toes were in sandals. And I thought, ‘Well, maybe this is a true story.’” 21 Even though Dewey’s Education and Democracy (1916) had appeared in German in 1919 and influenced many of Germany’s educational reformers, it is unlikely that Albers read it then or later. But Albers’s ideas about the creative individual’s place in society derived from a milieu—Germany at the end of World War I—in which they were common currency among advanced social thinkers. Dewey’s democracy transcended political systems, which were necessary, but less than perfect, attempts to “[realize] democracy as the truly human way of living.” 22 Beyond political institutions, the “foundation of democracy is… faith in human intelligence and the power of pooled and cooperative experience” and the “faith that each individual shall have the chance and opportunity to contribute whatever he is capable of contributing and that the value of his contribution be decided by its place and function in the organized total of similar contributions, not on the basis of prior status of any kind whatsoever.” 23 Dewey gave priority to freedom of docente. Cualesquiera que fuesen los demás ideales admirados por los fun- dadores de la Universidad Black Moun- tain, la democracia y la libertad eran su raison d’être. 18 Para John Andrew Rice, esto significaba concretamente no tener que doblegarse ante la voluntad de do- nantes y síndicos. El hecho de que la universidad era pro- piedad de sus profesores y administra- da por ellos fue uno de sus aspectos más revolucionarios. 19 Las personas que proporcionaron el primer financia- miento en 1933 lo hicieron de buena fe. Optaron por guardar el anonimato durante varios años y no esperaban que les rindiera su inversión. Los profesores, una vez contratados, tenían libertad para enseñar lo que quisieran de la manera que quisieran. Los estudiantes tenían libertad para escoger sus materias y asistir o no a las clases. No habría exámenes ni calificaciones. El gobierno de la universidad estaba basado en un método de “consulta mutua y acuerdo voluntario”. 20 La libertad existía de hecho, como comprobó Anni Albers (siempre muy detallada en sus observaciones) el primer día que llegó a la universidad: “La secretaria, una muchacha muy atractiva y sana, nos saludó en el porche y recuerdo que se veían los deditos color de rosa de sus pies porque usaba sandalias. Y yo pen- sé: ‘Bueno, tal vez ésta sea una historia verdadera’.” 21 Aunque el libro de Dewey Educación y democracia (1916) había sido traducido al alemán en 1919 e influido en muchas de las reformas educativas en Alemania, no es probable que Albers lo haya leído entonces ni nunca. Pero las ideas de Al- bers sobre el lugar del individuo creador en la sociedad derivaban de un entorno – la Alemaniade finales de la Primera Gue- rra Mundial – en que encajaban bien con las de los pensadores sociales avanza- dos. La democracia de Dewey trascendía los sistemas políticos, los cuales eran es- fuerzos necesarios pero no perfectos por “’[realizar] la democracia como la forma auténticamente humana de vivir”. 22 Más allá de las instituciones políticas, “la fun- dación de la democracia es… la fe en la inteligencia humana y el poder de la experiencia acumulada y compartida” y la fe en que “cada individuo disfrutará de la oportunidad de contribuir lo que pue- da y el valor de su contribución será juz- gado por su lugar y su función dentro del conjunto organizado de contribuciones afines, y de ninguna manera con base en su situación previa”. 23 Dewey concedió mayor importancia a la libertad mental, o inteligencia libre, que a la libertad de acción, que presuponía el derecho ar- bitrario del individuo de hacer lo que le diera la gana. Para Dewey, el papel de la 47 mind, or free intelligence, over laissez-faire freedom of action, which presupposed the unthinking right of individuals to do as they pleased. For Dewey the role of the school was “to influence directly the formation and growth of attitudes and dispositions, emotional, intellectual and moral.” 24 The distinction that Albers made between the “individual… who is concerned in a mutual give and take with his contemporaries” and the selfish “individualist” echoes Dewey’s distinction of two kinds of freedom and Dewey’s faith in cooperative experience. 25 For Josef and Anni Albers, the readymade community that received them with open arms at Black Mountain College was a cushion against many of the exigencies and unexpected cultural shocks that new immigrants invariably face. They did not have to make decisions about where and how they would live, what they would eat, or with whom they would socialize. In November 1933, Black Mountain College comprised (including both Alberses) twelve faculty members, some with their own young families, twenty-two eager and idealistic students (thirteen of them defectors from Rollins College), and a handful of staff members, among escuela consistía en “influir directamen- te en la formación y el desarrollo de acti- tudes y disposiciones, tanto emocionales como intelectuales y morales”. 24 La dis- tinción que trazaba Albers entre “el individuo… que se preocupa por la comuni- cación mutua con sus contemporáneos” y el “individualista” egoísta hace eco de la distinción formulada por Dewey entre dos tipos de libertad y la fe de Dewey en la experiencia cooperativa. 25 Para Josef y Anni Albers, la comunidad que los recibió con los brazos abiertos en Black Mountain era una defensa en contra de las exigencias y los choques culturales inesperados que acechan for- zosamente a los inmigrantes. No tuvie- ron que tomar decisiones en cuanto a dónde y cómo vivirían, qué comerían o con quiénes tendrían trato social. En no- viembre de 1933, la Universidad Black Mountain contababa (incluyendo a am- bos Albers) con un personal docente de doce, algunos con su propia familia jo- ven, veintidós estudiantes entusiastas e idealistas (trece de ellos desertores de la Universidad Rollins) y un manojo de em- pleados, entre los cuales los más apre- ciados eran Jack y Rubye Lipsey, el ma- trimonio afroamericano encargado de administrar la cocina. Tal vez el mayor obstáculo que enfrentaban los Albers era el idioma, pero no representaba una dificultad insuperable, ya que Rice NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE ARTICLE SHOWING MARCEL BREUER (LEFT) AND WALTER GROPIUS WITH THE MODEL FOR A PROPOSED NEW LAKE EDEN BUILDING AT BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE, 10 JANUARY 1940. JAAF.
JOHN DEWEY (LEFT) AND JOHN ANDREW RICE AT BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE, 1935. PHOTOGRAPH BY JOSEF ALBERS. JAAF. whom Jack and Rubye Lipsey, the African-American couple who ran the kitchen, were most highly valued. Perhaps the greatest obstacle the Alberses faced was the language difference, but given that Rice and Dreier, as well as faculty members Emmy Zastrow (German) and John Evarts (Music), could communicate in German, even this was not an insurmountable problem. Anni Albers had a good, if passive, knowledge of English, but Josef had a mere three weeks of English instruction in Berlin immediately before their departure. Nevertheless, he launched into teaching right away, initially with the help of Zastrow and Evarts as interpreters. Their attempts at communicating Albers’s idiosyncratic expression in English were a disaster. “They very soon got in a fight about my aim or my sayings, so my conclusion was I threw them out and did it visually on the blackboard.” 26 As one of Albers’s American students at the Bauhaus pointed out, “language played only a minor role [in Albers’s classroom]… doing was what counted.” 27 In April 1934, Albers wrote Kandinsky of the constant stream of visitors to the new Black Mountain College. Almost all of them sat in on Albers’s classes: “I seldom give a class without visitors [participating]. Mostly they praise my English. Although it leaves much to be desired.” 28 Over the years the list of those who made the pilgrimage to Black Mountain College, or just dropped in when they happened to be in the neighborhood, was indeed remarkable. Many came as visiting faculty to the legendary Black Mountain College summer art and music institutes from 1944 to 1948, including Josef Breitenbach, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jean Charlot, Buckminster Fuller, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Agnes de Mille, Walter Gropius, Lyonel Feininger, Jacob and Gwendolyn y Dreier y los profesores Emmy Zastrow y John Evarts, que enseñaban alemán y música, respectivamente, hablaban alemán. Anni Albers poseía un sólido, aunque pasivo, conocimiento del inglés, pero Josef había recibido instrucción en inglés durante sólo tres semanas en Berlín inmediatamente antes de partir. Sin embargo, se lanzó en seguida a la enseñanza, al principio con la ayuda de Zastrow y Evarts como intérpretes. Éstos se esforzaron por comunicar las idiosin- crasias expresivas de Albers en inglés, pero con desastrosas consecuencias. “Pronto comenzaron a discutir sobre mi meta o mis declaraciones, y por eso los eché y me expresaba en forma visual sobre el pizarrón.” 26 Como afirmó uno de los alumnos norteamericanos de Al- bers: “El idioma jugaba un papel menor [en la clase de Albers]… Lo importante era lo que hacíamos.” 27 En abril de 1934, Albers comentó en una carta a Kandinsky sobre los visitantes que constantemente desfilaban por la Universidad Black Mountain. Casi todos ellos observaron las clases de Al- bers. “Rara vez doy una clase sin que [participen] los visitantes. Lo que más hacen es elogiar mi inglés, aunque deja mucho que desear.” 28 Con el transcurso de los años, la lista de personas que hicieron el peregrinaje a la Universidad Black Mountain, o simplemente la visi- taron cuando estuvieran allí, fue verda- deramente notable. Muchos llegaron en calidad de profesores visitantes a los institutos de verano en arte y música entre 1944 y 1948, incluyendo a Josef Breitenbach, John Cage, Merce Cun- ningham, Jean Charlot, Buckminster Fu- ller, Willem y Elaine de Kooning, Agnes de Mille, Walter Gropius, Lyonel Fei- ninger, Jacob y Gwendolyn Lawrence, Beaumont y Nancy Newhall, y Amadée Ozenfant. Otros se presentaron como simples visitantes, como Katherine Dreier, Albert Einstein, Fernande Leger, Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Erwin Pano- fsky (quien llegó cuando los Albers se habían ido durante su año sábatico de 48 Lawrence, Beaumont and Nancy Newhall, and Amadée Ozenfant. Others just came for a visit, such as Katherine Dreier, Albert Einstein, Fernand Léger, Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Erwin Panofsky (who came while the Alberses were away on sabbatical in 1941), Thornton Wilder, Alfred Barnes, and John Dewey himself. 29 Many sat in on Albers’s classes, as did most of the faculty (including John Andrew Rice) and their spouses. After ten years of honing his skills at the Bauhaus, Albers, by the time he arrived at Black Mountain College, was in imposing command of his classroom. True to his own belief that individual growth was the key to human fulfillment, he took the measure of his new surroundings and pushed himself to evermore creative teaching. The largely undetermined curriculum structure of the new college allowed him tremendous latitude. Increasingly during the Bauhaus’s final years, Albers had been required to shift his teaching to address the training of professional architects and away from its more playful and more risky aspects. Now, he welcomed a newfound freedom in the classroom: 1941), Thornton Wilder, Alfred Barnes y el propio John Dewey. 29 Muchos entra- ron como oyentes a las clases de Albers, como lo hicieron la mayor parte de los profesores (incluyendo a John Andrew Rice) y sus conyúges. Albers, tras diez años de experiencia docente en el Bauhaus, poseía ya un dominio imponente sobre sus clases cuando llegó a la Universidad Black Mountain. Fiel a su creencia de que el crecimiento del individuo era la clave de la superación humana, evaluó su nueva circunstancia y se dedicó a de- sarrollar maneras cada vez más crea- tivas de enseñar. La estructura libre del plan de estudios en Black Mountain le permitía mucha libertad. Durante sus últimos años en el Bauhaus, Albers se había visto en la necesidad cada vez más perentoria de formar arquitectos profesionales, teniendo que dejar a un lado los aspectos más lúdicos y experi- mentales de la docencia. Ahora gozaba de una nueva y deliciosa libertad en el aula: “en Black Mountain yo podía ser considerado como el centro de toda ac- tividad educativa… [Después de dejar Black Mountain para dedicarse a otras enseñanzas y a dar conferencias] siempre me daba gusto volver a casa, don- ALBERS (STANDING) WITH A CLASS, BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE, CA. 1938. (LEFT TO RIGHT: SEWELL SILLMANN, ALBERS, LORE KADDEN LINDENFELD, ALBERT LANIER, RUTH ASAWA, RAY JOHNSON, UNKNOWN, VERA BAKER WILLIAMS.) JAAF.
Page 2 and 3: 2 4 8 16 18 30 34 Contents Contenid
Page 4 and 5: gathered for an exhibition at China
Page 6 and 7: Laurel Gonsalves Elvira González D
Page 8 and 9: Josef Albers Carl Andre Ingólfur A
Page 11 and 12: CONVERSATION WITH JOHN CHAMBERLAIN
Page 13 and 14: K K : As different as that was, at
Page 15 and 16: K K : And how far did that get you?
Page 17 and 18: UNTITLED,1991, PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPH
Page 19 and 20: RO B E R T C R E E L E Y para john
Page 21 and 22: REDWING, 1960, PAINTED STEEL. on Do
Page 23 and 24: MISS LUCY PINK, 1962, PAINTED AND C
Page 25 and 26: ists who have combined old and new
Page 27 and 28: UNTITLED, c.1964, CAR PAINT AND CHR
Page 29 and 30: JOHN CHAMBERLAIN BUILDINIG, CHINATI
Page 31 and 32: DAVID TOMPKINS It’s All in the Fi
Page 33 and 34: fore us. An intuitive response, on
Page 35 and 36: UNTITLED, 1966, URETHANE FOAM AND C
Page 37 and 38: RUSSELL FERGUSON Disregarded, Ordin
Page 39: N.A.L.P. WITH THREE GUYS FROM DELAN
Page 42 and 43: specting the pre-existing context s
Page 44 and 45: N.A.L.P. WITH THREE GUYS FROM DELAN
Page 46 and 47: VIEW ACROSS THE SWANNANOA VALLEY TO
Page 50 and 51: LEAFLET SHOWING ALBERS’S LOGO DES
Page 52 and 53: students identified themselves with
Page 54 and 55: instead of second hand analysis and
Page 56 and 57: 14 Josef and Anni Albers, interview
Page 58 and 59: JOSEF ALBERS, HOMAGE TO THE SQUARE
Page 60 and 61: that price it is an institutional p
Page 62 and 63: general view are absent. They were
Page 64 and 65: WINDOW OF ADOBE HOUSE, UNDATED, 194
Page 66 and 67: Before the conclusion Larson wrote
Page 68 and 69: absent, say that what is present is
Page 70 and 71: intensity of the color varies accor
Page 72 and 73: sertive and retiring, stolid and pr
Page 74 and 75: BRIAN KIRK NELMS, UNTITLED, 2006. L
Page 76 and 77: OLIVER CROY, ALL FANTASIES, GENTLEM
Page 78 and 79: Open House 2006 The Chinati Foundat
Page 80 and 81: THE DANDY WARHOLS AND FRIENDS VISIT
Page 82 and 83: CAITLIN MURRAY KATHERINE KORDARIS A
Page 84 and 85: MAYOR DAVID LANMAN AND CHINATI ADMI
Page 86 and 87: Anna Friebe-Reininghaus Yoko Fukuda
Page 88 and 89: Emerson Head Josef Helfenstein Mart
Page 90 and 91: David B. Walek Jeanne & John (Ned)
Page 92 and 93: John Wesley B’s Stair, 2001 Five

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