Exhibitions
“Fritz Ascher: Themes and Variations”
A Digital Exhibition Experience
This digital exhibition includes important examples from the oeuvre of the German Jewish Expressionist artist Fritz Ascher (1893-1970). Ascher’s career extended from prior to the First World War until the late 1960s. However, Ascher’s artistic trajectory was interrupted due to persecution under National Socialism, and he spent much of the Second World War in hiding, concealed in a family friend’s basement. Ascher’s work consequently encompasses both the vibrant artistic scene in early-20th-century Germany, as well as the trauma and aesthetic shifts consequent of Ascher’s persecution and deprivations during the twelve years of the Nazi regime. These selected works are representative not only of critical moments in Ascher’s personal and artistic development, but also of key themes that occupied Ascher’s [...]
LOVE AND BETRAYAL – The Expressionist Fritz Ascher from New York Private Collections
November 8, 2024 – March 2, 2025
Haus der Graphischen Sammlung, Freiburg, Germany
Haus der Graphischen Sammlung
Salzstraße 34, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
The late Expressionist artist Fritz Ascher (1893-1970) survived two world wars and persecution by the National Socialist regime. A close observer of the horrors of World War I and revolutionary unrest, he turned to Christian spiritual themes, which he radically reinterpreted. In intimate drawings, he dealt with the theme of love and betrayal from 1916 onward, both in his exploration of the crucifixion theme and with the figure of Bajazzo in the tragicomic opera "I Pagliacci." Ascher's strong and unique artistic voice is evident not only in his artwork, but also in his poems. These were written when he was no longer allowed to work under National Socialism because of his Jewish roots and as a representative of modernism, [...]
IMMORTALITY, MEMORY, CREATIVITY, AND SURVIVAL
The Arts of Alice Lok Cahana, Ronnie Cahana and Kitra Cahana
Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Portland, Oregon
Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education
724 NW Davis St, Portland, OR, United States
The exhibition explores the work of three artists representing three generations of one family–Holocaust survivor Allice Lok Cahana (1929 – 2017), her oldest son, Ronnie Cahana (born 1953), a survivor of a major stroke, and his daughter, Kitra Cahana (born 1987), a filmmaker and photographer. Alice Lok Cahana grew up in Sarvar, Hungary. She survived four different camps in the last year of the war, losing every member of her extended family, except for her father and including her beloved older sister, Edith—who survived, only to perish from illness immediately after liberation. Alice swore an oath to herself while in the camps that, if she survived, she would become an artist; her oldest son Ronnie, intensely responsive to his [...]
