The Californian artists’ colony Pond Farm is closely associated with the name Marguerite Friedlaender-Wildenhain (1896–1985). As one of the first female students at the Bauhaus Weimar and a pupil of Gerhard Marcks and Max Krehan, masters of the ceramics workshop at the Bauhaus, she had internalized the orientation towards the crafts which played a crucial role in the early Bauhaus in Weimar. In 1925, as Germany’s first female master potter, she was appointed head of the ceramics department of the Burg Giebichenstein School of Arts and Crafts in Halle. In 1940, she emigrated to the USA to avoid wartime persecution in Europe.
From 1939 on, architect Gordon Herr and his wealthy wife Jane acquired acreage in Guerneville, California, in order to establish Pond Farm, a school inspired by the Bauhaus and a refuge for artists working in various disciplines. In 1942, Friedlaender-Wildenhain became the first of many artists to move there. The Pond Farm Workshops began in 1949, but differences of opinion lead to the artists’ colony being wound up after just a few years. Only Friedlaender-Wildenhain stayed on at the farm, where she ran a successful pottery studio and school until her retirement in 1980. Every summer for 30 years, she taught at least 20 students how to throw pots on a potter’s wheel and thus influenced several generations of potters.
Friedlaender-Wildenhain’s teaching was rooted in the conviction that prevailed at the Dornburg Pottery Workshop of the Bauhaus in Weimar that craftsmanship formed the foundations of all creative work. This approach is also strongly reminiscent of Johannes Itten’s preliminary course, which Friedlaender-Wildenhain has also attended for half a year. As a renowned artist, she influenced a whole generation of young American ceramicists through of her practical teaching in the Pond Farm Workshops and her writing.
In 1963, the State of California took possession of Pond Farm in order to protect the water basin north of the Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve. However, they permitted Friedlaender-Wildenhain to live and work on the property for the rest of her life. Today, Pond Farm is included on the National Register of Historic Places.
