Balcomb Greene
Balcomb Greene spray painting and smoking a pipe, 1939. Federal Art Project W.P.A. Photographer: Robbins
Courtesy of Western Regional Archives
FOCUS
Art/ Design/ Craft
ROLE
Guest Faculty
ATTENDANCE
1946 - 1946
BIRTH
1904-05-22
Millville, NY
DEATH
1990-11-12
Montauk, NY
Balcomb Greene was an American artist and teacher. He and his wife, artist Gertrude Glass Greene, were heavily involved in political activism to promote mainstream acceptance of abstract art and were founding members of the American Abstract Artists organization. His early style was completely non-objective.
Balcomb was guest faculty of painting in the Summer Art Institute of 1946. Upon applying to be guest faculty, he shared that he studied at Syracuse University, Columbia University, New York University, and New York School for Social Work. He taught at Dartmouth College and was presently teaching art history at Carnegie Institute of Tech from 1942 to time of application.
Author
Amanda Hartman
Amanda Hartman is the creator of BMC Yearbook, serving as the lead director, engineer, and researcher. She holds a MLIS in archive/ collections management, MA in art/ museum education, and BA in design. After working in museums and archives for a decade, she made the transition to tech and is now a software developer specializing in applications for museums, archives, and higher education.
Her interest in Black Mountain College began while working as a digital archivist with the Asheville Art Museum's BMC archive collection. She transcribed and digitized over 1500 documents created by the college. While working closely with these archives, she began independent research on the interracial program and Negro Week activities BMC, writing biographies of lesser known students and staff members. That research transformed into this BMC Yearbook project.