Frans Wildenhain also known as Franz Rudolf Wildenhain (June 5, 1905 – January 25, 1980) was a Bauhaus-trained German potter and sculptor, who taught for many years at the School for American Craftsmen (now School for American Crafts) at the
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in the town of Henrietta, New York, Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degree ...
in Rochester, New York.
Bauhaus and after
Born in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
, Germany, Wildenhain's early artistic training was in
drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...
,
design
A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...
and
lithography
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
. In February 1924, he enrolled at the
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...
in
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
, where he completed the foundations or preparatory course under
László Moholy-Nagy
László Moholy-Nagy (; ; born László Weisz; July 20, 1895 – November 24, 1946) was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as a professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the i ...
. He also studied with
Paul Klee
Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...
, and, beginning in November 1924, with
Gerhard Marcks
Gerhard Marcks (18 February 1889 – 13 November 1981) was a German artist, known primarily as a sculptor, but who is also known for his drawings, woodcuts, lithographs and ceramics.
Early life
Marcks was born in Berlin, where, at the age of 18, ...
and
Max Krehan
Max Krehan (July 11, 1875 – October 16, 1925) was a German Master Potter in Dornburg, Germany, who, in 1920, was appointed the ''Lehrmeister'' (Crafts Master) for the pottery workshop at the Bauhaus school in Weimar.
Background
Krehan was the la ...
at the Bauhaus pottery workshop in
Dornburg
Dornburg is a town in the Saale-Holzland district, in Thuringia, Germany. It sits atop a small hill of 400 ft above the Saale. Since 1 December 2008, it is part of the town Dornburg-Camburg.
History
Within the German Empire (1871–1918), ...
. Among the other potters there was
Marguerite Friedlaender, his future wife.
When the Bauhaus moved to
Dessau
Dessau is a town and former municipality in Germany at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the '' Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it has been part of the newly created municipality of Dessau-Roßlau ...
in 1925, pottery was dropped from its curriculum. Marcks moved to the State School of Applied Art at
Burg Giebichenstein
Giebichenstein Castle (german: Burg Giebichenstein) is a castle in Halle (Saale) in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is part of the Romanesque Road (''Strasse der Romanik'').
Being a Burgward in the 9th century, the castle became a royal residence o ...
,
Halle Halle may refer to:
Places Germany
* Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt
** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt
** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany
** Hall ...
, where he soon became the director. The following year, when Friedlaender became the head of that school’s pottery workshop, Wildenhain moved with her to resume his student training there. He became a Master Potter in 1930, the same year in which they were married, after which she was professionally known as
Marguerite Wildenhain
Marguerite Wildenhain, née Marguerite Friedlaender and alternative spelling ''Friedländer'' (October 11, 1896 – February 24, 1985), was an American Bauhaus-trained ceramic artist, educator and author. After immigrating to the United States in ...
.
In 1933, when the
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
took over Germany, Marguerite was dismissed from her position, because of her Jewish ancestry. She and Frans then moved to
Putten
Putten () is a municipality and town in the province of Gelderland, Netherlands. It had a population of
in . It is located in the coastal area of the old Zuiderzee (Southern Sea). To the east of Putten lies the Veluwe, the biggest national par ...
, the Netherlands, where they set up a pottery workshop called ''Het Kruikje'' (Little Jug). In March 1940, she was able to emigrate to the U.S. (just two months in advance of the German invasion of the Netherlands), but he (a non-Jewish German citizen) was not allowed to follow her. In 1941, he moved to
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
, where he taught briefly at the Arts and Crafts School, and also studied sculpture with Jan Bronner at the Rijksacademie. By 1943, he had been drafted into the German Army, and in the following year took part in the
Battle of Arnhem
The Battle of Arnhem was a battle of the Second World War at the vanguard of the Allied Operation Market Garden. It was fought in and around the Dutch city of Arnhem, the town of Oosterbeek, the villages Wolfheze and Driel and the vicinity fro ...
. In April 1945, he became a deserter and was hidden from authorities by friends in Amsterdam.
Pond Farm
In the months after her emigration to the U.S. in 1940, Marguerite had almost no word of the whereabouts of her husband. From May 10 (the day of the German invasion of the Netherlands) until September 10, 1940, she wrote unmailed letters to him, in the form of a diary, as she slowly worked her way across the U.S., from New York to California. These letters have since been published in ''Marguerite: A Diary to Franz Wildenhain'' edited by Dean Schwarz (2004). In 1942, she settled at
Pond Farm
Pond Farm (also known as Pond Farm Workshops) was an American artists’ colony that began in the 1940s and, in one form or another, continued until 1985. It is located near the Russian River resort town of Guerneville, California, about north ...
, an artists’ colony near Geurneville, California, established by Gordon and Jane Herr, who had been in contact with the Wildenhains in the Netherlands in 1939.
After a separation of about seven years, Frans and Marguerite Wildenhain were finally reunited in 1947, when at last he was granted a visa. He too joined the community at Pond Farm, where he worked as an artist and teacher with his wife, fiber artist
Trude Guermonprez
Trude Guermonprez, born Gertrud Emilie Jalowetz (1910 1976), was a German-born American textile artist, designer and educator, known for her tapestry landscapes. Her Bauhaus-influenced disciplined abstraction for hand woven textiles greatly contr ...
, jewelry designer Victor Ries, and the Herrs.
Later years
By 1950, the Wildenhain's marriage had fallen apart, and Frans then accepted an offer to join the faculty of the School of American Craftsmen (now School for American Crafts) at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York, where he taught for 20 years. Among his graduate students were future noted ceramicist
Ron Meyers, for whom he served as MFA thesis advisor. Frans and Marguerite’s divorce became final in 1952, and Frans subsequently remarried, to Marjorie McIlroy (who died in 1967), and then to Elisabeth (Lili) Brockardt, a weaver and textile artist. He died in Rochester in 1980.
Awards and collections
Frans Wildenhain received numerous prizes for his artwork, from (among others) the International Exposition in Paris (1939), the Albright Art Gallery (1952), the Brussels World's Fair (1958), and a
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
(1958). He was also a Fellow of the American Crafts Council. His work is in the collections of the
Stedelijk Museum
The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Amsterdam),
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
(Washington, DC),
Everson Museum Everson may refer to:
People with the surname
* Ben Everson (born 1987), English footballer
* Bill Everson (1906–1966), Welsh international rugby union player
* Cliff Everson, a New Zealand car designer and manufacturer
* Corinna Everson (born 1 ...
(Syracuse, NY),
Seattle Art Museum
The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, United States. It operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on Cap ...
, the
Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
,
Luther College (Decorah, IA), the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
(New York City), the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
(London), and the
University of Michigan Museum of Art
The University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Michigan with is one of the largest university art museums in the United States. Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alumni Memorial Hall ori ...
(Ann Arbor, MI).
The largest collection of his work (comprising over 300 works) is at
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in the town of Henrietta, New York, Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degree ...
(Rochester, NY). An exhibition principally featuring Wildenhain ceramics from the collection will be on view from August 20, 2012 to October 2, 2012 at Rochester Institute of Technology.
"About the Exhibition"
''rit.edu/wild''. Retrieved 27 October 2011. The exhibition simultaneously will be held on campus at both Bevier Gallery and Dyer Arts Center. There will be an exhibition catalogue. The exhibition is accompanied by a 256-page hard cover catalogue (''Frans Wildenhain 1950-75: Creative and Commercial American Ceramics at Mid-Century'') with color photographs of all ceramics displayed, black and white archival photographs, and five scholarly essays: a biography of Frans Wildenhain, a history of the School for American Craftsmen, Wildenhain's work in the context of mid-century modern studio pottery, Wildenhain's role in monetizing and creating commercial acceptance for hand-crafted art at his Shop One artist's cooperative, and an interview with the RIT collection's donor.
See also
* Marguerite Wildenhain
Marguerite Wildenhain, née Marguerite Friedlaender and alternative spelling ''Friedländer'' (October 11, 1896 – February 24, 1985), was an American Bauhaus-trained ceramic artist, educator and author. After immigrating to the United States in ...
* Pond Farm
Pond Farm (also known as Pond Farm Workshops) was an American artists’ colony that began in the 1940s and, in one form or another, continued until 1985. It is located near the Russian River resort town of Guerneville, California, about north ...
* Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...
* Gerhard Marcks
Gerhard Marcks (18 February 1889 – 13 November 1981) was a German artist, known primarily as a sculptor, but who is also known for his drawings, woodcuts, lithographs and ceramics.
Early life
Marcks was born in Berlin, where, at the age of 18, ...
References
Sources
* Dean and Geraldine Schwarz, eds., ''Marguerite Wildenhain and the Bauhaus: An Eyewitness Anthology''. Decorah, IA: South Bear Press, 2007. .
* Dean Schwarz, ed., ''Marguerite A Diary to Franz Wildenhain''. Decorah, IA: South Bear Press, 2004. .
* Ruth R. Kath, ''The Letters of Gerhard Marcks and Marguerite Wildenhain 1970-1981: A Mingling of Souls''. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1991.
* Bruce A. Austin, ''Frans Wildenhain 1950-75: Creative and Commercial American Ceramics at Mid-Century''. Rochester, NY: Printing Applications Lab, 2012.
External links
Marguerite Wildenhain and the Bauhaus
Frans Wildenhain 1950-75: Creative and Commercial American Ceramics at Mid-century
RIT Archives Acquires Frans Wildenhain Ceramic Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wildenhain, Frans
1905 births
1980 deaths
German potters
Bauhaus alumni
Artists from Leipzig
People from the Kingdom of Saxony
20th-century German sculptors
20th-century German male artists
20th-century ceramists
German male sculptors
German emigrants to the United States