BORN in Cologne in 1899, Grete Marks was one of the first female students to be admitted to the famed Bauhaus school of art and design in Germany.

She became best-known for her ceramics, which were declared “degenerate” by the nazis.

In this centenary year of the founding of Bauhaus, a new — and free — exhibition at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester celebrates the extraordinary story of this overlooked artist.

At Bauhaus, she first proved her artistic mettle by refusing to conform to the school’s expectations for women.

Its founding director Walter Gropius attempted to steer his female students towards practising weaving — in his eyes, a suitable activity for women.

Marks fought to study ceramics, yet her determination to do things her way soon saw her clash with her teacher and she left Bauhaus after only a year.

Even so, she was heavily influenced by the Bauhaus style and ethos throughout her life.

She married Gustav Loebenstein in 1923 and they established a factory that soon became a leader in pre-war pottery in Germany. When her husband died in 1928, Marks took over its running.

As a single Jewish mother and artist associated with the left-leaning Bauhaus, Marks soon attracted the attention of the nazi party.

Her work, with its Bauhaus designs and emphasis on primary geometric shapes, was declared degenerate.

Some of her vases were derided in an article by Joseph Goebbels in Der Angriff (The Attack) in 1934 and included in the infamous Degenerate Art exhibition of 1937.

In 1935, Marks was forced to sell the factory for a pittance. One of her clients, the London department store owner Ambrose Heal, helped her and her two children leave Germany for Britain, where she found work at Mintons pottery in Stoke-on-Trent.

There she insisted on joining the board — an unheard of position for a designer, let alone a woman — and went on to found Greta Pottery, which closed when WWII began.

She married the educator Harold Marks and moved to London where she began concentrating on painting. According to her daughter Frances, “ceramics and painting were of equal importance throughout my mother’s life.”

By the 1950s, Marks was a regular exhibitor at the Redfern Gallery in London alongside Ben Nicholson and John Piper. She died in 1990 at the age of 91.

On display at Pallant House are her previously neglected watercolour portraits, in an exhibition which explores how Marks forged an uncompromising path dedicated to making art on her terms during a period when her gender, religion, artistic medium and nationality each placed barriers in her way.

Despite the obstacles she faced throughout her life, Marks used her talent and tenacity to forge her own path. Her goals as an artist were to produce works on her terms, even if that meant rejection.

This new exhibition, focusing on a series of intimate portrait paintings and drawings from the 1920s and ’30s, reveals a little-known facet of an artist who is inspirational in her determination and individuality.

It is part of Insiders/Outsiders, a nationwide arts festival taking place throughout 2019 to celebrate refugees from nazi Europe and their contribution to British culture.

Runs until October 27, opening times: pallant.org.uk.