Raymond Spillenger
Raymond Spillenger in his New York studio, ca. 1951.
Crop of painting by Spillenger, circa 1948.
FOCUS
Art/ Design/ Craft
ROLE
Student
ATTENDANCE
1948 - 1948
BIRTH
1924-10-24
Brooklyn, NY
DEATH
2013-11-20
New York, NY
Raymond Spillenger was a student for the Summer Art Institute of 1948. He was a well known abstract expressionist associated with the New York School.
Before BMC he attended James Madison High School in Brooklyn, 1938-1942 and Pratt Institute, Feb. 1942-Feb. 1943, and Feb 1946-May 1948 where he got a Certificate in Advertising Design.
In 1942 he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and flew a C-47 transport plane over “The Hump” (the Eastern Himalayas) in Burma, China and India, an extremely dangerous assignment, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and other honors after serving there for three years. He attended BMC on the GI Bill.
There are many resources online that share more of his life and career in the arts. His obituary on Legacy.com shares a detailed biography, as did the New York Times at his passing.
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.