American Bauhaus

In 1992, as a design student, I attended the reunion of Black Mountain College in San Francisco. The school is credited with shaping some of the greatest artists in American history: Willem de Kooning, John Cage, Ruth Asawa, Merce Cunningham, Buckminster Fuller, Franz Kline, and Robert Rauschenberg among them.

I took extensive notes that day as former students and teachers recounted their experiences at the school. The quotes I gathered that day are the foundation of this publication.

The book offers a uniquely personal perspective on this legendary school and the thoughts and experiences of these fascinating and influential people.

Each quote has a page devoted to it. The quote is presented in its entirety along with the time it was uttered. A fragment of the quote is also reproduced at a large scale bleeding off the edge of the page and traveling onto the following spread. In essence, it is an evocation of the interplay of the conversation that took place on that day.

The book contains unpublished images taken on the day of the reunion as well as archival images from my personal collection.

American Bauhaus is available here from Slanted Publishing

American Bauhaus in Collections

Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library | Yale University, New Haven, CT

Franklin Furnace Archive, New York, NY

Museum of Modern Art / Artists' Books Collection, New York, NY

Kunstbibliothek Sitterwerk, St.Gallen, Switzerland

Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (BMCM+AC), Asheville, NC

Letterform Archive, San Francisco, CA

North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

Environmental Design Library, University of California, Berkeley, CA

Problem Library, San Francisco, CA