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Marguerite Wildenhain enrolled in the Berlin School of Fine and Applied Arts where she studied drawing and sculpture. Feeling discontent, she left school to work as a designer for a porcelain factory in the small town of Rudolstadt. At the factory, Wildenhain felt hypnotized while observing artisans throwing models on the potter’s wheel. Later, while exploring the town of Weimar on her day off work, she encountered a manifesto penned by Walter Gropius, who founded one of the most influential arts schools of all time—the Bauhaus. In the decree, Gropius expressed his desire to “create a new guild of craftsmen without class distinctions which raise an arrogant barrier between craftsman and artist.” Fascinated by the radical proclamation, Wildenhain was among the first to enroll as a student of the Bauhaus school in 1919. Encouraged by sculptor Gerhard Marcks (1889–1981), she joined the school’s pottery workshops and studied with both Marcks and master potter Max Krehan (1875–1925). For seven rigorous years, she served as an apprentice-in-residence at the Bauhaus. An intensely dedicated student, she quickly advanced and began assisting her mentors. Many students sought guidance from her over the years, including Frans Wildenhain (1905–1980), whom she married in 1930. In 1926, Wildenhain became the first woman to achieve master potter status in Germany. Learn more about Wildenhain in "A Potter's Life: Marguerite Wildenhain at #PondFarm", post-security, in Terminal 2. http://bit.ly/PondFarm
This image was posted on August 10, 2016.