Boston
“Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933–1957”
ICA - Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
25 Harbor Shore Drive
October 10, 2015–January 24, 2016
Curated by Helen Molesworth
Having taken on artistic labor and the legacy of the part-object in contemporary sculpture, Helen Molesworth turns her curatorial acumen to the formidable artistic legacy of Black Mountain College, an experimental hothouse of multidisciplinary artistic innovation that existed for just over two decades. Not only is the exhibition to feature more than 260 contributions by almost a hundred artistsincluding John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, Elaine and Willem de Kooning, Gwendolyn and Jacob Lawrence, and a host of equally celebrated and lesser-known figuresbut it will also incorporate a range of performances. A restaging of Cage’s legendary first Happening, Theater Piece No. 1, 1952, will take place throughout the show’s run. Given the importance of cross-media artistic collaborations in today’s art world, a look back at Black Mountain, complemented by a substantial catalogue, could not come at a more auspicious time. Travels to the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, Feb. 21–May 15, 2016.