Beate "Ati" Gropius

Beate Eveliene “Ati” Gropius Forberg Johansen attended Black Mountain College from the summer of 1943 through the summer of 1946, including the summers of 1944, and 1945.

She was the daughter of Walter and Ise Gropius. Ati and her parents fled Germany in 1933, traveling to England and later the United States. Walter Gropius, educator, architect and founder of the Bauhaus, accepted an invitation to teach architecture at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. From 1938-52 he was Chairman of the Department of Architecture.

Gropius first visited Black Mountain in December 1937. His former Bauhaus colleagues, Josef and Anni Albers and Xanti Schawinksy, were teaching there, and the visit was an occasion both for a visit with friends and for an informal discussion of plans for the development of the Lake Eden property which the college had purchased in June 1937.

While a student at Black Mountain College, Ati studied art with Josef Albers. After her graduation in 1946, she married architect Charles Forberg, a Black Mountain student. Her second marriage was to architect John Johansen. She was instrumental in the preservation of her father’s legacy both in the United States and in Germany.

She was on the faculty of the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts and assisted Historic New England restore Gropius House, her childhood home in Lincoln.

Ati was a graphic designer and an illustrator of children’s books. She gave courses and lectures at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Santa Fe Art Institute in New Mexico; at The Boston Architectural Center; at Simmons College; and at the Historic New England; the Worcester Art Museum; Bridgewater State College; the State University of New York in Dutchess County; at the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center; and the Walter Gropius Schule in Erfurt, Germany.

Biography written by Mary Emma Harris for the Black Mountain College Project.

The Boston Globe wrote an obituary for Ati and included stories of her youth, quotes from her children, and the depth of her work and teaching.

Alternative Names: Ati Gropius Johansen

Relationships

Father: Walter Gropius

Asheville Art Museum Collection

The Asheville Art Museum has a collection of drawings and letters by Ati, many with Jane Slater, and can be seen at collections.ashevilleart.org and searching "ati."

2021.28.048 Clipped from letter from Ati to Jane Slater, dated 1947

"so then: I quickly tell you that I'm getting a little myopic (in numerous ways, but also physically) from staring down at womanly sheets of white paper and "10-point-casion-old-style-bleeding-into-lower-left-gutter" although everyone is awfully dear, and it really is my fault if it isn't just a little bit more actual fun,- but nice enough you understand, - and so I carry now with me all the time the quiet thought of soon doing something else (although of course she doesn't know one bit what.) and generally I am very bad and never never see any nice people like lisa jalo. Ellie smith, etc.etc. and cook lambchops very smugly all unto myself nightly in my apart. because I still, (and purely for me own benefit) feel that I'm such a lemon in toto, that hide from all the un-lemony ones out of sheer STUPIDITY. this is very silly and a bit sad but however true, and therefor dear slts I really can't tell you what anybody whom you'd like is doing.

I am otherwise however quite gay, myopic, domestic and rapidly fattening. I often see my papa, mama and Charles- who is all washed up with education now and working for one H.Stobbins, and my papa is perhaps soon off for Europe for a few weeks (although he's too nice to go) and the dreiers were at lake george where we went to visit, beeing with the young-un a pretty good collection of sorts. and the smallest eating bobby's home-baked bread in dusty little crumbs off the floor, and mimi is terribly quiet in cambridge, where don page is not. having quite a hospitality at his apart. and beeing general gooood and awfuly nice. It was punch and red-ro'ses on a widescreen and 60 people the last time- so now,-that's all."

Black Mountain College Project

Mary Emma Harris interviewed Ati in 2001 and the transcript is available from Appalachian State University under The Mary Emma Harris and Black Mountain College Project, Inc. Oral History collection.

Topics: Hearing about BMC and enrollment– first impression of college – college ambiance – summer work program on farm – Josef Albers classes – Albers as community member – Anni Albers – Albers/Dreier cottage Roadside – Max Dehn – Johanna and Heinrich Jalowetz – faculty love of their disciplines – Mary Gregory – Eric Bentley crisis – nature of learning at BMC – influence of World War Two on college – Quaker atmosphere

Courses Taken

Summer 1943: Drama since Ibsen with Bentley, Elements in Music Form and Structure with Jalowetz, Chorus with Jalowetz

Fall 1943-1944: Cultural History with Bentley, Drawing I with Albers, Intro to Music with Cohen, American History with C. Foreman, Chorus with Jalowetz

Winter 1943-1944: Cultural History with Bentley, Drawing I with Albers, Intro.To Music (Harmony I) Cohen, American History with Foreman, Chorus with Jalowetz

Spring 1943-1944: Cultural History (Modern Drama) with Bentley, American History with Foreman, Eukenetics beginning with Kahl, Harmony II with Cohen, Chorus with Jalowetz, Drawing with Albers

Fall1944-1945: Painting with Albers, Introductory Weaving with Bauer, Drama Production with Wunsch, Chorus with Jalowetz, Melville with Kazin

Winter 1944-1945: Painting with Albers, Intro Weaving with A. Albers, Intro Mathematics with Dehn, Dialogs of Plato with Dehn

Spring 1944-1945: Painting with Albers, Plato with Dehn, Intro Mathematics with Dehn, Intro Weaving with A. Albers, Outline of Western Culture with E.Lowinsky

Summer 1945: Color with J. Albers, Design with J. Albers, Woodworking with Molly Gregory

Fall 1945-1946: Drawing with Albers, Painting with Albers, Woodworking with Gregory, Heredity Psychology with Baker, Pedagogical Psychology with Wallen

Winter 1945-1946: Painting with Albers, Drawing with Albers, Design with Albers, Woodworking with Gregory, Descriptive Geometry with Dehn

Spring 1945-1946: Drawing with Albers, Painting with Albers, Design with Albers, Woodworking with Gregory, Chorus with Lowinksy, Work Program

Summer 1946: Color with Albers, Advertising Design with Burton