Mountain Lake Symposium and Workshop - by Howard Risatti & Ray Kass (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The Mountain Lake Symposium and Workshops, which began almost forty years ago, were based on the idea that art can have an integral relationship with local communities. To this end artists, architects, critics, and scholars from various fields have been invited to Southwest Virginia to participate in symposia that engaged issues concerning art and the larger culture. Symposia papers and panel discussions focusing on art's social, moral, and ethical values created a theoretical foundation for the Mountain Lake Workshops. Prominent artists, working with community members and students interested in artistically exploring such values, were invited to direct Mountain Lake's collaborative art workshops. Since then Workshop activities have expanded beyond the locus of rural Southwest Virginia to other cities and countries in places as far away as France, Austria, Germany, China, and Japan. That the Mountain Lake Workshop still engages artists and participants is a clear testament to its ongoing relevance in our postmodern, consumerist age."

Book Synopsis

Contemporary art, interdisciplinary research, traditional Appalachian culture, and advanced technology converge in The Mountain Lake Symposium and Workshop: Artists in Locale. Published to coincide with the exhibition of the same name, the book showcases the collaborative creative works that emerged from the Mountain Lake Symposium, a decade-long theoretical art criticism conference founded by artist Ray Kass in 1980 and co-organized with art critic Donald B. Kuspit and Howard Risatti. The Mountain Lake Workshop integrated the arts and sciences into a dynamic experimental creative process that expanded the traditional boundaries of visual art. Artists who have created works at the Mountain Lake Workshop include John Cage, Merce Cunningham, James De La Vega, Howard Finster, Lynn Hull, Jessie Mann, Sally Mann, Jackie Matisse, Jiro Okura, M. C. Richards, Dorothea Rockburne, Wayne Thiebaud, Cy Twombly, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and many others.

This book's essays and extensive photographs serve as a critical reflection of the Mountain Lake Symposium's history and impact, and of the ongoing collaborative Mountain Lake Workshops that continue to demonstrate the relevance of the arts across various disciplines.

Review Quotes

An essential resource on Kass's Mountain Lake experiment and Cage's artistic legacy there, this text documents these radical, utopian efforts. Lacking the posturing and hierarchy of typical conferences, this program provided a unique opportunity to reach across cultural, disciplinary, and regional divides and make sense of the world together. Beyond mere records or reminiscences, this valuable volume offers inspiration and a blueprint for future endeavors.

-- "New Art Examiner"

About the Author

Howard Risatti is Professor Emeritus of Contemporary Art and Critical Theory in the Department of Art History at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the author of numerous books, including, most recently, A Theory of Craft: Function and Aesthetic Expression. Ray Kass is Professor Emeritus in the School of Visual Arts at Virginia Tech, Founder and Director of the Mountain Lake Workshop, and a widely exhibited artist. His publications include The Sight of Silence: John Cage's Complete Watercolors (Virginia).