Marilyn "Widget" Bauer

Marilyn Jean Bauer, lovingly called “Widget” by friends and professors, was a student at the college from the fall of 1941 to the summer of 1945. Bauer was regularly involved in play productions and costume design and is noted in many playbills and college bulletins for her contributions.

She was also active in many committees for the college, like heading the lodging committee as chairman, serving on the Rehabilitation Committee, Festival Planning Committee, Membership Committee, and acting as a Student Officer.

Marilyn graduated from BMC in textile design in the summer of 1945 under examination of Marli Ehrman, Head of Textile Department at the Chicago School of Design and Vaclav Vytacil, Head of the Art Department at Queens College.

During her studies, her parents regularly wrote letters to her advisor and once to the registrar asking if it was wise for her to continue. Her romance with fellow student, Roman Maciejczyk made her parents weary, and according to them her attitude became “hostile and disturbing.” The response from the college was positive and reassuring, that it was puppy love and very normal for a girl her age. All comments on her course cards for design and weaving work were positive, as well. There are great documents in her student file about design, weaving, textile design, etc. that were given during her senior examination. Josef Albers regularly reported “one of my best students” on his course cards. She taught weaving tutorials to other students, under Anni Albers’ guidance.

Her obituary from 2009 shares that her love for weaving lasted throughout her life. “As an artist, she had an enduring love of textiles which she created as a designer and hand weaver. She was an exhibitor and prize winner at the Cleveland Museum of Art annual May Shows. She was a talented gardener and an avid and knowledgeable birder.” (Shared on Cleveland.com obituary site).

Alternative name: Marilyn Bauer Greenwald

Relationships

Examiner: Marli Ehrman, Head of Textile Department at the Chicago School of Design

Examiner: Vaclav Vytacil, Head of the Art Department at Queens College

Dated fellow student, Roman Maciejczyk while at college

Asheville Art Museum Collection

Writings about Marilyn can be seen in digitized college bulletins on Asheville Art Museum's collection website: collection.ashevilleart.org. They can be found by searching these accession numbers: 2017.40.022, 2017.40.26, 2017.40.149

2017.40.022 April 1943 bulletin,

"The settings for “Ethan Frome” were designed by Anatole Kopp and constructed, under his direction, by the students in Stage Technique. The costumes for “La Malade Imaginaire” were designed and created by Jane Slater and Marilyn Bauer.

In the North Carolina State Dramatic Festival, held in Chapel Hill in March, Black Mountain College was awarded first place in each of the four contests it entered. The prize winning entries were: Otis Levy’s original farce, “The Insanity of Love” in the One-Act Play Contest; Will Hamlin’s “Mr Whitcomb and the Horse” in the Radio Script Contest; the costume plates by Jane Slater and Marilyn Bauer for “Le Malade Imaginaire” in the Costume Design Contest; and the set designs and floor plans by Anatole Kopp for the Lake Eden production of “Ethan Frome” in the Stage Design Contest."

Courses Taken

Fall 1941-42: Color (Albers), Weklehre (Albers), Types of Literature (Kurtz), Advanced French (de Graaf), Piano Lessons (Evarts)

Spring 1941-1942: Color (Albers), Types of Literature (Kurtz), Science Interprets the World (Bergmanns, Carpenter, RSB), Werklehre (Albers), Advanced French (de Graaf), Piano Lessons (Evarts)

Fall 1942-43: Introductory Weaving (Albers), Drawing II (Albers), Color II (Albers), The Seeing of Art (Albers), The Seeing of Art (Albers), Algebra and Trigonometry (Dreier)

Winter 1942-43: Drawing II (Albers), Introductory Weaving (Albers), Color II (Albers), The Seeing of Art (Albers), Reading in French Classics (de Graaf), Algebra and Trigonometry (Dreier)

Spring 1942-43: Color II (Albers), Introductory Weaving (Albers), Drawing II (Albers),The Nineteenth Century (Bentley)

Fall 1943: Advanced Painting (Albers), Advanced Weaving (Albers), Cultural History (Bentley), Introductory Music (Cohen), Chorus (Jalowetz), Werklekre

Winter 1944: Advanced Weaving (Albers), Painting (Albers), General Design (Albers), Evolution of Modern Ideas (Bentley)

Spring 1943-44: Weaving-advanced (Albers), Painting (Albers), General Design (Albers), Cultural History (Bentley), Chorus (Jalowetz)

Summer 1944: Advanced Weaving (Albers), Composition (Albers), Drawing and Painting (DeCreeft)

Summer 1944: Advanced Weaving (Albers), Composition (Charlot), Drawing andPainting (Charlot)

Fall 1944: Advanced Weaving-Tutorial (Albers), Painting (Albers), Chorus (Jalowetz)

Winter 1944-45: Painting (Albers), Weaving Tutorials (Albers)

Spring 1945: Painting (Albers), Advanced Weaving (Albers)