Gerhard Marcks

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German artist, known primarily as a sculptor, but also known for his drawings, woodcuts, lithographs and ceramics. In 1949, he was awarded the Goethe Medal; and in 1952, he was given the Knight of the Order Pour le Mérite, civil class. 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. Marcks moved to the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts) in Burg Giebichenstein near Halle. After the death of its director, Paul Thiersch, Marcks was named his replacement, a position he continued in until his dismissal in 1933. He was fired because his work was deemed unsuitable by the Nazis, with the result that several works were in the infamous exhibition of "degenerate art" in Munich in 1937, along with that of other Bauhaus artists. Despite such persecution, Marcks continued to live in Germany (in Mecklenburg) throughout World War II. After World War II, Marcks became Professor of Sculpture at the Landeskunstschule (Regional Art School) in Hamburg, where he taught for four years, before retiring to Cologne. Marcks died on 13 November 1981, aged 92, in Burgbrohl, West Germany. Link to Wikipedia biography