Elizabeth "Slats" Slater

Elizabeth Jane Slater was a student at the college from 1940 to 1945. She was lovingly known by students and faculty as Jane, or “Slater,” “Slats,” “Slatso,” and other variations on her last name. She was very active in the arts and drama departments and spent time between the two, creating textiles and costumes for stage production. She worked in many mediums, including drawing, painting, graphic arts, weaving, and quilting.

While a student at BMC, she took classes with Josef and Anni Albers. In 1943, Anni gave her feedback on her weaving work with "rich and sensitive expression with excellent sense of color and texture.” For her final examinations she focused on art, design, and stage design. She was praised for her work with stage design and exhibition skill, presentation skills were highlighted by all examiners. She did note in her application, and throughout her time at the college, that she was most interested in being a curator, exhibition designer, stage designer, or “shop window designer.”

In Mervin Lane’s Sprouted Seeds, Jane shares a short account of her time at the college. One excerpt reads, “Once I opened the yarn cupboard during a weaving class, and on a shelf of the red yarns lay a shiny black snake. Anni Albers called for a “hero,” and Ted Dreier came and gently wrapped it on his arm and loosed it to the fields outside.”

In 1947, she married fellow BMC student, Lucian Marquis. The Asheville Art Museums holds a collection of correspondences between Jane and friends from BMC while Lucian pursued his PhD, while raising their child Joshua, and of their move to Oregon where her husband got a job teaching at the University of Oregon (collections.ashevilleart.org and search “slater”). While there, Jane designed campaign brochures for then U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy and other Democratic politicians.

She was well known for her stained glass and designed and built scores of windows, installations and glass sculptures for over forty years. Among her best-known works are the windows at Rodef Sholom Temple in San Rafael, California; the baptistry windows at St. Matthews Episcopal Church in Pacific Palisades;  California; and the windows at the Church of the Nativity in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

Her early work from Black Mountain is on permanent display at the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Alternative Names: Jane Marquis

Relationships:

Husband: Fellow BMC student, Lucian Charles Marquis

A full list of semester involvement are as follows,

1944 Summer Art Institute, 1944-45 winter and spring quarters, 1948 summer session, 1948-1949, 1949 Summer Institute. She was a student teacher in dance 1948-49 and a tutor in dance for the summer of 1949. She was faculty in dance 1949-1950, resident faculty (not teaching) summer 1950, faculty 1950-51, and resident faculty 1951 summer.

Black Mountain College Project

Mary Emma Harris interviewed Jane in 1998 (transcript) and 2012 (transcript) which are available from Appalachian State University under The Mary Emma Harris and Black Mountain College Project, Inc. Oral History collection.

Topics 1998: Family background – hearing about BMC – StudiesBuilding construction – general classes – visitors: Henry Miller and Abraham Rattner, May Sarton – Josef Albers classes – work program – college conflicts – college integration – 1944 summer crisis – 1944 summer sessions in art and music – graduation in art – Josef Albers discussion of different artists – impact of refugee teachers – mealtime – Moliere costumes – Anni Albers – BMC students – post-BMC professional work – Galka Scheyer – Bernard and Berta Rudofsky – comparison of Windsor Mountain School and Black Mountain

Topics 2012: Josef Albers – description of matière study from Albers class – quilts