Marguerite Wildenhain and the Bauhaus: An Eyewitness Anthology

11 x 8.5 in. 776 pages. 837 illustrations (color, and black and white). More than ten years in the making, this is an exhaustive collection of essays, memoirs, interviews, diary excerpts, art works and archival photographs. It is the first detailed account of the life of French-born American potter Marguerite Wildenhain (1896-1985), in the context of a ceramic tradition that began in Germany in 1919 at the Bauhaus, the most famous art school in history.

This long-awaited monumental anthology is astonishing in its richness. It was painstakingly brought about through the selfless contributions of dozens of international scholars, artists (many of whom were Wildenhain's students), schools, museums and other institutions. This is a detailed definitive look at the famous Bauhaus school art in relation to the life and work of one of its first students: a smart, young French-born woman named Marguerite Friedlander, now known by her married name of Marguerite Wildenhain.

In time, she was designated a Master Potter, married Bauhaus potter Franz Wildenhain, designed award-winning porcelain pieces, and, after her dismissal as a teacher for being Jewish, left Holland in advance of its invasion by the Nazis. She immigrated to the US, where she joined an artists' community called Pond Farm in the hills above the redwood trees in north California. For much of her remaining life, she ran her own pottery school, taught hundreds of gifted students, and secured her reputation as one of the century's most influential teachers, craftspersons and artists.