A visit to the Cooper-Hewitt when it hosted the exhibition of Josef and Anni Albers’ work, led not just to a love of the Design Museum of the Smithsonian, but also to a love of the work of both Albers. In producing KIOSK magazine, meetings were oftentimes peppered with references to the Black Mountain College Bulletin, the publication of a progressive arts institution based in North Carolina at which not only illustrious teachers taught, and key intellectual lectured but which also saw the likes of Rauschenberg as a student.

Amongst these students was Robert de Niro Sr (father of the Hollywood actor), as this photo purports to show – Josef Albers is teaching a drawing class, and de Niro is noted to be the standing figure on the right of Albers, with his arms crossed.

Image: North Carolina State Archives.