
b. 1896 d. 1985
Site Affiliation: Pond Farm Pottery
Marguerite Wildenhain (Friedlander) enjoyed a remarkable and lengthy career as a master ceramicist. Born in France of English, German, and Jewish heritage, she lived in both England and Germany as a child. During her lifetime, she survived the hardships of World War I, studied with the famed Bauhaus school in Germany, and immigrated to the United States in 1940 to escape persecution under the Nazi regime. After the experimental artists colony she helped establish at Pond Farm collapsed, she opened her own pottery studio on the site. It was here that Wildenhain produced the bulk of her work, shaped the American Studio Pottery Movement’s discourse, and taught students in her intensive and widely renowned summer sessions, which introduced Bauhaus principles of form, technique, and artistry into American ceramics.
Primary Medium: Ceramics
Primary Stylistic Term: Studio Pottery
Recommended Publications: Marguerite Wildenhain and the Bauhaus: An Eyewitness Anthology eds. Dean and Geraldine Schwarz (South Bear Press, 2007); Ripples: Marguerite Wildenhain and Her Pond Farm Students (San Bernardino, CA, 2002); The Invisible Core: A Potter’s Life and Thoughts by Marguerite Wildenhain (New York, 1973)