Newsletter Archives - Page 5 of 7 - Fritz Ascher Society

Sep 23, 2019

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #28, September 2019

Rachel Stern2019-09-23T17:36:19-04:00September 23rd, 2019|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #28, September 2019

Dear Friends, Fall is finally upon us. Fritz Ascher’s “Landscape with a Cloudy Sky” from c. 1960 captures the rich colors and dramatic light of late afternoon, brought forth with spontaneous, dynamic brushstrokes that characterize the artist’s late work. Fritz Ascher, Landscape with a Cloudy Sky, 1960s. Oil on canvas, 39.4 x 37.4 in. While he was hiding from the Nazis 1942-1945, the artist wrote: I have spent the summer re-reading the poems I have access to, marveling at their rich verbal imagery and thinking about a publication of this powerful manifestation of the artist’s creativity, which translates so easily into disciplines other than the visual [...]

Jun 7, 2019

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #27, June 2019

Rachel Stern2019-06-07T08:01:34-04:00June 7th, 2019|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #27, June 2019

Dear Friends, I hope you all were able to see “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at NYU’s Grey Art Gallery that closed on April 6. Thanks to director Lynn Gumpert and her fabulous team, the exhibition looked great and was complemented by an engaging program. The show was well received, both by visitors and critics. In the meantime, most reviews are translated into German here. If you were not able to visit in person, you can see photos on our website here. The exhibition was part of Wunderbar Together: The Year of German-American Friendship 2018/19, an initiative of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany and the Goethe-Institut, with the support of the Federation of German Industries (BDI). “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at Grey [...]

Mar 18, 2019

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #26, March 2019

Rachel Stern2019-03-18T14:20:11-04:00March 18th, 2019|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #26, March 2019

Dear Friends, Catch it while you can: The exhibition “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at the Grey Art Gallery of New York University here in New York is on view only until April 6. You can find installation photos of the exhibition on our website (link). And for the last minute people among you: on April 3 at 6:30pm there is a gallery conversation with J. English Cook, Graduate Curatorial Assistant, Grey Art Gallery, and Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU. In the exhibition, you can see Fritz Ascher’s gouache “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” It depicts a settlement of 1,100 flats and 800 detached houses in Berlin Zehlendorf that borders the Grunewald city forest in the South. It was built in [...]

Feb 12, 2019

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #25, February 2019

Rachel Stern2019-02-12T06:24:36-05:00February 12th, 2019|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #25, February 2019

Dear Friends, What was it like to be a Jew in Nazi Germany? Come join the discussion tomorrow, February 12, at 6:30 pm, when I speak with Marion Kaplan, Skirball Professor of Modern Jewish History, NYU, about those who went underground, including Fritz Ascher, and endured the terrors of nightly bombings, hunger and cold, and the even greater fear of being discovered by the Nazis. At King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, 53 Washington Square South. This program accompanies the exhibition “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at the Grey Art Gallery of New York University here in New York - please check out the other stimulating programs here. And do not forget to see the exhibition, which is on view [...]

Dec 27, 2018

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #24, December 2018

Rachel Stern2019-01-14T00:10:25-05:00December 27th, 2018|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #24, December 2018

Dear Friends, I am filled with gratitude for your interest and support that enabled us this year to initiate and organize five exhibitions, numerous lectures and exhibition tours, two world premiere concerts featuring musical interpretations of Fritz Ascher’s poems by Potsdam composer Gisbert Näther, as well as the emotional ceremony placing a stumbling block in front of Niklasstraße 21/23 in Berlin-Zehlendorf memorizing Fritz Ascher at the location of his parental home. Thank you to everyone who made these events possible! Thank you to Wolfgang Gustavus, whose unexpected death deeply saddens us, for donating works by Fritz Ascher to the Potsdam Museum and Museum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf Berlin. As 2018 is winding down, I hope you are enjoying some peace and fun [...]

Dec 3, 2018

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #23, November 2018

Rachel Stern2018-12-03T14:49:28-05:00December 3rd, 2018|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #23, November 2018

Dear Friends, Happy 125th birthday, Fritz Ascher! I am sure that he would have liked our celebration on October 17 at the Kallmann-Museum in Ismaning, with a tour and discussion of his work, and - of course - coffee and cake at the Kallmann-Museum in Ismaning, where it will be on view until November 25th. This is the last German venue of the retrospective before it travels to the US in 2019 (https://kallmann-museum.de/2018_ascher/). Kallmann-Museum, Ismaning. Photos Rachel Stern In Ismaning, I kept wondering about those colorful dots and short brushstrokes that Fritz Ascher added to some of his early work in 1945, when he started painting again. One of [...]

Sep 4, 2018

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #22, September 2018

Rachel Stern2018-11-26T05:40:08-05:00September 4th, 2018|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #22, September 2018

Dear Friends, I know, this summer I seem obsessed with Fritz Ascher’s I know, this summer I seem obsessed with Fritz Ascher’s Dancers from 1921. But there is one more thought about the drawing that I want to share. Fritz Ascher, Dancers, 1921. Private collection. Photo Malcolm Varon ©2018 Bianca Stock Fritz Ascher, Dancers, 1921. Private collection. Photo Malcolm Varon ©2018 Bianca Stock When the drawing was created,“Freikörperkultur” (FKK) or “free body culture” had become popular in Germany. Founded in 1898 in Essen, Germany, the nudist culture was about celebrating the body unencumbered by clothes, in nature and sunlight. Many of the naturists came from the Wandervogel movement, the pre-eminent German youth movement, founded to escape the repressive and [...]

Jul 4, 2018

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #21, July 2018

Rachel Stern2018-12-04T12:17:07-05:00July 4th, 2018|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #21, July 2018

Dear Friends,I am so very excited today to share new insights into Fritz Ascher’s work. Fritz Ascher’s Dancers from 1921 is a drawing that has dazzled and fascinated me since I saw it first. In the Fritz Ascher exhibition catalogue, I described the eight female and male dancers as “dancing in a circle in naked ecstasy,” “mythical figures in timeless space” (p. 220). Looking at Ascher’s drawing, Henri Matisse’s Dance from 1910 comes to mind, where “the rhythm of the bodies swaying in dance becomes the sole theme of a painting for the first time.” Commonly recognized as a key point of Matisse's career and in the development of modern painting, it was painted for the Russian businessman and art [...]

May 28, 2018

Fritz Ascher SOCIETY Newsletter #20, May 2018

Rachel Stern2018-12-01T21:41:16-05:00May 28th, 2018|Newsletter|Comments Off on Fritz Ascher SOCIETY Newsletter #20, May 2018

Dear Friends, The G.D.P.R., Europe’s New Data Law, is upon us. Please check our Terms of Service/Terms of Usage and our Privacy Policy. If you give us permission to continue sending you these bimonthly newsletters, you do not have to do anything. If you do not want to receive these emails, please send us an email or opt out below. I just returned from Germany, from the May 13 opening of the Fritz Ascher retrospective at Museum Schlösschen im Hofgarten in Wertheim on the Main river, a historic building with an amazing collection of artwork of the Neue Secession. Here, Ascher’s work can be seen in connection with works by his teachers Max Liebermann, Lovis Corinth, Ludwig Dettmann and Curt [...]

Mar 23, 2018

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #19, March 2018

Rachel Stern2018-12-04T11:47:15-05:00March 23rd, 2018|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #19, March 2018

Dear Friends, I was touched by how many neighbors and friends from near and far came out into the chilly but sunny winter weather on February 21 to celebrate Fritz Ascher and recognize his persecution by the National Socialists by laying a “Stolperstein” (stumbling stone) at Niklasstraße 21/23 in Berlin-Zehlendorf, where his family lived from 1909. Thank you to the anonymous donor for making this event possible, to Dirk Jordan (AG Stolpersteine), Michael Rohrmann (Projekt Stolpersteine) and Wolfgang Ellerbrock for organizing it, to Cornelie von Bismarck for creating a beautiful context, and to Sabine Witt from Museum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in Berlin and Jutta Götzmann from Potsdam Museum for supporting it. A special thank you to the students from Potsdam for reciting [...]

Feb 8, 2018

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #18, February 2018

Rachel Stern2018-12-04T11:50:09-05:00February 8th, 2018|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #18, February 2018

Dear Friends, Fritz Ascher is getting a “Stolperstein” (stumbling stone)! Please join us for the ceremony on Wednesday, February 21 at 11:00am at Niklasstr. 21/23 in Berlin-Zehlendorf Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) is a project of the artist Gunter Demnig. The project commemorates people who were persecuted by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945. Stolpersteine are concrete blocks measuring 10x10cm which are laid into the pavement in front of the last voluntarily chosen places of residence of the victims of the Nazis. Their names and fate are engraved into a brass plate on the top of each Stolperstein. In Berlin, thousands Stolpersteine were installed since 1996. Today, Stolpersteine can be found in 1099 German cities and in 20 European countries. (link) We [...]

Dec 22, 2017

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #17, December 2017

Rachel Stern2018-12-04T12:14:23-05:00December 22nd, 2017|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #17, December 2017

Dear Friends, I am humbled and honored to have received the Lea and Hans Grundig Prize for my work about Fritz Ascher. Right on time for his 125th birthday, the Fritz Ascher retrospective is now open in Berlin and Potsdam, the two places where the artist lived and worked. Museum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in der Villa Oppenheim in Berlin exhibits an overview of the artist’s creative development, with a focus on works that relate to Berlin. We see his sketch of the artist Max Liebermann as well as his love for music and performance in Weimar Republic paintings like “Beethoven” and “Bajazzo and Artists”. After surviving the Nazi terror regime in hiding in the Berlin Grunewald neighborhood, he painted these works over [...]