"Summer of ‘48" -- from THE BLACK MOUNTAIN BOOK

Ray Spillenger – Tuesday, July 10, in conversation said he had graduated from Pratt in 1948 and, seeing the little ad in The Nation, that Mark Tobey would be teaching at Black Mountain that summer, decided to go down.  So, he took the train, we agreed it was a beautiful ride, and the closer it got, people got off until there was no one in the car Ray was in, except himself and two fellas in the back.

Rose from his seat, went back to them.  Introductions –

John Cage, Merce Cunningham.  Ray said he was going to study with Mark Tobey, no, Cage said, he’s sick, another artist is taking his place.  Who is that? Ray asked.  DeKooning.  Cage knew DeKooning.  Ray had heard of DeKooning.  So typical of the school’s hiring policies.  I discovered Pat Passloff was there, too, that summer, where she and Ray and Bill (DeK) became such close friends.

I should check this with Joe, but Ray also said that was the summer Joe Fiore decided to continue studies as an artist, rather than musician.  His dad, violinist for the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell ... Joe talked with Bill ...

A play by Satie produced.  Ray and Bill with others worked on the sets – details available elsewhere – and because there were no curtains it was done in the Dining Hall, newspapers were placed over the stage objects, and just before action began, newspapers whisked away.  Albers, who sat beside Ray in the audience – keep in mind Albers’ interest in textural collage (cardboard egg crates, etc.) – said to Ray, that he liked it better with the newspapers.

Ray leaned close, telling me.  In his kitchen, as I sipped Scotch and water over ice, Ray cried – and I agreed.  I knew.

“He was right!  It did look better!”

Adding, in his hallway before I left, that stage set Bill made would go for a million.

Said Petter Grippe was there that summer, and I recalled meeting him, in the Fifties, at the Cedar?  But Pat Passloff remains a mystery to me.  Always liked her, and her work.  I have the feeling she’s a source person, so far untapped.  With an original or only touched-on point of view, still but in regards to Milton Resnick.  But that she was at school that summer, and met Ray and Bill, gives the matter an added dimension.

            - Fielding Dawson, The Black Mountain Book (1970)