TALKING IN CODE:
QUEER SENSIBILITY AT + AFTER BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE
*Originally presented at the (Re)Viewing BMC Conference 11, Asheville NC, September 2019.
Talking in Code: Queer Sensibility At and After Black Mountain College focuses on the Queer sensibilities used in the works of artists that were students and/or faculty at BMC. Through these shared Queer senses they were able to express their sexuality and queerness in their work at a time when open expression of sexual difference was unprecedented. Three different sensibilities are outlined and analyzed: collaboration and community, visuals and iconography, and lastly the use of collage and assemblage. Talking in Code brings attention back to the visuals and icons that artists were referencing in their works to more directly approach their own experiences as queer, closeted, and out individuals in mid-century America under the watchful eye of an anti-Queer Cold War Government.
In Talking in Code I analyze the collaborative community that existed between the faculty and students at Black Mountain College, where many storied, life-long same-sex partnerships began and flourished. Black Mountain College’s history is inseparable from its many instances of collaboration and community driven efforts. A collaborative spirit was paramount to the colleges ethos and in the development of early Queer artist communities in America, especially after 1945. In this section I take a deep look at the relationship between John Cage and Merce Cunningham and discuss how their coupling is one of the most important relationships in the history of art.
Despite overt depictions of same-sex-desire, the art world has passed off the sexuality of “the greats” as minor footnotes to their stories, often ignoring it all together. This section goes over examples of work created at and after Black Mountain College that reflect a queer sensibility through the use of familiar visuals and icons. I cover the works of Cy Twombly and Robert Rauschenberg, placing heavy emphasis on their 1952 works that use classical allusion, one of the most innately Queer visual languages, to allude to their relationship.
Lastly, I analyze the collaged works of Ray Johnson and Jess (Collins). Both Ray and Jess conceal their expressions of Queer desire in their works with coded, clever references and Queer deep-cuts specific to their generation, using pop culture as a vehicle to construct coded messages for their friends and lovers. With these collages comes the major introduction of popular culture into art, paving a way for the development of Pop Art in the 1960s.
While arts, governmental, and educational entities have tried to erase the influence of Queerness throughout both art and history, it is vital more so now than ever to reconsider these perspectives. Through addressing this repressed history we are not only able to further broaden our understanding of the works of an entire generation of artists, but also deepen our cultural understanding of Black Mountain College and its history as a place and a movement.