Dialogue: Lindenfeld + Lindenfeld at Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center

Dialogue: Lindenfeld + Lindenfeld

Lore Kadden Lindenfeld (1921 – 2010) emigrated from Germany to the US as a Jewish refugee in the late 1930s. She attended Black Mountain College from 1945-48  already equipped with sewing and embroidery skills. She was a student of both Josef and Anni Albers as well as Trude Guermonprez and Franziska Mayer, all of whom like her, fled Europe. Inspired by the Alberses and the Bauhaus tradition, she worked as a designer for the New York textile industry. While there she met her husband-to-be, physicist Peter Lindenfeld at a John Cage “Happening” at the 8th Street Club. She went on to have a career as a weaver, fiber collage artist and as a college level weaving and art history teacher.

This exhibition presents the clay and mixed media work of Naomi Lindenfeld as she responded to a selection of her mother, Lore’s innovative textiles. The opportunity allowed her to grow creatively and to honor her mother and her life’s work. The pieces created by mother and daughter function independently as well as in dynamic conversation with each other.

Naomi Lindenfeld reflects: I grew up with my mother’s loom in our family’s living room, hearing riveting stories of Black Mountain College its avant-garde, experimental environment and brilliant, unique personalities. As well, I was exposed to many artists and craftspeople during my childhood. Not many years later I ended up with clay carving tools and a rolling pin in my own ceramics studio. I responded to the immediacy of clay and pursued it in college, earning a degree in ceramics. While there I discovered the Japanese technique, Nerikomi, of layering colored clays to create patterns. I have been captivated by exploring many ways of working with colored clay ever since. More recently I have been working with mixed media featuring the patterns of tea stains. Both my method of working with clay and the tea art have a sense of movement, abstract graphic quality, nature-themed imagery and vivid color that echo my mother’s textiles.

Dialogue: Lindenfeld + Lindenfeld exemplifies the generational impact of Black Mountain College’s remarkable legacy as a cultural melting pot and rigorous laboratory for creative experimentation. The College’s approach to education mixed freedom and responsibility with self-reliance and community. These ingredients co-mingled to create a spirit of exploration that can be shared, taught, and passed down from parent to child forever.

— Naomi Lindenfeld