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
Guerneville ( , ) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County, California, United States. The town is historically known for the logging community, formed in the late 1800s. Guerneville ...
, about north of
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
. Situated on a hilltop above the
Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve
Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve is a state park of California in the United States established to preserve of coast redwoods (''Sequoia sempervirens''). The reserve is located in Sonoma County, just north of Guerneville.
The reserv ...
, Pond Farm began around 1939-40 when a San Francisco-based couple named Gordon and Jane Herr (architect and writer, respectively) acquired a portion of property called Rancho Del Lago or the Walker Ranch. Initially , their property was later expanded to . Because one of its primary features was a large pond, the Herrs renamed this setting Pond Farm. It includes two small residences and a historic barn repurposed as a pottery studio.
Workshops
Inspired by such precedents as 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 ...
,
Eliel Saarinen
Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1873 – July 1, 1950) was a Finnish-American Architecture, architect known for his work with art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century. He was also the father of famed architect Eero ...
’s
Cranbrook Academy of Art
The Cranbrook Educational Community is an education, research, and public museum complex in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. This National Historic Landmark was founded in the early 20th century by newspaper mogul George Gough Booth. It consists of Cr ...
,
Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College was a private liberal arts college in Black Mountain, North Carolina. It was founded in 1933 by John Andrew Rice, Theodore Dreier, and several others. The college was ideologically organized around John Dewey's educational ...
, and
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
’s
Taliesin
Taliesin ( , ; 6th century AD) was an early Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the '' Book of Taliesin''. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to have sung at the courts ...
, the Herrs envisioned Pond Farm as an artists’ community that would in part support itself through summer workshops. According to their son (Jonathan Herr), Gordon Herr regarded Pond Farm as “a sustainable sanctuary for artists away from a world gone amuck,” while for Jane Herr, “it was a new beginning after rejecting conventional city upbringing” (Schwarz 2007, p. 315). Working together, the Herrs became able practitioners of homestead farming. They raised a wide variety of livestock; planted fruit orchards, nut trees and vegetable gardens; and established several fish ponds.
In 1939, Gordon Herr traveled to Europe to search for artists whose beliefs and personalities might be compatible with his own. While in
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
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
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, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, he met the proprietors of the ''Het Kruike'' (Little Jug) pottery shop. They were
Frans Wildenhain
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 Ro ...
and his wife
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 ...
(née Friedlaender), who had moved to Holland from Germany, where both had studied pottery at the Weimar
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 ...
. Herr urged them to emigrate to the U.S., in order to become a part of Pond Farm Workshops. The Wildenhains hesitated initially, but only six months later, when the Nazis invaded Poland, they wrote to Herr, asking if his offer stood. It did, and on March 3, 1940, Marguerite departed for the U.S. Her husband, however, was left behind, because the quota for German citizens had been filled. She was Jewish, he was not.
Eventually, Marguerite Wildenhain ended up in California and (having explored other options) decided to join the Herrs’ Pond Farm Workshops. She moved to Pond Farm in 1942, helped to put in water lines, established a garden, built a house and, working with Gordon Herr, restored and redesigned a barn that became her pottery workshop. Later, in 1949, on property adjacent to the entrance of the Armstrong Redwood Forest, the Herrs began construction of a building called the Hexagon House, where students could be housed and fed, and where public gatherings could be held.
Resident artists
Marguerite Wildenhain was the first artist to accept the Herrs’ invitation to join the Pond Farm Workshops. In 1947, they were joined by Frans or Franz Wildenhain, who, having been drafted into the German Army during World War II, had been separated from his wife for seven years. Franz would teach sculpture, while two other European artists who joined the colony in 1949,
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 ...
and Victor Ries, taught weaving and metals, respectively. Gordon Herr taught architecture, and Jane Herr served as an informal business manager. In addition to the resident artists, others participated as visiting artists and instructors, including
Jean Varda
Jean "Yanko" Varda (11 September 1893 – 10 January 1971) was an American artist, best known for his collage work. Varda was one of the early adopters of the Sausalito houseboat lifestyle that was popular in the 1960s–1970s.
He was the subj ...
(collage), David Stewart (sculpture and pottery),
Claire Falkenstein
Claire Falkenstein (; July 22, 1908 – October 23, 1997) was an American sculptor, painter, printmaker, jewelry designer, and teacher, most renowned for her often large-scale abstract metal and glass public sculptures. Falkenstein was one of Am ...
(painting),
Lucienne Bloch
Lucienne Bloch (January 5, 1909 – March 13, 1999) was a Switzerland-born American artist. She was best known for her murals and for her association with the Mexican artist Diego Rivera, for whom she produced the only existing photographs o ...
(fresco), Stephen Dimitroff (fresco), Harry Dixon (metals) and others.
It appears that the Workshop's first summer session took place in 1949. Unfortunately, it would close only a few years later in 1953. Given the strong survival instincts of the artists, they soon proved incompatible. In the words of Tim Tivoli Steele (the Herrs’ grandson), “In the end, the trait that all the artists had relied on to survive the war and follow their visions—the strength of their personalities—would also contribute to the demise of the Workshops. Constant bickering tore the group apart” (Steele 1992, p. 3). Around the same time period, one of the Herr children died of mushroom poisoning, the Wildenhains’ volatile marriage collapsed, and Jane Herr developed breast cancer and died in 1952.
Pottery
When Pond Farm Workshops fell apart in 1953, nearly all the residents left. Thereafter, a school and workshop on the site, called Pond Farm Pottery, were carried on by the community's only remaining artist, Bauhaus potter Marguerite Wildenhain, who continued to offer instruction through 1980.
Wildenhain was known for being thorough in her teachings, making newcomers start with dog dishes and learning all of the throwing steps before moving on to more advanced pottery. Among her students was
Dean Schwarz, co-founder of South Bear School, who studied at Pond Farm during the 1960s. University of Utah Professor of Art, Dorothy Bearnson, participated in seven summer workshops with Wildenhain between 1947 and 1964.
As early as 1963, the State of California had used its powers of “eminent domain” to require Pond Farm residents to sell their property to the State, in order to expand the
Austin Creek State Recreation Area
Austin Creek State Recreation Area is a state park unit of California, United States, encompassing an isolated wilderness area. It is located in Sonoma County, California, adjacent to Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve, with which it share ...
. Gordon Herr was forced to move, but, in response to appeals by her students, it was decided that Wildenhain could continue to live on the property until her death.
Designations and state ownership
When Wildenhain died in 1985, her property reverted to the State of California and became part of
Austin Creek State Recreation Area
Austin Creek State Recreation Area is a state park unit of California, United States, encompassing an isolated wilderness area. It is located in Sonoma County, California, adjacent to Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve, with which it share ...
. In 2013, the site was awarded $443,245 in Prop 84 Cultural Stewardship funding to stabilize and the house and barn. The site has been designated a "National Treasure" by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The complex was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 2014.
References
Sources
*Tim Tivoli Steele, “School of the Pond Farm Workshops: An Artist’s Refuge,” in ''A Report, the San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum Journal'', 10:2, 1992.
*Dean and Geraldine Schwarz, eds., ''Marguerite Wildenhain and the Bauhaus: An Eyewitness Anthology''. Decorah, Iowa: South Bear Press, 2007. . Majors portions of this book provide historic documentation (text, interviews, maps and photographs) of the Herr family's Pond Farm Workshops and Marguerite Wildenhain's Pond Farm Pottery.
{{Commons category, Pond Farm
American artist groups and collectives
History of Sonoma County, California
Art schools in California
1940s establishments in California
1985 disestablishments in California
Art in the San Francisco Bay Area
Artist colonies
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in California