Oral history interview with Marguerite Wildenhain
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hrs., 7 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Wildenhain, Marguerite
label: Interviewer
content: Bray, Hazel V.
label: Names
content: Bauhaus
label: Names
content: Feininger, Lyonel, 1871-1956
label: Names
content: Gropius, Walter, 1883-1969
label: Names
content: Herr, Gordon.
label: Names
content: Herr, Jane.
label: Names
content: Klee, Paul, 1879-1940
label: Names
content: Krehan, Max
label: Names
content: Marcks, Gerhard
label: Names
content: Moholy-Nagy, László, 1895-1946
topic: label: Topic
content: Ceramics
label: Topic
content: Ceramicists -- California -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Decorative arts
label: Topic
content: Women ceramicists
label: Topic
content: Women educators
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Wildenhain, Marguerite
label: Interviewer
content: Bray, Hazel V.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Marguerite Wildenhain (1896-1985) was born into a Jewish, German-English family in Lyon, France. She was a Bauhaus-trained ceramicist, educator, and author. She lived in Guerneville, California.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 62 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1981 March 14
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.wilden82
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Marguerite Wildenhain conducted 1981 March 14, by Hazel Bray, for the Archives of American Art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Wildenhain speaks of her early interest in pottery; studying at the Bauhaus; the Bauhaus philosophy; her apprenticeship as a potter under Max Krehan; studying under Gerhard Marcks; becoming the first woman master potter in Germany in 1926; fleeing the Nazis to Holland; coming to the United States; moving to California and teaching at the California College of Arts and Crafts; her private teaching experiences; her teaching philosophy; her home at Pond Farm; craft versus art; craftsmanship as a way of life; and her sources of inspiration. She recalls Frans Wildenhain; Paul Klee; Wassily Kandinsky; László Moholy-Nagy, Lyonel Feininger, Jane and Gordon Herr, and Hui Ka-Kwong, among others.