Leap Before You Look

A dynamic new look at the legendary college that was a major incubator of the arts in midcentury America

"The richly illustrated catalog . . . offers a visual record of the early efforts of such eminences as choreographer Merce Cunningham, composer John Cage, and the painters Cy Twombly and Robert Rauschenbeg."— Wall Street Journal, 2015 'Best Books for Art Lovers'

Finalist for the 2015 George Wittenborn Book Award, given by the Art Libraries Society of North America

Won an honorable mention for the 2016 Dedalus Foundation Exhibition Catalogue Award

"I cannot praise the show’s beautiful and accessible catalog highly enough. It will have a long life, and will ensure that Leap Before You Look will be looked back on for years to come as the landmark event that it is."—Sebastian Smee, Boston Globe

"Strikingly desiged and weighty . . . [the authors] have delved deeply into the history of the unconventional North Carolina art school."— I ntrospective: The 1stdibs Magazine , 2015 Holiday Book Roundup



Helen Molesworth is chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Ruth Erickson is assistant curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.