Margaret Marks (1890 – 1990)

Margaret Marks biography

Born in Cologne, Germany, Margaret (Grete) Marks initially worked in Berlin. She studied as a ceramicist under Johannes Itten at the Bauhaus and established one of the leading pre-war potteries in Germany. Her clients in the UK included Heals and Liberty.

Of Jewish origin, she was forced to sell her business by the Nazis in 1934, and left the country in 1936 for England, where she worked for Mintons, Ridgway and Brains Foley potteries, producing her own decorated ware under the ‘GP’ (Grete Pottery) logo.

Her work was exhibited in shows at the Burslem School of Art (Stoke-on-Trent, 1937), the Bloomsbury Gallery (1938), Redfern Gallery (1954), Roland, Browse and Delbanco (1956), Ben Uri (1979) and Hael Pottery (Velten, near Berlin, 2006).

A joint exhibition with Pamina Liebert-Mahrenholz was held at the Boundary Gallery London in 2008. Marks’ work is held in collections in Berlin (including the Bauhaus Archiv), Brandenburg, New York, Illinois, Munich, London (British Museum, V&A, Royal Festival Hall, Ben Uri), Kendal (Abbot Hall) and Stoke (Stoke-on-Trent Museum).