Marguerite: From the Bauhaus to Pond Farm

(somber light orchestral intro music) - [Carol] There was loss, in her life.

Marguerite gave up her country, and became a refugee.

- [Wayne] So, she was a woman who experienced enormous tragedy and pain, a very unique, profoundly talented woman.

- [Carol] Well-known potters in America saw her throw, and they were just dumbfounded.

That just shook up the world of ceramics.

People had never, ever, seen somebody with those skills, before, especially not a woman.

(somber light classical music continuing) - [David] You think of Pond Farm.

and you think of it as a pottery.

It was a pottery, it was a school, but, what it really was, was a work of art.

(slow somber light classical music continuing) - [Interviewer] I believe this recorder is working, now.

Today is March 14th, 1981, and I am with Marguerite Wildenhain, at her home, at Pond Farm.

(gentle ambient music) (gentle ambient music continuing) (gentle ambient music continuing) (light solo piano joining ambient music) (gentle solo piano music continuing) (music ending) (wind in vegetation gently rushing) (slow somber chamber music) (somber chamber music continuing) (melancholic chamber music) (melancholic chamber music fading) (seagulls crying) (waves gently rushing) (ship's horn blaring) (Interviewer chuckling) (lively solo steel guitar intro music) (lively steel guitar music continuing) (lively steel guitar music continuing) - [Gail] My father's dream, for Pond Farm, was to create a space in a rural area, for artists to work, and teach, at the same time.

My parents approached Marguerite, and suggested, if she could get out, and come, they could work together.

And so, when there was an opportunity to get out safely, within a concept of where to go, she was the first to go.

Pond farm was a concept that was in harmony with the Bauhaus.

It was something exciting to help build, as a concept, and it attracted incredible artists.

(slow somber intro chamber music) All of the artists that came were Jewish, including Marguerite.

Victor Ries was also there, in the barn, and he taught metalwork.

Trude Guermonprez did her weaving classes.

And so, you're talking about almost two years of this incredible experiment.

(slow somber chamber music continuing) - [Gail] These people were highly intellectual, well-read, well-trained, people who had suffered unbelievable tragedies, lost members of their family, and they had been at the height of intellectual artistic challenges, in Europe, and in Berlin, and all of that, and then they come, out in the wilderness.

(frog croaking) I don't know who, in this country, would have wanted to live in such a primitive way, and start from scratch, except people who were escaping Europe.

On one hand, it was like a small, intense, special community who found each other, on the other side, it was full of drama.

Many years later, everyone except Marguerite had had enough, and so they left, and Marguerite stayed.

(light chamber music) (light chamber music continuing) (light chamber music continuing) (light chamber music continuing) (light chamber music continuing) - [Wayne Reynolds] A lot of people wanted to study with Marguerite.

It wasn't easy, and she would get dozens and dozens of applications that she wouldn't take.

And so, she's, "Okay, I'll take you, but this is not a vacation.

This is not fun, this is hard work."

I said, "Oh no, I know, I know."

But, of course, I had absolutely no idea.

You were throwing six hours a day, five days a week.

You were working as hard as you could, doing as well as you could, or leave.

- [Carol] Because I was a rank beginner, I was, sort of, frightened of her, because she was such a force.

The thing is, she started us all out at the same place.

(lively upbeat light classical music) There was a prescribed number of forms that you learned to make.

From those forms, simple as some of them were, you could make anything.

- [Wayne] Each step was the basis for the next one, and make it so you could line up a dozen of them, that were all the same.

The point is, to learn it so well that you don't have to think about it.

She was teaching the technique of how to make these shapes, but also, behind it, which I didn't grasp, for a long time, she was teaching us to see, visually.

- [David] You would have a plank of pots, there, and in the beginning, she would say, "Well that one's pretty good, and that one's pretty good."

And, in the beginning you can't see.

I couldn't tell the difference.

Gradually, you start to see "Oh, this one has more form than that one has."

- Here you have all the same little flower pots, sitting there, but she's that... And, you'd say, "Well, why is that third one good?

What is it about it?"

So, then you start looking with great, more attention.

I can see the size/shape relationship, the size of the base, or the size of the rim, to the height of the piece, that's not that different from the others, but it is enough different that it just looks more form-full.

- One of her favorite expressions, was, "A millimeter makes a difference."

I mean, that's how keen you needed to learn to see.

- [David] The classes were nine weeks long.

The last three weeks she wanted you to do something, to see what you could do with that information.

Well that can go almost anywhere.

- [Dorothy] It depended on how artistic you were.

She gave you the method of becoming an artist, but it was up to you, to do the art end of it.

(frog croaking) (slow intro chamber music) (footsteps crunching) - As a student, we rode our bicycles here, every day.

Getting to this corner, finally coming out of the the Redwoods, and seeing the rocky prominence, here, it was just like, "Oh, we made it !"

And hot and sweaty... (chuckling) But, often on a foggy morning, like this, in the summer.

(slow chamber music continuing) (hands on clay slapping) (clay on wheel thudding) (hands on clay slapping) (foot on wood clunking) (slow contemplative chamber music continuing) (slow contemplative chamber music continuing) (slow contemplative chamber music continuing) (slow contemplative chamber music continuing) (footsteps crunching) - This barn is where it all happened.

I had four stalls in here, nine stalls there, and there were at least four or five in the sidecar-room, too.

You got two wheels, here, one on top, and one on the bottom, the bottom one you kick, the top one, you use your hands to manipulate the clay into a form that you're interested in.

(clay on wood thumping) (clay squelching) (feet on wheel tapping) There's something that is put into the clay, by kicking the wheel, there's breathing that occurs, while you're doing it, and you can see that in a pot.

You can see it in Marguerite's pots, 'cause her pots were all made on the kick-wheel.

That's disappeared, some, in the pots that contemporary potters make, because they're working on electric machines.

(feet on wheel tapping and scraping) (gentle ambient music) (wind in trees rushing) (gentle ambient music) (gentle ambient music continuing) (gentle ambient music continuing) (pottery wheel clunking and scraping) - [Carol] There was this awe of this woman, who had managed to carve this life, for herself, which scared me.

And, on the other hand, it was just a marvelous experience of what someone can do if they're willing to, in some ways, give up a lot of other things.

- [Jane] When students came, in the summers, to see Marguerite, we saw how alone she was.

She was... Nine months out of the year, 10 months out of the year, lived alone.

(gentle ambient music continuing) It's, kind of, a staggering model to see, but it's also very understandable.

A lot of artists are, kind of, recluses.

- [David] Thoreau says: "You're wealthy by the number of things you can leave alone."

You live frugally, honestly.

You don't have to go to a fancy restaurant, you don't have to drive a fancy car.

You don't have to have all of this stuff.

You have it in your everyday life.

Marguerite lived by those ideas, and she gave me the courage, and knowledge, to also live by those ideas.

(birds twittering) (footsteps crunching) - [Jane] Can smell the burned-out smell, today, from the fire, last summer.

It just practically destroyed Pond Farm, it was so close.

These big eucalyptus trees, now, down.

Marguerite talked about the patterns in nature and death, decay, renewal.

She had wonderful drawings of a leaf, in all stages of life and decay, when it's just down to a few webs of the veins.

She tried to wake us up to finding inspiration, in this minutiae.

- [Wayne] Marguerite asked me, "Where do you think ideas come from?

You think they just come through the aethers?"

You have to draw, you have to look, and then, from those drawings, then you get ideas.

You want to draw rotting woods, and live woods, and seed pods and feathers, and all these things will give you ideas, to how to make new forms.

Most of us hadn't done anything like that, in our lives.

(birds twittering) (light upbeat solo piano intro music) - I feel, in the schools, they're only teaching me techniques, or simple skills.

Where, up here, although I'm learning a lot of techniques and skills, I feel that I'm developing as a human being.

- [Marguerite] Yeah, I think that's correct.

- And that's, directly, because of you, as a person.

- [Student] Plaitin' that, here.

- Yeah, that looks much better, I think.

Don't you?

(solo piano music continuing) - Marguerite was teaching pottery, but she wasn't really teaching pottery.

She was using pottery to teach you how to live.

She didn't expect all of her students to be potters.

I mean, she said: "My God, we'd have so many potters we wouldn't know what to do with them".

She wanted you to become an artful person, a person who lived with art.

- [Jane] She taught the rest of us, the skills that she was taught, in order that we might be able to live that life, as well.

- She was living her ideals, she was not just talkin' the talk, she was walking the walk, and had committed her whole life to it, and committed her life to her students.

We were profoundly important, to her, she loved us, and worried about us.

(gentle solo piano continuing) (solo piano music continuing) (music fading) (wind gently rushing) (slow somber chamber music) (pottery wheel clunking and scraping) (slow gentle outro chamber music) (light music) (bright music)