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Milwaukee State Teachers College Art Education teacher Howard Thomas had attended Black Mountain College's Summer Art Institute in 1944 with several students including Asawa's friends Hazel-Frieda Larsen and Elizabeth Schmitt. The following summer two other friends, Elaine Schmitt (Elizabeth's sister) and Ray Johnson signed up for the Art Institute. Asawa also applied, but decided to go study in Mexico instead.

Meanwhile, after three years of MSTC, Asawa could not complete her degree without student teaching, but was told by her counselor that due to lingering anti-Japanese sentiment finding an internship in the area would be difficult. Based in part on her friends' recommendations, she decided to officially enroll at Black Mountain to study painting. Ruth spent nearly three years at BMC, from the summer of 1946 to June 1949, with two breaks: a second trip to Mexico in the Summer 1947 and to see her family in California the summer of 1948. Tuition was always hard to manage, and she relied on scholarships and extra work-study (including cutting hair, laundering, and making butter) to attend. A popular student, she was even voted student moderator her last semester.

At the time, Black Mountain's pioneering educational experiment was hitting a post-war stride, and between the special summer sessions and regular semesters, Ruth was able to study with many of the school's greatest teachers. She repeatedly took Albers' Design and Color classes, and was a favorite student of his. She enrolled in Buckminster Fuller's Architecture and Industrial Design class and took math and philosophy with Max Dehn, music with Charlotte Schlesinger, English with M.C. Richards, and dance with Elizabeth Schmitt Jennerjahn and Merce Cunningham.

Since there were no grades, it was also easy to sit in lectures by Jean Varda, Jacob Lawrence, Charles Olson, Beaumont Newhall, Leo Amino, and others. Ilya Bolotowsky, who taught art during one of the Albers' sabbaticals, described Asawa as "an excellent draftsman. In a style all her own, she combines modern realism with the Japanese elegance of line drawing." See the Juvenalia/School series for her class notes.

Classmates included Robert Rauschenberg (with whom she danced in Rites of Spring), Arthur Penn (who directed Ruse of Medusa, for which Ruth made props), Joseph Fiore, Kenneth Noland, and Kenneth Snelson, but contrary to Black Mountain's reputation many alumni did not pursue careers in the arts. Of course this is also where she met Albert Lanier, who had come from Georgia to study architecture and design. Ruth and Albert were engaged at the school and from there moved to San Francisco, where there was a growing community of former students and teachers.

Ruth and Albert first met Marguerite Wildenhain when she came to the College recruiting artists for the Pond Farm Workshops in Northern California. Textile artist and designer Trude Guermonprez, who was the Jalowetz' daughter, would later teach at Pond Farm after resigning from Black Mountain. Although there is almost no correspondence from them here, Guermonprez and her mother Johanna Jalowetz were among the closest of former BMCers in San Francisco.

Correspondence includes letters from Mary Phelan Outten Bowles, the Dreier family, Mary Jo Slick Godfrey, Lorna Blaine Halper, Pete and Elizabeth Schmitt Jennerjahn, Frank Eisenrath, Toni and Max Dehn, Willie Joseph, Merv Lane, Charlotte "Bimbus" Schlesinger, Piet and Johanne Swierstra, Mary Parks Washington and many others. Original chronological order was retained.

The artist correspondence series also contains files on alumni and teachers such as the Albers, the Fullers, and Ray Johnson, as well as Elaine Schmitt Urbain, Peggy Tolk-Watkins, Eva Heinitz, Raymond Barnhart, Remy Charlip, Marguerite Wildenhain, Andy Oates, Lisa Jalowetz Aronson, Kate and John Swackhamer, Allan Brooks, Ragland "Rags" Watkins, and Sewell Sillman.

A great deal of the material here concerns various reunions and conferences about Black Mountain. Ruth was one of primary organizers for the large 1992 de Young reunion/symposium, and hosted multiple parties at her house. There are many files for this reunion, including audiovisual documentation. Some reunion participants are not otherwise represented in the correspondence section. Likewise, there is material in the reunion section from people who were not able to attend.

Related material:

See also Ruth Asawa's Black Mountain College applications, records, and class notes under Juvenalia/School. Some alumni and faculty are filed in artist correspondence.

Names:

Black Mountain College (Black Mountain, N.C.)

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