Marguerite Wildenhain: Bauhaus to Pond Farm
Jan 20 - Apr 15, 2007
Selections from the Forrest L. Merrill Collection
The Sonoma County Museum honors the talent and legacy of Master Potter Marguerite Wildenhain (1896-1985) with an exhibition spanning her prestigious and prolific career. Marguerite Wildenhain: Bauhaus to Pond Farm features over fifty works primarily drawn from the extensive collection of Berkeley collector Forrest L. Merrill, along with works from the Dolores Fruiht Collection (Santa Rosa), the Asawa Lanier Family Collection (San Francisco), and the Museum’s permanent collection.
Marguerite Wildenhain was one of the most influential and revered potters in the world. After fleeing Nazi Europe, the Bauhaus trained potter came to America in 1940. Wildenhain taught briefly at CCAC (now CCA) in Oakland, then moved to Guerneville along the Russian River in Sonoma County in 1942. She came at the invitation of Jane and Gordon Herr (a San Francisco architect), determined to establish an artists’ community away from the city. Pond Farm, as it was christened, became a refuge in a scenic rural area that is now part of Austin Creek State Recreation Area. At the site, a corps of talented artists including Wildenhain ran a series of workshops from 1949 until 1953.
After the other artists departed Wildenhain remained, conducting her own summer ceramics workshops until 1980. For over twenty-seven years, Wildenhain taught an average of twenty students each year. Her legacy of “grounding your life in your craft and your craft in your life” continues through those students, called Pond Farmers, many of whom are living and working here in Sonoma County and throughout the United States.
The Artist
Born Marguerite Friedlaender on October 11, 1896 in Lyon, France, her family moved to Berlin during her teenage years, where she first encountered the art of ceramics and eventually attended the Bauhaus School at Weimar beginning in 1919. Wildenhain died at Pond Farm in 1985 after living and working there for forty-three years. Her demanding teaching style, the excellence of her work, and the legacy that lives on in her students represent a thread that gracefully links the renowned Bauhaus to Sonoma County.
Catalogue
A 48-page catalogue accompanies the Wildenhain exhibition with a feature essay by mid-century ceramics expert Dane Cloutier.
Collaboration
This exhibition was developed in collaboration with the Sebastopol Center for the Arts on the occasion of the exhibition Beyond Pond Farm: The Legacy of Marguerite Wildenhain - www.sebarts.org.
