Ingeborg "Inga" Lauterstein

Ingeborg (Inga) Svar Lauterstein was not only a visual artist, but also a noted author. She won acclaim for her novels which were based on her experiences growing up in Nazi-era Austria. She was a student at the college in 1948.

The Johnson Collection shared a great biography highlighting her time at BMC, along with this quote:

Lauterstein’s year at BMC had a significant impact on her, as she described: “Black Mountain College remains the safest place I have ever known. It was far removed from political events, war, threat of invasion and more war. Students and faculty had constructed the study building, which shimmered by our lake as though it might drift away. Snapping turtles sunned themselves on the rocks. I hiked through the North Carolina woods with Professor Dehn, the German mathematician and philosopher who came from Harvard University to lecture to us. He showed me wild orchids I had never seen before, as well as snakes and a bear near a waterfall. In spite of the unavoidable conflict in a democratic setting, Europeans who had come away from danger had a special need to keep a safe, orderly community. Several students had been there for eight or nine years when I arrived. Even the Josef Albers paintings seemed to me carefully and geometrically designed. Closer to science than art.”