Helen Molesworth

Leap Before You Look was a wonderful exhibition of works at ICA Boston (http://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/leap-you-look-black-mountain-college-1933–1957) by many of the visual and performing artists, writers, and others who taught, studied, or otherwise participated at Black Mountain College in its 24 years of operation. The college closed in 1957, but the interconnected community of artists involved there is extraordinary and many of these artists were extremely influential on visual and performing artists for decades after the college closed.

This catalog for the exhibition represents a wide range of artists, including Josef & Anni Albers, John Cage, Harry Callahan, Merce Cunningham, Fielding Dawson, Robert Duncan, R Buckminster Fuller, Franz Kline, Jacob Lawrence, Charles Olson, Robert Rauschenberg, MC Richards, Cy Twombly, among many others.

Illustrated with many black & white photos, the main body of the text is a collection of short essays inspired by objects in the exhibition. Many of these cover an artist's full career, whether they were a student or faculty member at Black Mountain, others simply describe a particular artwork.

Look Before You Leap may well inspire you to learn more about Black Mountain College. For a more detailed history of Black Mountain College see Martin Duberman's book (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/274275.Black_Mountain); for a more in-depth look at the arts at & from Black Mountain College, see books by Mary Emma Harris (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1336432.The_Arts_at_Black_Mountain_College), Vincent Katz (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/653069.Black_Mountain_College) & Eva Diaz (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20701869-the-experimenters). Many of the students and faculty have also written about their experiences there and/or discussed their time at the school in interviews.
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