BUCKYVERSE

Fuller at Black Mountain College (1948-1949)

How Fuller Came to BMC

Chicago architect Bertrand Goldberg, who had agreed to teach architecture at the 1948 summer session, had to cancel at the last minute. He recommended Fuller as a replacement. Josef Albers had reservations about inviting an unknown person but extended the invitation. Fuller arrived two weeks after the session had already opened. Within days, Albers was won over — he wrote to Goldberg thanking him, reporting that Fuller had given a three-hour lecture the previous evening. Fuller's course was titled "Comprehensive Design."

Fuller arrived at a career low point. The Wichita House had never reached production. He had recently patented his Dymaxion World Map (1946) and was immersing himself in geodesic geometry. Black Mountain offered what he described as "freedom to fail." His quote: "I had a very free field on my comprehensivity at Black Mountain."

The Legendary Summer of 1948

The summer 1948 session was one of the most remarkable concentrations of artistic talent in American history. Faculty included: Josef Albers (visual art, color theory), R. Buckminster Fuller (architecture, comprehensive design), John Cage (Structure of Music), Merce Cunningham (dance), Willem de Kooning (painting), Elaine de Kooning, Richard Lippold (sculptor), Edgar Kaufmann Jr. (design curator), and Beaumont Newhall (photography historian). Students included Kenneth Snelson, Ruth Asawa (at BMC 1946-1949), Robert Rauschenberg, and Arthur Penn (later the director of Bonnie and Clyde).

The Supine Dome (Summer 1948)

Fuller's project was to construct his first full-scale geodesic dome: 48-foot diameter, 23 feet tall, 1,500 square feet, less than 270 pounds total weight. He arrived with an Airstream trailer full of geometrical models. The dome was constructed from aluminum venetian blind strips — the best affordable material given BMC's limited budget. Students measured, computed tensile strength, coded each strip, and marked connection points. When tension was applied, the structure collapsed to the ground. Fuller dubbed it "the Supine Dome" — a dome that lies flat. His famous quote: "You succeed when you stop failing." An article in the BMC Journal argues the failure was purposeful — Fuller deliberately used materials "designed to fail," using Black Mountain as a place where failure was a productive agent.

The Ruse of Medusa — Cross-Pollination

On August 14, 1948, the summer community staged the first English-language performance of Erik Satie's surrealist play "Le Piège de Méduse" (The Ruse of Medusa). Fuller played Baron Medusa, Arthur Penn directed, Merce Cunningham choreographed, Willem de Kooning designed sets, John Cage performed the musical score, M.C. Richards translated from French, and Elaine de Kooning was instrumental in the production. The experience of group play reportedly "loosened Fuller's rigid tendencies." Fuller credited Arthur Penn with teaching him presentation techniques that enhanced his later renowned lecturing abilities.

The Summer 1949 Return — Success

After Albers departed BMC, the remaining faculty asked Fuller to return to direct the 1949 Summer Institute, on Albers's recommendation. He brought twelve students from the Institute of Design in Chicago ("the New Bauhaus") — BMC called them "The Twelve Disciples." Named students: Louis Caviani, Arthur Boericke, Eugene Godfrey, Mary Jo Slick Godfrey, Joseph Manulik, Alan Lindsay, Jeffrey Lindsay, Ysidore Martinez, Donald Richter, Robert Richter, Masato Nakagawa, and Harold Young. He also invited painter Emerson Woelffer.

The 1949 dome used metal telescoping curtain rods purchased at Woolworth's in Asheville. Fuller and his students constructed a dome of 31-great-circle necklace construction, initially assembled in Chicago over the winter of 1948-1949, then reconstructed at BMC. This dome stood successfully. A famous photograph shows students lifting the dome to demonstrate its lightness. Additional experiments included double-walled plastic dome covers and fiberglass forms with compound curvature (abandoned due to humidity).

Key Students

Kenneth Snelson: Attended summer 1948. Albers assigned him to assist Fuller with geometric models. Snelson recalled being "electrified" by Fuller's first lecture. That winter, working obsessively with thread, wire, clay, and metal, he created the "Early X Piece" — the first tensegrity structure. He returned in summer 1949 and showed Fuller the sculpture. Fuller examined it for "a very long moment," requested it, and the next day proposed modifications. Snelson purchased metal curtain rods to build a revised version. Fuller coined the term "tensegrity" — and subsequently claimed credit for the concept, creating a decades-long rift.

Ruth Asawa: Studied at BMC 1946-1949. Under Albers and Fuller she learned to utilize everyday materials. On a 1947 trip to Mexico, a craftsman showed her wire-looping techniques that became her signature art form. Fuller said: "I consider Ruth Asawa to be the most gifted, productive, and originally inspired artist that I have ever known personally."

Eva Díaz's "The Experimenters" (2015)

University of Chicago Press. The most thorough scholarly treatment of Fuller at BMC. Structured around three central figures: Albers, Cage, and Fuller. Chapter 3 analyzes "R. Buckminster Fuller's Design Revolution." Díaz argues their explorations in "materials, form, chance, and indeterminacy were never less than electrifying" — discordant yet complementary approaches that valued testing procedures over personal expression.

Broader Significance

BMC was the crucible of Fuller's teaching career. Allegra Fuller Snyder said: "For most of the rest of his life, Bucky taught at many, many hundreds of campuses... but it had all started at Black Mountain." He transformed from a man whose inventions had all failed commercially into a compelling public intellectual. The geodesic dome was born here and went on to be produced over 300,000 times worldwide. Visitor James Fitzgibbon later recommended Fuller to NC State's School of Architecture, and subsequently founded Synergetics Inc. in Raleigh (1955).

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