Pestalozzi in Dewey’s Realm? Bauhaus Master Josef Albers among the German‐ speaking Emigrés’ Colony at Black Mountain College (1933–1949)

Abstract

This article deals with German academic émigrés who fled Hitler after 1933 and established their refuge at the American‐based Black Mountain College in North Carolina, founded as an alternative to traditional institutions of higher education in that very year. Of particular consideration are the contributions of noted Bauhaus master Josef Albers who introduced a new concept of art education in a school environment, theoretically dominated by John Dewey’s paradigm of philosophical pragmatism and converted into practice by his fervent admirer John A. Rice. In the course of the study, the essay focuses on fertilizing elements regarding the interaction between European and American avant‐garde representatives in the arts. In its concluding remarks, the article traces the roots of Josef Albers’s art education and pedagogical creed. The essay finally discusses the question of whether Albers was a close follower of the late Pestalozzi’s educational convictions or rather was linked to John Dewey’s philosophical system as maintained in the existing scholarly literature.