Gerhard Marcks
| Gerhard Marcks | |
|---|---|
with Helmut Schmidt
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| Born | 18 February 1889 Berlin, German Empire |
| Died | 13 November 1981 (aged 92) Burgbrohl, West Germany |
| Nationality | German |
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.
Marcks was born in Berlin, where, at age 18, he worked as an apprentice to German sculptor Richard Scheibe. In 1914, he married Maria Schmidtlein, with whom he would raise six children. During World War I, he served in the German army, which resulted in long term health problems.
With architect Walter Gropius (who would later be the founder of the Bauhaus school in Weimar), Lyonel Feininger, Scheibe and others, Marcks was a member of two art-related political groups, the Novembergruppe (November Group) and the Arbeitsrat für Kunst (Workers Council for Art). He was also affiliated with the Deutscher Werkbund, of which Gropius was a founding member.
In 1919, when Gropius founded the Bauhaus, Marcks was one of the first three faculty members to be hired, along with Feininger and Johannes Itten. Specifically, Marcks was appointed the Formmeister (Form Master) of the school’s Pottery Workshop, which was located not in Weimar but in an annex to the school in nearby Dornburg. The other teacher in that workshop, its Lehrmeister (Crafts Master) was Master Potter Max Krehan, the last of a long line of potters, whose workshop was in Dornburg. Krehan taught the students to throw pots on the wheel, to trim and glaze them, and to fire the kiln. Marcks, in addition to duties in Weimar, taught the history of the practice, encouraged experimentation, and sometimes decorated pots.
Earlier, Marcks had made the models for a series of animal sculptures, which were reproduced in China by a porcelain factory. His interest in animal forms is reflected in the work he made for his first Bauhaus portfolio (Neue Europaeische Graphik I), such as Die Katzen ("The Cats") and Die Eule ("The Owl"), both woodcuts. In time, his focus shifted to the human figure, and it was this subject that continued to hold his attention for the rest of his life.
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