Ray Spillenger: Rediscovery of a Black Mountain College Painter, on view January 22 through May 21, 2016, at the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center in Asheville, N.C., is a ground-breaking exhibition of work by an overlooked artist who was active at the dawn of American Abstraction. Spillenger's work came to light in 2014 following the artist's passing when relatives called Theodore Stebbins — a professor emeritus and curator of American art at Harvard University. Stebbins found hundreds of artworks tucked away in every nook of the artist's New York apartment, and thought "they deserve to be seen."

Stebbins tells the story of Spillenger's rediscovery to the Citizen-Times, noting the artist's significance alongside others during Black Mountain College's most influential period:  "This is a chance to revisit a moment in history when everyone knew about Black Mountain and de Kooning, and things were happening there."

The museum website explains: Spillenger studied with Willem de Kooning and Josef Albers at Black Mountain College during the summer of 1948. This exhibition comprises two decades of his work from the BMC era to the late 1960s. Spillenger’s paintings demonstrate a total commitment to abstraction and a passionate love of color.

After leaving Black Mountain College, Spillenger moved to New York City, where he became a member of “the Club,” Cedar Tavern regular, and friend to Abstract Expressionist luminaries including Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, and Philip Guston. Despite significant contributions to the formation of the New York School, Spillenger did not find commercial and critical success. Ray Spillenger: Rediscovery of a Black Mountain Painter invites a re-examination of 20th-century American art history through a corpus of work never shown to the public. A full color catalogue will accompany the exhibition.