Those designers who were forced to flee their homes in Germany with the rise of the Nazis, and then came to spread the mission and ideology of German modernism across the globe, have always had a special place in our hearts. Recognizing their tragic lives and contributions has become an crucial cause among design historians. Tomorrow, September 11th, legendary designer/ceramicist Margarete Heymann-Loebenstein (1899-1990) and her mother will be honored by Cologne, the city of her birth and by Cologne-based Markanto Gallery, in a plaque, set in a special event. Known also as Grete Marks, she studied at the Bauhaus, was active in interwar Germany, and fled for Britain with the rise of the Nazis, where she founded Greta Pottery. She is mainly known for carrying the legacy of the Bauhaus in her modernist ceramics and her famed tea service, composed of plain geometrical shapes (above) which she created for Haël Werkstätten Factory has long entered the pantheon of German Modernism. Her work and life were the focus of an exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Grete Marks: When Modern Was Degenerate; and in a solo show at Markanto, the first gallery to seriously exhibit her ceramics. Working with the Heymann family, the gallery’s founder Sven Vorderstrase has initiated the plaque, and an exhibition at MAKK, Cologne design museum will focus on her legacy and on that of her her cousin Marianne Ahlfeld-Heymann, also a graduate from the Bauhaus who was persecuted by the Nazis. Image Margarete Heymann-Loebenstein – © Michael Lawrence / Dr. Ursula Hudson; Images ceramics: © Markanto
