During 1950-1954, Rockburne studied at Black Mountain College, which numbered among its faculty such New York School luminaries as Willem de Kooning, Philip Guston, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, and Aaron Siskind. Even there, though, she instinctively bonded with figures who were at odds with Abstract Expressionism’s subjective bias: Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, and John Chamberlain; the composer John Cage, whose “rebellious” temperament helped inspire her contrarian stance toward the older generation; and the eminent mathematician Max Dehn. Rockburne then made her mark on the New York art scene in alignment with Minimalism, so that she was identified – in hindsight, erroneously – with that movement. . . . 

Whether it be Serra’s recourse to lead and steel, Andre’s to a multitude of metals, Dan Flavin’s to fluorescent light tubes, or Donald Judd’s to Plexiglass and plywood, Minimalism upheld the literal facticity of matter, whereas Rockburne has always focused on its transformation.

– The Harmony of the World, David Anfam

Although my teacher praised my painting, as I stood and looked first at my work and then at the landscape, I observed and questioned, “Nature does it better. How?” More specifically, I asked myself, what are nature’s organizing principles? These questions probably arose because of my father’s Algonquin traditions: “Nature is sacred and should be understood, not violated.” This moment of inquiry would later directly lead to my ongoing passion for mathematics as the basis for the understanding of nature.

– Dorothea Rockburne

In Dehn Rockburne found a man who, like her father, had a great respect for nature, someone who understood nature and who would show her how mathematics could be used to unlock its guiding principles. She recalls a steep hike, about a mile uphill behind the Dehns' home, where they walked to a small waterfall. Dehn discussed the golden ratio and “showed [her] that every kind of growth has recognizable mathematical properties.”

– Dorothea Rockburne and Max Dehn at Black Mountain College, David Peifer

Dehn considered my lack of math instruction an advantage. I wasn’t mathphobic, and, as he so happily put it, I hadn’t been poisoned. Dehn had a lively, disciplined, but fearless mind. His enthusiasm for everything was infectious. When I told him I was having some difficulties with assignments, he said, “What you need is to understand the principles of math as they occur in nature. Why don’t you join me every day on my early morning hike, and I will teach you mathematics for artists through nature?”

– Dorothea Rockburne