This past weekend, I was proud to present a paper at the
American Ceramic Circle’s annual symposium on an exhibition
topic I’m developing. I spoke about a German designer named
Grete Marks who made radical and beautiful ceramics—designs that
the Nazi government called “degenerate.” I’ll share a bit about
Grete here, but just enough to tease you because, if all goes
well, I’ll be able to talk about this topic in much depth in
years to come. (Hint, hint.) The facts are that Grete was born
Margarete Heymann in 1899 in Cologne, Germany, to a Jewish
artistic family. Young Grete trained at Cologne and Dusseldorf
Schools of Art in painting. She was accepted into study at the
Bauhaus School in 1920 where she was exposed to Modern art and
the planned intersection of craft and industry. After studying
at the Bauhaus pottery, she left the school, married Gustav
Loebenstein, and operated a successful ceramics called Haël
Werkstätten für Kunstlerische Keramik (“Hael Factory for
Artistic Ceramics”) in Germany through the 1