Oakton art museum exhibit explores the influence of Black Mountain College and the New Bauhaus

"Convergence/Divergence: Exploring Black Mountain College and Chicago's New Bauhaus/Institute of Design" opens Thursday, Feb. 4, and runs through March 25, at Oakton Community College's Des Plaines campus, 1600 E. Golf Road. The public is invited to a special reception on Thursday, Feb. 4, from 5-8 p.m.

When the Nazis forced the closure of the Bauhaus School in Dessau, many of the professors and students scattered throughout the world spreading the influence of "degenerate art" that they had hoped to crush. Two who came to America-Josef Albers' at Black Mountain College in North Carolina and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy at Chicago's New Bauhaus/Institute of Design shared their ideas and educational practices in America and helped define mid-century modern art, design, and architecture as well as greatly influencing music, dance, theater, culture and education.

Examples of both faculty and student work from the college and the institute will reveal the shared pedagogy rooted in the German Bauhaus structure and method, and illuminate the role that these models had in nurturing and defining modernism in American culture.

The exhibition was produced by the Black Mountain College Museum where it first appeared and is curated by Michael Reid.

Oakton's museum is open to the public Monday through Friday: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Saturday: 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

For information, call (847) 635-2633 or visit www.oakton.edu/museum.