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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230823T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230823T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090316
CREATED:20230726T091539Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230823T181345Z
UID:7530-1692792000-1692795600@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:THE ISLAND OF EXTRAORDINARY CAPTIVES Book Talk by author Simon Parkin\, London
DESCRIPTION:In May 1940\, faced with a country gripped by paranoia\, Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the internment of all German and Austrian citizens living in the country. Most were refugees who had come to the country to escape Nazi oppression. They were now imprisoned by the country in which they had staked their trust. More than 1\,200 men were taken to Hutchinson camp\, on the Isle of Man\, which a group of world-renowned artists\, musicians and academics turned into history’s most extraordinary prison camp. This is a story of a battle between fear and compassion at a time of national crisis that reveals how Britain’s treatment of refugees during the Second World War led to one of the nation’s most shameful missteps\, and how hope and creativity can flourish in even the most challenging circumstances. \nLecture by Simon Parkin\, introduced and moderated by Rachel Stern. \n\nImage above: Internees behind the wire at Hutchinson Square\, 1940 \n\n\n\n\nThe police came for Peter Fleischmann in the early hours. It reminded the teenager of the Gestapo’s moonlit roundups he had narrowly avoided at home in Berlin. Now\, having endured a perilous journey to reach England – hiding from the rampaging Nazi thugs at his orphanage\, boarding a Kindertransport to safety – here the aspiring artist was\, on a ship bound for the Isle of Man\, suspected of being a Nazi spy. What had gone wrong? \nPeter Fleischmann with art folder\, 2 December 1938 \nCollecting food bins \n\n\n\n\nIn May 1940\, faced with a country gripped by paranoia\, Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the internment of all German and Austrian citizens living in Britain. Most\, like Peter\, were refugees who had come to the country to escape Nazi oppression. They were now imprisoned by the very country in which they had staked their trust. \nPainstakingly researched from dozens of unpublished first-hand accounts and previously classified documents\, The Island of Extraordinary Captives tells\, for the first time\, the story of history’s most astonishing internment camp and of how a group of world-renown artists\, musicians and academics came to be seen as ‘enemy aliens’. \n\n\n\n\nKurt Schwitters\, Aerated V\, 1941 \nPeter Fleischmann\, Self-Portrait\, 1940 \nSimon Parkin is a contributing writer for the New Yorker\, and regularly writes for The Guardian and The Observer newspapers. He is a finalist in the Foreign Press Association Media Awards and recipient of two awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. His book\, ‘The Island of Extraordinary Captives’\, about the Hutchinson internment camp on the Isle of Man\, is a New York Times recommended read\, and is the winner of the 2023 Wingate Literary Prize. \nSimon Parkin\, The Island of Extraordinary Captives\, Scribner (November 1\, 2022)\, ISBN13: 9781982178529 \nBOOK ORDER IN THE USBOOK ORDER IN GERMANY\n\n\n\n\nThis event is part of the monthly series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression\,” which is organized by The Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art\, New York. Future events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.\nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\n\n\n\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/simon-parkin/
LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Internees-behind-the-wire-at-Hutchinson-Square-1940-copy.jpeg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230809T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230809T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090316
CREATED:20230717T141611Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230809T183511Z
UID:7506-1691582400-1691586000@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:A Painter in Search of an Audience: Marie-Louise von Motesiczky in Exile Talk by Ines Schlenker\, London
DESCRIPTION:Marie-Louise von Motesiczky was born into a wealthy\, aristocratic Jewish family in Vienna in 1906. She trained under the German painter Max Beckmann\, a family friend\, and embarked on a promising career. When the National Socialists marched into Austria in 1938 Motesiczky fled the country for the Netherlands\, eventually settling in England. Her attempts to build a new life in a foreign country were supported by a network of fellow émigrés\, among them the painter Oskar Kokoschka and the writer Elias Canetti\, with whom she had a long relationship. \n\nLecture by Ines Schlenker\, introduced and moderated by Rachel Stern. \n\nImage above: Self-Portrait with Red Hat\, 1938 (Private Collection) ©️Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust 2023 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn a career that spanned over seven decades she created a large oeuvre of over three hundred paintings\, mainly portraits\, self-portraits and still-lifes. Reluctant to exhibit and not forced to sell her work for a living\, her art developed away from the public eye\, independent of current trends. Although\, over the decades\, she had a number of solo exhibitions both in her adopted country and abroad\, her artistic career failed to take off for a long time. \n\n\n\n\nMarie-Louise von Motesiczky\, The Travellers\, 1940 (Stanley Museum of Art\, University of Iowa) ©️Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust 2023 \nMarie-Louise von Motesiczky\, Finchley Road at Night\, 1952 (Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art\, Amsterdam) ©️Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust 2023 \n\n\n\n\nWhile her solo exhibition at the Wiener Secession in 1966 brought her artistic recognition in her native country\, her breakthrough in England only came in 1985 with a solo exhibition at the Goethe-Institut in London. Since then her reputation as a major émigré artist has steadily grown\, supported\, after her death in 1996\, by the activities of the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust. \n\n\n\n\nMarie-Louise von Motesiczky\, Elias Canetti\, 1960 (Wien Museum\, Vienna) ©️Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust 2023 \nMarie-Louise von Motesiczky\, Iris Murdoch\, 1964 (St Anne’s College\, Oxford) ©️Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust 2023 \n\n\n\n\nInes Schlenker is an independent art historian with a special interest in National Socialist\, ‘degenerate’ and émigré art. Hitler’s Salon\, her study of the officially approved art in the Third Reich as shown at the Great German Art Exhibition\, was published in 2007. She wrote the catalogue raisonné of the paintings of the Vienna-born émigré Marie-Louise von Motesiczky (2009)\, co-edited the artist’s correspondence with the writer Elias Canetti (2011) and curated the exhibition at Tate Britain\, London\, that celebrated the opening of the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Archive Gallery in 2019. Recent publications include Capturing Time\, a study of the life and work of the émigré artist Milein Cosman (2019)\, and Chagall (2022). She is a member of the committee of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies. \nYou can find out more about the artist in the following publications by Ines Schlenker: \nMarie-Louise von Motesiczky 1906–1996\, exhibition catalogue\, Tate Liverpool/Museum Giersch\, Frankfurt am Main/Wien Museum\, Vienna/Southampton City Art Gallery\, 2006 \nMarie-Louise von Motesiczky 1906–1996. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings\, Manchester and New York 2009 \nLiebhaber ohne Adresse. Elias Canetti und Marie-Louise von Motesiczky. Briefwechsel 1942–1992\, co-edited with Kristian Wachinger\, Munich 2011 (French translation available\, no English translation) \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMarie-Louise von Motesiczky\, From Night into Day\, 1975 (Tate\, London) ©️Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust 2023 \n\n\n\n\nMarie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust\n\n\n\n\nThis event is part of the monthly series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression\,” which is organized by The Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art\, New York. Future events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.\nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\n\n\n\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/marie-louise-von-motesiczky/
LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230719T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230719T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090316
CREATED:20230709T134301Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230719T175104Z
UID:7457-1689768000-1689771600@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:Between America and France:  Varian Fry and the Rescue of ArtistsTalk by Ori Z Soltes\, PhD
DESCRIPTION:With a belated reminder of the proximity of the American and French Independent Day celebrations\, this talk focuses on the artists’ Schindler\, the American journalist\, Varian Fry (1907-1967). Using methods both legal and not\, Fry managed to rescue some 2\,000 individuals from France between 1940 and 1941. \nFrance had become largely swallowed up by Nazi Germany\, the “free” parts in Southern France (Vichy France) were not necessarily unreluctant to assist with the deportation of Jews into Nazi-held territories\, and the US immigration policies were far from open-handed to those seeking refuge. Who was he and who were some of those he helped—or in some cases\, could not help—to escape destruction? \nLecture by Ori Z. Soltes\, introduced and moderated by Rachel Stern. \n\nImage above: Max Ernst\, Jacqueline Breton\, Andre Masson\, Andre Breton\, Varian Fry. Varian Fry papers\, RBML\, Columbia University Libraries\, New York \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“In some ways I owe him my life\,” the sculptor Jacques Lipchitz\, who had remained devoted to Fry\, wrote to Annette Fry in his condolence letter.  “I did not want to go away from France.  It was his severe and clairvoyant letters which helped me finally to do so.  And of what help he was once I decided to go to America!  I mourn with you this marvelous man\, lost a little in our difficult world\, and I will cherish his memory to the end of my life.” \n\n\n\n\nVarian Fry walking along the street in Marseille\, 1940-1941. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum\, courtesy of Annette Fry \nAmedeo Modigliani\, Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz\, 1916. Art Institute Chicago. Public domain\, via Wikimedia Commons \n\n\n\n\nOri Z Soltes\, PhD\, teaches at Georgetown University across a range of disciplines\, from art history and theology to philosophy and political history. He is the former Director of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum\, and has curated more than 90 exhibitions across the country and overseas. He has authored or edited 25 books and several hundred articles and essays. Recent volumes include The Ashen Rainbow: Essays on the Arts and the Holocaust; and Tradition and Transformation: Three Millennia of Jewish Art & Architecture. \nRachel Stern is the Director of The Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art in New York. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEuropean refugees assisted by the Emergency Rescue Committee on board the Capitaine Paul-Lemerle\, a converted cargo ship sailing from Marseille to Martinique\, March 25\, 1941. Photo: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPierre Sauvage’s long awaited documentary A YEAR THAT MATTERED: VARIAN FRY AND THE REFUGEE CRISIS\, MARSEILLE\, 1940-41 is scheduled to be released in 2024. \n\n\n\n\nMORE INFORMATION ABOUT 2024 DOCUMENTARYVarian Fry and his rescue efforts are featured in “Transatlantic\,” a new limited series now playing on Netflix: \n\n\n\n\n\nThis event is part of the monthly series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression\,” which is organized by The Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art\, New York. Future events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.\nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\n\n\n\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/varian-fry/
LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Max-Ernst-Jacqueline-Breton-Andre-Masson-Andre-Breton-Varian-Fry-768x774-copy.jpeg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230607T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230607T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090316
CREATED:20230430T150323Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230607T182904Z
UID:7381-1686139200-1686142800@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:Erwin Blumenfeld (1897-1968)\, from Berlin to New York.A life in photography Talk by granddaughter Nadia Blumenfeld Charbit\, Paris (France)
DESCRIPTION:Photographer Erwin Blumenfeld (1897-1969) survived two world wars to become one of the world’s most highly-paid fashion photographers and a key influence on the development of photography as an art form. An experimenter and innovator\, he produced an extensive body of work including drawings\, collages\, portraits and nudes\, celebrity portraiture\, advertising campaigns and his renowned fashion photography both in black and white and color. \nIn this talk\, Paris-based granddaughter Nadia Blumenfeld Charbit gives her personal insights into the life and work of the photographer Erwin Blumenfeld. Introduced by Rachel Stern\, director of the Fritz Ascher Society. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImage above: Erwin Blumenfeld\, Double Self-Portrait with Linhoff\, Paris\, 1938 © Erwin Blumenfeld Estate  \n\n\n\n\n\nBorn to a Jewish middle class family in Berlin in 1897\, Erwin Blumenfeld received his first camera when he was 10 years old and started photographing and developing films in his parent’s bathroom. After his service in World War I\, he moved to Amsterdam\, where he became part of the Dada art movement\, alongside artist Paul Citroen (1896-1983) and George Grosz (1893-1959). He married Paul’s cousin Lena in 1921 and opened a leather goods store on Kalverstraat to support his growing family. However\, business was not good and he started to photograph the clients coming into his shop. He had found a darkroom at the back of his store and practiced developing and various experiments such as solarizations and superimpositions\, inspired by magazines and their photographers\, such as Man Ray. \nIn 1933\, in reaction to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany\, Blumenfeld produced a series of photomontages: on a portrait of the Führer\, he painted tears of blood and superimposed a skull. Here\, Blumenfeld portrayed the Führer as an embodiment of death –  an image that was later used in Allied propaganda material. \nErwin Blumenfeld\, Lisa Fonssagrives at the Eiffel Tower\, Paris 1939. Published in the May 1939 issue of Paris Vogue © Erwin Blumenfeld Estate \nErwin Blumenfeld\, Grauenfresse\, Amsterdam\, 1933 © Erwin Blumenfeld Estate \n\n\n\n\n\nGallerist Carel van Lier\, who had twice shown his photographs in Amsterdam\, encouraged him to seek his fortune in Paris. At the end of 1935\, Erwin left for Paris. At first he mainly did portrait photography. He employed accessories – veils\, opaque glass\, mirrors – and sophisticated lighting\, then reworked his images in the darkroom. In 1938\, the British photographer Cecil Beaton introduced him to Michel de Brunhoff\, editor of Paris Vogue\, who hired him immediately. In August 1939\, Blumenfeld went to New York and signed a contract with Harper’s Bazaar to follow French fashion. When he returned to Paris\, France had declared war on Nazi Germany. As a former German citizen\, he was now considered an alien enemy\, and from France’s surrender on June 22\, 1940 he and his family were persecuted as Jews and forced to live in various internment camps. They were able to emigrate to New York in August 1941. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nErwin Blumenfeld\, Cargo Mont-Viso\, May 1941. © Erwin Blumenfeld Estate \nErwin Blumenfeld\, Natalia Pascov\, New York 1942 © Erwin Blumenfeld Estate \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn New York\, Erwin Blumenfeld resumed working for Harper’s Bazaar\, sharing a studio with the Bazaar photographer Martin Munkacsi. Success came quickly and from Harper’s Bazaar\, Blumenfeld moved to Vogue in 1943. He was never under contract with them\, but while photographing for many magazines and for advertising\, he did approximately 50 Vogue covers\, his main client until 1955. \nBlumenfeld quickly established himself as one of New York’s leading fashion photographers. In 1944\, he left Harper’s Bazaar and took photos for the covers of Vogue and other magazines. He deplored his difficulty in imposing his ideas on artistic directors obsessed with commercial prerogatives\, but prided himself on ‘smuggling art’ into these images. At the same time\, he still loved darkroom experimentations\, in Black and White photography and also in Color.\nBlumenfeld became one of the world’s most highly-paid fashion photographers and a key influence on the development of photography as an art form. \n\nHe worked in his studio at 222 Central Park South in New York City until his death in 1969. His autobiography “Eye to I” was published posthumously in the United States (Thames & Hudson 1999; the original German title is “Einbildungsroman”). \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nErwin Blumenfeld\, The red cross\, for Vogue US 1945 © Erwin Blumenfeld Estate \nErwin Blumenfeld\, Doe Eye\, model Jean Patchett\, for Vogue US 1950 © Erwin Blumenfeld Estate \n\n\n\n\n\n\nNadia Blumenfeld Charbit is a granddaughter of Erwin Blumenfeld. She was born on October 5\, 1960 in New York to physicist Henry photographer Kathleen Blumenfeld\, both of European origin. She grew up in Princeton NJ\, Geneva and Gif sur Yvette. Nadia studied medicine in Paris and became a MD and PhD in biochemistry. She worked in research and outpatient care in hemoglobin disorders and taught at Paris XII University in biochemistry and in bioethics. \nFor the past 20 years\, she has decreased her medical practice and increasingly involved herself in the conservation and archiving of her grandfather’s photographic legacy. She promoted publications and curated or co-curated exhibits at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum for Photography\, the Jeu de Paume in Paris\, the Nicéphore Niépce Museum in Chalon sur Saône\, Somerset House in London\, Foam in Amsterdam\, The Folkwang Museum in Essen\, Shanghai\, Sao Paolo and very recently at the Paris Museum of Jewish Art and History (mahJ) titled “the Tribulations of Erwin Blumenfeld\, 1930-1950” (October 2022 – March 2023).\nNadia is the vice president of Ar’cime\, an organization that helps young artists working in France to show their work. She lives in Paris\, France\, with husband Jean-Louis Charbit and their 3 children; Milena\, Gabriel and Joachim. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nErwin Blumenfeld\, Self portrait with Deardorff\, NY\, c. 1950 © Erwin Blumenfeld Estate \n“The Man Who Shot Beautiful Women”\, 2013. Director: Nick Watson\, Producer: Remy Blumenfeld. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe 2013 documentary “The Man Who Shot Beautiful Women” explores the life of Erwin Blumenfeld – from two world wars\, to fashion industry greatness\, to mysterious death. In the first ever film about his life and work\, BBC Four uses exclusive access to Blumenfeld’s extensive archive of stunning photographs\, fashion-films\, home-movies and self-portraits to tell of a man obsessed by the pursuit of beautiful women\, but also by the endless possibilities of photography itself. With contributions from leading photographers Rankin\, Nick Knight and Sølve Sundsbø; and 82 year old supermodel\, Carmen Dell’Orefice\, it uncovers the richly complex story of one of the 20th Century’s most original photographic artists. \nDirector: Nick Watson\, Producer: Remy Blumenfeld. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nFILM RENTAL OR PURCHASE ON AMAZON PRIMEERWIN BLUMENFELD WEBSITE\n\n\n\n\n“Photography is so easy a medium to use\, the box camera\, a roll of film\, a snap – a picture! Photography\, the art\, is so immensely difficult because it is so easy to get a picture of sorts. One must work hard to smuggle anything into a photograph other than record keeping.” (Erwin Blumenfeld)\nThis event is part of our monthly series Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression. Future events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\n\n\n\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/erwin-blumenfeld/
LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1-Double-self-portrait-with-Linhoff-Paris-1938-copy-1.jpeg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230503T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230503T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090316
CREATED:20230328T101025Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230503T183621Z
UID:7289-1683115200-1683118800@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:The Missing Archive: Bauhaus Designers and the Holocaust. Presentation by Elizabeth Otto\, PhD\, Buffalo\, NY
DESCRIPTION:Histories of Germany’s Bauhaus art and design school (1919–33) usually position it exclusively as a movement in exile as soon as the Nazis took power in 1933. In fact\, the vast majority of its members remained and embraced Nazism\, survived it\, or became its victims. In this talk\, art historian Elizabeth Otto scrutinizes traces of the work and lives of Bauhäusler who\, through their imprisonment and often deaths in the concentration-camp system\, have largely been lost to the history of the Bauhaus movement. Using archival sources—often scant materials preserved by family members and friends\, including documents\, photographs\, and private memoirs—she reconstructs aspects of these artists’ work and lives and considers how to write the histories that Nazi violence has taken from us. \nPresentation by Elizabeth Otto\, PhD\, professor for modern and contemporary art history and gender studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo\, followed by Q&A. Moderated by Rachel Stern\, director of the Fritz Ascher Society. \nImage above: Wanda Debschitz-Kunowski\, photograph of a design for a variable window display with modern lighting designs from the firm of Goldschmidt & Schwabe. Display by Otto Rittweger (with help from Charlotte Rothschild?) Published in the design journal Die Form in 1931 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDr. Elizabeth Otto is professor for modern and contemporary art history and gender studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She has published widely on issues of gender and sexuality in the art\, design\, photography\, and visual culture of twentieth-century Europe. Among Otto’s books are Haunted Bauhaus: Occult Spirituality\, Gender Fluidity\, Queer Identities\, and Radical Politics (MIT Press\, 2019)\, winner of the Northeast Popular Culture Association’s 2020 Peter C. Rollins prize\, and Bauhaus Women: A Global Perspective (Bloomsbury\, 2019)\, co-authored with Dr. Patrick Rössler. Otto’s work has been supported by fellowships from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation\, the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts\, the Getty Research Institute\, the National Humanities Center\, and\, during the current academic year\, the Gerda Henkel Foundation and the Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Research at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.\n\n\n\nPhotographer Unknown\, Portrait of Lotte Rothschild\, early 1930s. Gelatin silver print. Private collection \nInterior of Charlotte Rothschild Menzel‘s French clothing and textile ration book with a false identity as Charlotte Flocon\, a (non-Jewish) Swiss national; probably counterfeited by Moses Bahelfer\, 1943. Private collection \nLotte Rothschild (1909-1944) was born in Frankfurt-am-Main and studied applied arts at the Bauhaus in Dessau. She designed industrial objects and metal furniture. After her studies she worked as a designer\, craftswoman and technical translator. At the Bauhaus she met her future husband\, Albert Mentzel. Born 1909 in Berlin\, he studied painting and advertising design from 1928 to 1931 with Hans Albers\, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. He belonged to the theater troop of the painter\, choreographer and theoretician\, Oscar Schlemmer. When Hitler assumed power in 1933\, they left for France\, where the Jewish-born Lotte later lived under an assumed identity. \nPhotographer Unknown\, Portrait of Richard Grune\, c. 1922. Collection Schwules Museum\, Berlin \nRichard Grune and Niels Brodersen\, cover of The Children’s Red Republic: A Book by Workers’ Children for Workers’ Children  (Berlin: Arbeiterjugendverlag\, 1928). \n\n\n\n\n\nRichard Grune (1903-1983)\, formally trained at the Bauhaus school in Weimar under teachers including Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky\, moved to Berlin in February 1933\, to work as a graphic artist. In 1934\, he was denounced as homosexual. From then on\, he was in protective custody much of the time and eventually sent to a concentration camp in 1937.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis event is part of our monthly series Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.\nFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.\nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\n\n\n\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/bauhaus-designers-and-holocaust/
LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2-Debschitz-Kunowski_Die-Form-1931.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230426T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230426T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090316
CREATED:20230419T114501Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230426T175456Z
UID:7360-1682510400-1682514000@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:Benno Elkan (1877-1960) and the Definition of Israeli ArtTalk by Ori Z Soltes\, PhD
DESCRIPTION:In honor of Yom Ha’azmaut\, Israel’s Independence Day\, and this year’s 75th anniversary of the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948\, this talk by Georgetown University professor Ori Z Soltes addresses the question of what defines Israeli art and when it began to take shape. Is it made only by Israelis—then how did Elkan’s Menorah become the consummate symbol of Israel when he never lived in the state? Did “Israeli” art begin with or before the birth of the state? How does this relate to the opening of the Bezalel School of Art in 1906–and closing by 1929\, only to re-open years later? How does it relate to the question of defining Jewish art? \nBenno Elkan’s stunning work\, overrun with symbolic images and words–drawing in diverse ways from a long history of symbolic language–could hardly be a more significant centerpiece to this array of questions\, or more appropriate to the celebration of Israel Independence Day and the intriguing ideas that this day generates. \nImage above: Benno Elkan\, Menorah\, 1956. Bronze\, 4.30 meters high\, 3.5 meters wide. Gan Havradim (Rose Garden) opposite the Knesset\, Jerusalem. Presented to the Knesset as a gift from the Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament on April 15\, 1956 in honor of the eighth anniversary of Israeli independence. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOri Z Soltes\, PhD\, teaches at Georgetown University across a range of disciplines\, from art history and theology to philosophy and political history. He is the former Director of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum\, and has curated more than 90 exhibitions across the country and overseas. He has authored or edited 25 books and several hundred articles and essays. Recent volumes include Our Sacred Signs: How Jewish\, Christian and Muslim Art Draw from the Same Source; The Ashen Rainbow: Essays on the Arts and the Holocaust; and Tradition and Transformation: Three Millennia of Jewish Art & Architecture; and Growing Up Jewish in India: Synagogues\, Ceremonies\, and Customs from the Bene Israel to the art of Siona Benjamin. \n\n\n\n\nBet Alpha synagogue mosaic “Holy of Holies” \nDafna Kaffeman\, Red Everlasting (installation detail\, Ultsira\, Norway)\, 2008 \nAbraham Melnikov\, Monument to the Heroes of Tel Hai\, 1930-34 \nYosl Bergner\, Golgotha\, ca 1955 \n\n\n\n\n\nFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.\nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\n\n\n\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/elkan-israeli-art/
LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/fig351-TRIMElkan.jpeg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230417T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230417T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090316
CREATED:20230306T133147Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230417T231905Z
UID:7266-1681732800-1681736400@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:EARLY ISRAELI AND AMERICAN ARTISTS:RE-VISIONING THE HOLOCAUST. Talk by Ori Z Soltes\, Georgetown University\, Washington DC
DESCRIPTION:In honor of Yom HaShoah\, this talk by Georgetown University professor Ori Z Soltes focuses on three Israeli and three American familiar and unfamiliar artists working in very diverse styles and not typically thought of as focusing on the Holocaust. Each of them\, however\, has offered powerful reflections on the defining catastrophe of the twentieth century. \nBarnett Newman\, the foremost verbal spokesman for the chromatic side of the abstract expressionist movement redefining American painting in the early 1950s\, offers an unexpectedly intense reflection on the question of theodicy. Mordecai Ardon\, in the process of assuming leadership of the Bezalel school in Jerusalem at around the same time\, balances between abstraction and figuration in depicting the Nazi-engendered chaos. Yigal Tumarkin’s sculpture turns Holocaust chaos into upside-down order and Mauricio Lasansky’s drawings turn stridently to Nazi malfeasance to ask how evil can be envisioned. Micha Ullman’s installation addresses the void after the aftermath of Nazi destruction—and Geoffrey Laurence questions how we can and must shape the post-Holocaust future. \nEach of these artists contributes to the endlessly complex dialogue—between Jews and Christians\, humans and humans\, and humans and God—that is the ongoing legacy of the Holocaust. \nImage above: Micha Ullman\, The Empty Library\, 1995. Monument to the May 10\, 1933 book burning\, visible below the pavement of Bebelplatz in Berlin (Germany) \n\n\n\n\n\nMordecai Ardon\, Missa Dura: Kristallnacht\, 1958-60. Centre panel of triptych\, oil on canvas\, 76 3/4 x 102 1/2 in. (195 x 260 cm). Tate © Michael Ardon \nYigal Tumarkin\, Cenotaph (The Holocaust)\, 1975. Sculpture\, 2\,100 x 900 cm. Tel Aviv (Israel) \n\n\n\n\nMicha Ullman’s The Empty Library (1995) is a public memorial dedicated to the remembrance of the Nazi book burnings that took place in the Bebelplatz in Berlin\, Germany on May 10\, 1933. The memorial consists of a 530 x 706 x 706 cm (209 × 278 × 278 in.) subterranean room lined with empty white bookshelves\, beneath a glass plate in the cobblestones of the plaza. In this location\, students of the National Socialist Student Union and many professors of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität burnt over 20\,000 books from many\, mainly Jewish\, communist\, liberal and social-critical authors\, under the musical accompaniment of SA- and SS-Kapellen\, and before a large audience.\n\n\n\n\nMauricio Lasansky\, The Nazi Drawings No. 18\, 1961. Pencil\, turpentine\, and earth colors on paper\, 75.5 x 45.5 in. The University of Iowa Museum of Art \nGeoffrey Laurence\,  ISWASWILLBE\, 2000. Oil on canvas. \n\n\n\n\nOri Z Soltes\, PhD\, teaches at Georgetown University across a range of disciplines\, from art history and theology to philosophy and political history. He is the former Director of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum\, and has curated more than 90 exhibitions across the country and overseas. He has authored or edited 25 books and several hundred articles and essays. Recent volumes include Our Sacred Signs: How Jewish\, Christian and Muslim Art Draw from the Same Source; The Ashen Rainbow: Essays on the Arts and the Holocaust; and Tradition and Transformation: Three Millennia of Jewish Art & Architecture; and Growing Up Jewish in India: Synagogues\, Ceremonies\, and Customs from the Bene Israel to the art of Siona Benjamin. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis event is part of our online series Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.\nFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.\nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\n\n\n\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/re-visioning-the-holocaust/
LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Bebelplatz_Night_of_Shame_Monument.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230329T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230329T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090316
CREATED:20221214T231507Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230330T105922Z
UID:7022-1680091200-1680094800@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:"Sweet Kitsch\, I can't do that." Maria Luiko (1904-1941)With Wolfram P. Kastner and Mascha Erbelding\, both Munich (Germany)
DESCRIPTION:The artistic work of Maria Luiko (1904-1941)\, born Marie Luise Kohn in Munich\, is characterized by an impressive diversity. In addition to drawings\, watercolors and oil paintings\, she created prints using various printing processes and paper cuts\, and designed book illustrations\, stage sets and marionettes. Already during her studies at the local Academy of Fine Arts and her training at the School of Applied Arts she was included in exhibitions in the Munich Glass Palace (Münchner Glaspalast).\nHer career was brutally cut short by the Nazi regime. As a Jew\, Luiko was not able to join the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts (Reichskammer der bildenden Künste)\, a Nazi organization founded in 1933. Without membership\, she could not obtain work materials\, exhibit or sell her artwork. The Cultural Association of German Jews (Kulturbund Deutscher Juden) was founded to give Jews access to cultural life and to provide Jewish artists who had become unemployed with a livelihood. Until 1939 Luiko contributed to them and to the Marionette Theater of Munich Jewish Artists. A large part of her graphic work\, in which she critically deals with the current living conditions and everyday situations\, were created during this time. On November 20\, 1941 Maria Luiko was deported to Kaunas in Lithuania together with her sister Dr. Elisabeth Kohn\, her mother Olga Kohn (nee Schulhöfer) and 996 other Jews and murdered there. \nPresentations by Wolfram P. Kastner\, curator and artist\, and Mascha Erbelding\, director of the Puppet Theatre / Fairground Attractions Collection at Münchner Stadtmuseum (Munich City Museum)\, will be followed by Q&A. Moderated by Rachel Stern\, director and CEO of the Fritz Ascher Society. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImage above: Maria Luiko\, Beggar (Bettlerin)\, ca. 1935. Paper; Woodcut\, 30 cm x 38\,5 cm. Jewish Museum Munich (Jüdisches Museum München)\, Collection Maria Luiko \n\n\n\n\n\nMaria Luiko\, Man in Alley (Mann in Gasse I)\, ca. 1935. Linocut on Paper\, 18\,7 cm x 11 cm. Jewish Museum Munich (Jüdisches Museum München)\, Collection Maria Luiko \nMaria Luiko\, Group of People Before Deportation (Menschengruppe vor der Deportation)\, ca. 1938. Woodcut. Jewish Museum Munich (Jüdisches Museum München)\, Collection Maria Luiko \n\n\n\n\n\nMaria Luiko (1904-1941) was a daughter of the grain wholesaler Heinrich Kohn and Olga Schulhöfer\, her slightly older sister was the lawyer Elisabeth Kohn. The daughters lived in the Neuhausen district of Munich with their mother\, who was widowed in 1935. \nFrom 1923 Kohn studied eight semesters at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and at the same time at the Munich School of Applied Arts\, where she also had her studio for a while. In 1924 she participated for the first time in an exhibition at the Munich Glass Palace\, and regularly until the 1931 fire at the Glass Palace. She then participated in the Munich Juryfreie. \nMarie Luise Kohn adopted the artist name Maria Luiko and was creatively active in a variety of ways. She was represented at local exhibitions with drawings\, watercolors and oil paintings as well as silhouettes\, lithographs\, woodcuts and linocuts. She also created book illustrations\, such as Ernst Toller’s Hinkemann in 1923 and Shalom Ben-Chorin’s 1934 book of poems The Songs of the Eternal Well. \n\n\n\n\n\nMaria Luiko\, Street Sweeper (Straßenfeger I)\, ca. 1935. Etching on paper\, 32 cm x 36\,5 cm. Jewish Museum Munich (Jüdisches Museum München)\, Collection Maria Luiko \nMaria Luiko\, Line of People (Menschenschlange)\, ca. 1935. Etching on paper\, 38 cm x 36 cm. Jewish Museum Munich (Jüdisches Museum München)\, Collection Maria Luiko \n\n\n\n\n\nHer career was brutally cut short by the Nazi regime. As a Jew\, Luiko was not able to join the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts (Reichskammer der bildenden Künste)\, a Nazi organization founded in 1933. Membership was decided on the basis of personal data as well as a professional or ideological assessment. Jews were not granted membership. Without membership\, she could not obtain work materials\, exhibit or sell her artwork. The Cultural Association of German Jews (Kulturbund Deutscher Juden) was founded to give Jews access to cultural life and to provide Jewish artists who had become unemployed with a livelihood. \nLuiko made her studio available for exhibitions and theater rehearsals. In 1934\, she participated in the “Graphic Exhibition of Bavarian Jewish Artists” in Munich\, and in 1935/36 she designed the stage set for Semen Yushkevich’s play “Sonkin and the Main Hit”. In April 1936 she participated in the “Reich Exhibition of Jewish Artists” at the Berlin Jewish Museum.\nShe designed and created the puppets for the Munich Marionette Theater of Jewish Artists. \n\n\n\n\n\nMaria Luiko\, Munich Marionette Theater of Jewish Artists\, Marionette “Israelite” (1/2) (Marionette “Israelitin” (1/2))\, 1935. Papier-Mâché laminated\, colored; Textile\, wire\, 42 cm. Münchner Stadtmuseum\, Sammlung Puppentheater / Schaustellerei (Munich City Museum\, Puppet Theatre / Fairground Attractions Collection) \nMaria Luiko\, Munich Marionette Theater of Jewish Artists\, Marionette “Cacatois XXII.\, Duke of Tulipatan” (Marionette “Cacatois XXII.\, Herzog von Tulipatan”)\, 1937. Wood\, papier-mâché laminated\, painted; Textile\, wire\, 46 cm. Münchner Stadtmuseum\, Sammlung Puppentheater / Schaustellerei (Munich City Museum\, Puppet Theatre / Fairground Attractions Collection)\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\nOn November 20\, 1941\, Luiko was deported “to the East” from Munich\, together with her mother and sister\, and 998 other Jewish people. The passenger train originally destined for Riga was diverted by the SS to Kovno (Kaunas). On November 25\, 1941\, all prisoners of Kaunas Fort IX were murdered. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMascha Erbelding is the director of the of the Sammlung Puppentheater / Schaustellerei des Münchner Stadtmuseums (Puppet Theatre / Fairground Attractions Collection). She studied dramaturgy\, comparative literature and history at the Bavarian Theatre Academy August Everding / Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich\, at the FU Berlin and at the Université Rennes II. Her diploma thesis on „Mit dem Tod spielt man nicht. Funktion und Gestalt des Todes im Figurentheater des 20. Jahrhunderts“ (One Does Not Play with Death. Function and Form of Death in Twentieth-Century Century Puppet Theatre) was published in 2006. She is the artistic and organisational director of the Munich International Puppet Theatre Festival “Wunder.” and the „KUCKUCK“ festival for children 0-5. Since 2007 she has been a member of the editorial board of the puppet theatre magazine double. She contributed to the „Compendium of German artistic puppet theater 1900-1945“ (edited by Manfred Wegner in 2019). \n\nWolfram P. Kastner is an independent artist\, researcher and and curator. He studied art\, psychology\, history and politics at the Munich university. He shows art in public spaces\, which interferes and sometimes disturbs: art that makes visible what is otherwise invisible. His art usually causes reflection and discussion\, contradiction\, but also bans\, death threats and court processes. In addition to interventions and actions in public on current and historical topics such as exclusion\, violence and war\, installations\, objects and satirical\, beautiful and sometimes angry pictures\, drawings\, objects\, photos\, etc. Exhibitions\, installations and actions since 1980 between Berlin and Vienna\, Budapest\, Hamburg\, Munich\, Salzburg\, Rotterdam. 2005 German Jewish History Award/Arthur Obermayer Foundation/Boston\, 2005 “Nothing to see?”against the so-called “Judensau” sculptures at German churches\, 2007 “Terrible Paths” project to commemorate the death march of Hungarian Jews in April 1945\, 2008 “Unheard Music”\, art project in memory of Jewish musicians and composers\, 2011 Prize of the International Auschwitz Committee\, 2022 Upright Walk Award\, Humanist Union Germany \n\n\n\n\n\n\nMARIA LUIKO ALBUM AT Münchner Stadtmuseum (Munich City Museum) (GERMANY)Maria Luiko\, Woman Mourning (Trauernde Frau)\, 1938. Woodcut. Jewish Museum Munich (Jüdisches Museum München)\, Collection Maria Luiko \n“Maria Luiko\, Mourner\, 1938”. Wrapping of the Neptune Fountain in the Old Botanical Garden Munich by Michaela Melián\, 2022 \n\n\n\n\n\nIn 2022\, Michaela Melián’s temporary installation “Maria Luiko\, Mourner\, 1938” played with opposites: On the one hand\, there is the veiled statue of Neptune\, which was erected by the National Socialists in 1937 as part of the redesign of the Old Botanical Garden in Munich. The sculptor\, Joseph Wackerle\, was later included in Adolf Hitler’s list of “God-gifted”. On the other hand\, Maria Luiko’s “Mourner”\, the woodcut of an anonymous mourning woman\, was created just one year later. “This anonymous mourning woman is now supposed to cover the powerful male Neptune body in the ruler’s pose\,” writes Melián.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMascha Erbelding’s exhibition\, “(Not) A Doll’s House. Traditional Roles and Brand-New Images” includes puppets by Maria Luiko. Ensconced in doll’s houses\, fairground booths\, collections of curiosities\, wherever\, puppets and dolls have always exerted a powerful and fascinating appeal. Not only are they a prime figurative representation of humans\, but they also manage to embody our innermost wishes\, fears\, and desires. The exhibition is on view April 2\, 2023 – January 7\, 2024 at Münchner Stadtmuseum (Munich City Museum) (LINK). \nThe publication “Ehemals jüdischer Besitz” can be ordered in the museum’s online shop (LINK). \nOther publications mentioned during the online talk were Waldemar Bonard’s book Die gefesselte Muse. Das Marionettentheater im jüdischen Kulturbund München 1935-1937. Katalog des Münchner Stadtmuseums\, 1994\, and Diana Oesterle’s BAND 3 “So süßlichen Kitsch\, das kann ich nicht”: Die Münchener Künstlerin Maria Luiko (1904-1941)\, München: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag\, 2009. (LINK)\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOrganized by the Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art in New York\, in cooperation with the Cultural Department of the Jewish Community in Munich. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis event is part of our monthly series Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.\nFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.\nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\n\n\n\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/maria-luiko/
LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/JM_02_107_2007.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230315T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230315T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090316
CREATED:20230125T005827Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230315T180418Z
UID:7176-1678881600-1678885200@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:The Art of Felix Lembersky (1913-1970)Yelena Lembersky and Ori Z Soltes\, PhD
DESCRIPTION:The program features a talk by Lembersky’s granddaughter\, Yelena Lembersky\, co-author of the recent and highly acclaimed memoir\, Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour: Memories of Soviet Russia. Yelena will be introduced by Georgetown University professor\, Ori Z Soltes\, who has known her for many years and has written extensively on the work of Felix Lembersky. \n“We are merely honest people and see what is good and bad\, and we cannot be confused.” – Felix Lembersky\, Leningrad\, the Soviet Union\, 1960 \nImage above: Felix Lembersky\, At the Train Station\, ca 1960-64. © Felix Lembersky estate \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFelix Lembersky (1913-1970) was a Soviet Jewish painter\, teacher\, theater sets designer\, and an organizer of artistic groups in Leningrad and the Urals. Born in Poland\, he grew up in Ukraine\, and had his start in the arts in Kyiv during the Avant-Garde of the 1920s. In 1935\, he moved to Leningrad to study realist painting at the Academy of Art. He achieved national recognition for his portraits and paintings on historic subjects but rejected Socialist Realism\, mandated by the Soviets\, and became a vocal critic of  censorship and repressive policies against the arts. He is best known for his Execution: Babyn Yar canvases (ca. 1944-52)\, the earliest artistic representation of the massacre\, and his later non-realist work. In the 1980s\, his family brought his oeuvre to the United States.\n\n\n\n\n\nFelix Lembersky\, Red Workshop\, 1959. \nFelix Lembersky\, Reclining\, 1964. \n\n\n\n\n\nYelena Lembersky is an author\, an architect\, and a project director at the Uniterra Foundation\, promoting art and mutual understanding around the world. She has curated exhibitions and edited several catalogues of her grandfather’s art. Her writing has appeared in World Literature Today\, Cardinal Points\, and The Forward\, and she was recently interviewed on National Public Radio\, Radio Boston\, and BBC. \n\nOri Z Soltes\, PhD\, teaches at Georgetown University across a range of disciplines\, from art history and theology to philosophy and political history. He is the former Director of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum\, and has curated more than 90 exhibitions across the country and overseas. He has authored or edited 25 books and several hundred articles and essays. Recent volumes include Our Sacred Signs: How Jewish\, Christian and Muslim Art Draw from the Same Source; The Ashen Rainbow: Essays on the Arts and the Holocaust; and Tradition and Transformation: Three Millennia of Jewish Art & Architecture; and Growing Up Jewish in India: Synagogues\, Ceremonies\, and Customs from the Bene Israel to the art of Siona Benjamin. \n\n\n\n\nUntil 3/31: ORDER THE BOOK – 25% discount with code LEMBERSKY25 at checkout\n\n\n\n\nThis event is part of our monthly series Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.\nFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.\nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\n\n\n\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/felix-lembersky/
LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Felix-Lembersky-P084-AE-JPG-web-touched-up-At-the-Train-Station-ca-1960-64.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230301T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230301T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090316
CREATED:20221211T224815Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230320T104311Z
UID:6980-1677672000-1677675600@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:DOROTHY BOHM (1924-2023): A WORLD OBSERVED Lecture by Monica Bohm-Duchen\, London (UK)
DESCRIPTION:Dorothy Bohm was born Dorothea Israelit in Königsberg\, East Prussia (now Kaliningrad\, Russia) in 1924 into an assimilated\, affluent and cultured Jewish milieu. In 1932 her father chose to move the family to Memel (now Klaipeda) in Lithuania\, but following the Nazi occupation of Memelland in March 1939\, her parents decided to send their daughter\, aged 14\, to the safety of England\, where she arrived in June 1939. She wasn’t to see her parents and sister again for over twenty years. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImage above (appears as detail): Dorothy Bohm\, Venice Carnival\, 1987 © Dorothy Bohm Archive \n\n\n\n\n\nDorothy Bohm\, Self-Portrait\, 1942\, age 18. © Dorothy Bohm Archive \nDorothy Bohm\, Ascona\, 1948. © Dorothy Bohm Archive \n\n\n\n\n\nAfter a year at school in Sussex\, she studied photography in Manchester and opened her own portrait studio in the city at the age of 21. In the late 1940s a visit to Switzerland prompted her to start working outside the studio\, and by the late 1950s she had abandoned studio portraiture for street photography\, working in black and white until the early 1980s before moving totally to colour. Her first exhibition\, People at Peace\, was held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts\, London\, in 1969\, and her first book\, A World Observed was published in 1970. Closely involved in the founding of The Photographers’ Gallery in the early 1970s\, she was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in 2009. \nWith a career spanning over seven decades and numerous exhibitions and publications to her name\, Dorothy Bohm is widely regarded as one of the doyennes of British photography. She passed on\, aged 98\, in March 2023. \n\n\n\n\n\nDorothy Bohm\, Market Stall\, Islington\, London\, 1960s. © Dorothy Bohm Archive \nDorothy Bohm\, Cairo\, 1986. © Dorothy Bohm Archive \n\n\n\n\n\nLondon-based art historian Monica Bohm-Duchen will give her personal insights into the life and work of her mother\, photographer Dorothy Bohm\, who as a girl of fourteen found sanctuary from Nazi Europe in the UK\, and in due course established herself as one of the leading figures in post-war British photography. Introduced by Rachel Stern\, director of the Fritz Ascher Society. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMonica Bohm-Duchen is a freelance writer\, lecturer\, and curator. Based in London\, the institutions she has worked for the Courtauld Institute of Art\, Sotheby’s Institute of Art\, Tate\, the National Gallery\, the Royal Academy of Arts and the University of London. She has been acting as the curator of her mother Dorothy Bohm’s photographic archive since the late 1990s\, and in 2010 curated the first retrospective exhibition of her work\, A World Observed 1940-2010: Photographs by Dorothy Bohm. A version of this exhibition is currently touring eastern Europe. Monica is the founding Director of Insiders/Outsiders\, an ongoing celebration of  the contribution of refugees from Nazi Europe to British culture (https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/) and contributing editor of the companion volume\, Insiders/Outsiders\, Refugees from Nazi Europe and their Contribution to British Culture (Lund Humphries\, 2019). She is currently co-editing a special issue of History of Photography journal dedicated to the women émigré photographers who came to the UK after 1933. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDorothy Bohm by Rick Stoller\, 2015 © Dorothy Bohm Archive \n\n\n\n\n\n\nMORE INFORMATION ON DOROTHY BOHM WEBSITE\n\n\n\n\n\nThis event is part of our monthly series Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression. Future events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\n\n\n\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/dorothy-bohm/
LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/013-Venice-Carnival-1987.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230215T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230215T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090316
CREATED:20230108T185543Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230216T002141Z
UID:7114-1676462400-1676466000@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:Seven Murals by Philip Orenstein (b. 1938)A French-Jewish Perspective on France During World War IIPhilip Orenstein and Dr. Nadine M. Orenstein in conversation
DESCRIPTION:Inspired by a visit to his birth country in the 1990s\, American artist Philip Orenstein (b. 1938) created seven murals about the French complicity in the persecution of Jews in France during World War II. At that time\, the French government had not admitted it had taken part in the persecution. The murals have been shown in various galleries and museums in the United States. In 1999\, William Zimmer wrote in the New York Times\, “Mr. Orenstein’s method involves combining poignancy with the determination that the viewers not miss the story. To this end\, Mr. Orenstein skillfully\, and wittily\, employs the look of today’s splashy graffiti.” The works have not yet been shown in France. \n\n\nBorn in Paris\, France\, in 1938\, Philip Orenstein had survived Nazi persecution as a young boy hidden with his brother by a gentile family. After World War II\, in 1949\, his family emigrated to the United States. He became a visual artist and professor of art at Rutgers University in New Brunswick (NJ)\, where he had majored in physics. \n\n\n\nImage above:  Detail of Philip Orenstein\, “De Gaulle and Petain\,” 1995. Paint on canvas\, 8′ x 24′ © Philip Orenstein \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis event features Philip Orenstein presenting his artwork\, followed by a conversation with Dr. Nadine Orenstein. \n\nPhilip Orenstein is a visual artist and professor emeritus of art at Rutgers University. He was born in Paris\, France\, in December 1938. After World War II\, in 1949\, his family emigrated to the United States. He majored in physics at Rutgers University. Orenstein also painted\, studied art history\, and took a course in modern art history with Alan Kaprow\, who encouraged him to quit physics and become an artist. After graduating from Rutgers\, Orenstein moved to New York in the early 1960’s\, where he painted\, sculpted and designed for adecade. In 1971 he began teaching studio art at Rutgers University\, eventually becoming a tenured professor and teaching art at Rutgers for thirty years. Orenstein has an extensive exhibition record dating from 1964 to the present. \n\nDr. Nadine M. Orenstein is the Drue Heinz Curator in Charge of the Department of Drawings and Prints in The Metropolitan Museum of Art where she has been active as a curator since 1992. She has written and lectured extensively on sixteenth and seventeenth-century prints and drawings. Her exhibitions include Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints (2001)\, Hendrick Goltzius (1558 – 1617). Prints\, Drawings and Paintings (2003)\, Infinite Jest: Caricature and Satire from Leonardo to Levine (2011)\, and The Mysterious Landscapes of Hercules Segers (2017). The Renaissance of Etching (2019 – 2020)\, co-organized with the Albertina\, Vienna was awarded the 2020 IFPDA Foundation Book Award. \n\n\n\n\n\nPhilip Orenstein during World War II \nOrenstein Family (Philip Orenstein\, his brother and his parents) before Immigration to America \n\n\n\n\n\nPhilip Orenstein had a life-long interest in art and painted whenever he had the opportunity. While living in New York in the early 1950’s\, he visited art museums and galleries\, just at the time the Abstract Expressionists were becoming known. While Orenstein was a student at Rutgers in the late 1950’s\, three major art movements were germinating there: Happenings\, Fluxus and Pop Art. While he did not take studio art classes at Rutgers\, Orenstein continued to paint\, studied art history\, and took a course in modern art history with Alan Kaprow. Kaprow encouraged Orenstein to quit physics and become an artist\, which he did after his graduation from Rutgers. \nHe moved back to New York in the early 1960’s\, where he painted\, sculpted and designed for a decade. In 1971 he began teaching studio art at Rutgers\, where he eventually became a tenured professor and taught art for thirty years. \nOrenstein has an extensive exhibition record dating from 1964 to the present. \n\n\n\n\n\nPhilip Orenstein\, “Massaire” Chair (5000 Series)\, 1967. Manufacturer Mass Art\, Inc.\, New York\, NY © Philip Orenstein \nPhilip Orenstein\, Inflatable Products\, n.d. Manufacturer Mass Art\, Inc.\, New York\, NY © Philip Orenstein \n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn 1967\, the artist designed an inflatable chair\, which was included in an exhibition organized by the New York Architectural League that travelled to Paris and London. A model of the chair is now in the permanent collection of the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein\, Germany\, and another is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPhilip Orenstein\, The Vel d’Hiv Roundup\, 1942\, 1992. Paint on canvas\, 8 x 30 ft. © Philip Orenstein \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn 1993 in France there was a lot of discussion about the coming fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of Paris from Nazi occupation in 1944.  The myth that had developed over the years was that the French army and the French Resistance had liberated the city and that this had been an occasion for great rejoicing\, ignoring the facts that the French government had collaborated with the occupiers\, the French police had carried out all the roundups of Jewish families\, and that the very day of the liberation a trainload of Jews was sent from France to Auschwitz. \n\n\nSix of Orenstein’s seven murals were shown at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches\, Texas\, and some were exhibited individually at various other venues\, including the Susan Teller Gallery in New York\, Sacred Heart University in Fairfield\, Connecticut\, and the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nLINK TO PHILIP ORENSTEIN’S WEBSITE\n\n\n\n\nPhilip Orenstein\, The Battle of Britain\, 1941\, 1994. Paint on canvas\, 8 x 24 ft. © Philip Orenstein \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPhilip Orenstein\, De Gaulle and Petain\, 1994. Paint on canvas\, 8 x 24 ft. © Philip Orenstein \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis event is part of our monthly series Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.\nFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.\nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\n\n\n\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/philip-orenstein/
LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230201T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230201T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090316
CREATED:20230108T112937Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230206T121823Z
UID:7096-1675252800-1675256400@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:CASTAWAY MODERNISM. Basel's Acquisitions of "Degenerate" ArtPresentation by Dr. Eva Reifert\, Kunstmuseum Baselfollowed by discussion with Rachel Stern
DESCRIPTION:The Kunstmuseum Basel’s department of classic modernism houses one of the most prestigious collections of its kind. It was in fact assembled at a comparatively late date. In the summer of 1939 — shortly before the outbreak of World War II — Georg Schmidt (1896–1966)\, the museum’s director at the time\, managed to acquire twenty-one avant-garde masterpieces all at once. The works were among those denounced in 1937 by Nazi cultural policy as “degenerate” and forcibly removed from German museums. The Third Reich’s Ministry of Propaganda correctly assumed that a portion of such works would find buyers abroad and bring in foreign currency. In this way certain artworks deemed “internationally exploitable” reached the art market via various channels. \nCastaway Modernism introduces important facets of one particular moment in Basel’s collecting history. It also looks at how the cultural violence committed by the Nazi regime led to an artificial scattering of modern art. That act of selection — sorting some works into the category of “exploitable” while condemning others to oblivion or destruction — still casts a shadow over museum collections around the world. Unexpected stories of people\, artworks\, and commerce surface. \nImage above: Franz Marc\, Two Cats\, Blue and Yellow\, 1911. Oil on canvas\, 74.1 x 98.2 cm. Kunstmuseum Basel Photo: Martin P. Bühler \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis event features curator Eva Reifert\, PhD\, who presents her exhibition Castaway Modernism at Kunstmuseum Basel\, followed by a discussion with Rachel Stern\, director of the Fritz Ascher Society. \nEva Reifert\, PhD\,  is the Curator of 19th-Century and Modern Art at Kunstmuseum Basel\, Switzerland. She has mounted numerous presentations from the collection and major exhibitions\, among them The Cubist Cosmos (2019) and Sophie Taeuber-Arp (2021)\, a collaboration with MoMA. Prior to her post in Basel she was a trainee at the Bavarian State Paintings Collections\, Munich\, and an Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York\, where she worked on the exhibition project Unfinished. Thoughts Left Visible. She received her PhD from Freie Universität Berlin in 2011. \n\n\n\n\n\nPaul Klee\, Villa R\, 1919. Oil on cardboard\, 26.5 x 22.4 cm. Kunstmuseum Basel\, Photo: Jonas Hänggi \nPaula Modersohn-Becker\, Self-Portrait as a Half-Length Nude with Amber Necklace II\, 1906. Oil on canvas\, 61.1 x 50 cm. Kunstmuseum Basel. Foto: Martin P. Bühler \n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn Nazi Germany (1933–1945)\, “degenerate” art was the label for art that did not fit the Nazis’ worldview\, including Expressionism\, Dadaism\, the New Objectivity\, Surrealism\, Cubism\, and Fauvism. In particular\, the Nazis loathed works by Jewish artists and works on Jewish or political themes. This art was removed from German museums in 1937—all in all\, more than 21\,000 objects were seized by the authorities. Many of them were presented in the exhibition “Degenerate Art\,” which traveled throughout Germany. \nThe “Law on the Confiscation of Products of Degenerate Art” went into force in Germany in 1938. It gave the authorities power over the works seized as “degenerate” art in 1937. An inventory was drawn up and the works were divided into various groups. Around 780 paintings and sculptures and 3500 works on paper were set aside as “internationally marketable\,” which is to say\, they seemed suitable for sale abroad in order to raise funds in foreign currencies. In reality\, the authorities sold almost twice as many works. 125 of them were auctioned off by Theodor Fischer in Lucerne in 1939; the others were sold on the international market through selected art dealers. Much of the “unsalable” rest was burnt in Berlin on March 20\, 1939. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nArtists in the exhibition:\nAlexej von Jawlensky\, André Derain\, Anita Clara Rée\, Christoph Voll\, Conrad Felixmüller\, Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler\, Emil Nolde\, Erich Heckel\, Ernst Barlach\, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner\, Felix Nussbaum\, Franz Frank\, Georg Schrimpf\, George Grosz\, Hanns Ludwig Katz\, Henri Matisse\, James Ensor\, Jankel Adler\, Jeanne Mammen\, Josef Vinecky\, Karl Hofer\, Karl Opfermann\, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff\, Käthe Kollwitz\, Lasar Segall\, Louis Moilliet\, Lovis Corinth\, Ludwig Meidner\, Lyonel Feininger\, Marc Chagall\, Marg Moll\, Marie Laurencin\, Max Beckmann\, Max Ernst\, Milly Steger\, Oskar Kokoschka\, Oskar Schlemmer\, Otto Dix\, Otto Mueller\, Otto Nagel\, Pablo Picasso\, Paul Klee\, Paul Kleinschmidt\, Paula Modersohn-Becker\, Rudolf Belling\, Wassily Kandinsky\, Wilhelm Lehmbruck\nThe exhibition “CASTAWAY MODERNISM. Basel’s Acquisitions of Modern Art” is on view until February 19\, 2023 at Kunstmuseum Basel (Switzerland). \n\n\n\n\n\nLINK TO THE EXHIBITION AT KUNSTMUSEUM BASEL (SWITZERLAND)\n\n\n\n\nThis event is part of our monthly series Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.\nFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.\nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\n\n\n\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/castaway-modernism/
LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230125T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230125T140000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090317
CREATED:20221201T112451Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230201T111559Z
UID:6962-1674651600-1674655200@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:AS SEEN THROUGH THESE EYESConversation with Film Director Hilary Helstein\, Los Angeles
DESCRIPTION:In honor of UN Holocaust Remembrance Day\, Hilary Helstein\, director of the award-winning documentary “As Seen Through These Eyes” spoke with Rachel Stern\, director and CEO of the Fritz Ascher Society New York\, about the making of her documentary. \nAs poet Maya Angelou narrates this powerful documentary\, she reveals the story of a brave group of people who fought Hitler with the only weapons they had: charcoal\, pencil stubs\, shreds of paper and memories etched in their minds. These artists took their fate into their own hands to make a compelling statement about the human spirit\, enduring against unimaginable odds. Featuring interviews with Simon Wiesenthal as he talks about his art\, never before appearing in a film\, the children of Theresienstadt\, Dina Babbitt\, personal artist to Dr. Mengele\, and Gypsy artist\, Karl Stojka. Score features music by Sony/BMG’s Anna Nalick and Lorin Sklamberg of The Klezmatics. \nThis event is dedicated to the memory of Fred Terna (1923-2022)\, who died on 9 December 2022\, at the age of 99 years. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWatch the Trailer of “AS SEEN THROUGH THESE EYES”: \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTo contact Hilary Helstein\, please email info@asseenthroughtheseeyes.com. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFred Terna (1923-2022) was born in 1923 in Vienna. His family returned to Prague\, their hometown\, soon thereafter. He lived and attended school there until the Germans occupied the city in 1939. Beginning in October 1941\, Mr. Terna was interned in a number of camps\, including Terezin\, Auschwitz-Birkenau\, and Kaufering\, a sub-camp of Dachau. He was liberated near Landsberg in Bavaria on April 27\, 1945. He was the only remaining member of his family. After liberation\, Mr. Terna was hospitalized in Bavaria for a few months\, then sent back to Prague for further recuperation. He left Prague late in 1946\, settling in Paris for several years. In 1952\, he arrived in New York. As an artist and painter\, Terna used folded canvas\, sand\, and pebbles\, seeking to address the psychological space of trauma\, often incorporating the charged symbols of chimneys and ash to abstract effect. He served as president of the Jewish Visual Artists Association from 1978-1981. Besides speaking about his wartime experiences\, he lectured extensively on the history of Jewish art\, and taught a course on the subject for some years at the New School in New York. \n\n\n\n\n\nFred Terna\, Brooklyn 2012. Photograph by Daniel Terna © Daniel Terna \nFred Terna\, Promise on Fire © Fred Terna Estate \n\n\n\n\n\nIn 1944\, Josef Mengele ordered a Jewish inmate in Auschwitz to paint portraits of Romani people as graphic ‘evidence’ of the Nazis’ racial theory. A young art student when she was deported to Auschwitz\, Dina Gottliebová Babbitt (1923-2009) had drawn a “Snow White” scene on a wall of a children’s barracks to help soothe the youngsters. Josef Mengele\, the infamous Nazi doctor who performed hideous experiments on prisoners\, heard of her talents and made her his personal artist. In 1973\, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum informed the artist that some of the works still existed. Babbitt’s long and unsuccessful campaign to retrieve the seven paintings of doomed Gypsy prisoners from a Polish state museum at Auschwitz became a rallying point for many other artists and Holocaust survivors. \n\n\n\n\n\nThe Book of Alfred Kantor\, An Artist Journal of the Holocaust\, Schocken; 1st edition (January 13\, 1987) \nDina Gottliebova\, Gypsy girl painted for Mengele\, Watercolor on paper. Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau\, Auschwitz (Poland) ©Dina Gottliebova Babbitt \n\n\n\n\n\nKarl Stojka (1931-2003)\, a Gypsy child who was Mengele’s errand boy\, painted over 1\,000 canvases because he didn’t “want to forget anything. These images are burned into my mind.” Karl was the fourth of six children born to Roman Catholic parents in the village of Wampersdorf in eastern Austria. The Stojkas belonged to a tribe of Roma (“Gypsies”) called the Lowara Roma\, who made their living as itinerant horse traders. In 1943\, at the age of only 12 years\, Karl was deported to the concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau\, together with his mother and his five brothers and sisters. His father had already been murdered by the Nazis. The so-called Gypsy Family Camp was situated at the far end of the vast area of Auschwitz-Birkenau\, close by the crematoria and the ramp where the trains carrying the deportees came to a halt to unload their cargo. “One could see the fire day and night; it stank terribly. The main street of the Gypsy camp was in front of our barracks; we named it the highway to hell. My brother and I stood at the fence and saw rows of people with yellow stars pass on their way to the gas chambers.” \nKarl Stojka survived\, and started painting as an autodidact in 1985\, depicting his traumatic experiences in the concentration camps. \n\n\n\n\n\nKarl Stojka\, Family Portrait. My Brother and Sisters and Me \nKarl Stojka in his art studio \n\n\n\n\n\nHolocaust survivor\, artist\, Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal (1908-2005) created the sketch below during his captivity on the Death Block in Mauthausen concentration camp in 1945. “Oh Lord\, do not forgive them\, for they know what they do!” \nAfter surviving the Janowska concentration camp (late 1941 to September 1944)\, the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp (September to October 1944)\, the Gross-Rosen concentration camp\, a death march to Chemnitz\, Buchenwald\, and the Mauthausen concentration camp (February to 5 May 1945)\, Wiesenthal dedicated his life to tracking down and gathering information on fugitive Nazi war criminals so that they could be brought to trial. \n\n\n\n\n\nSimon Wiesenthal\, Death Head \nSimon Wiesenthal in Vienna\, Photograph Hilary Helstein \n\n\n\n\n\n\nHilary Helstein began her work in the humanitarian field with Spielberg’s USC Shoah Foundation\, where she directed/produced over 250 interviews with survivors\, liberators and rescuers.  Her commitment to teaching history initiated the 10+ year journey in creating the documentary\, As Seen Through These Eyes\, (narrated by Maya Angelou\, co-produced by the Sundance Channel) collecting testimonies from Holocaust artist-survivors\, including Simon Wiesenthal\, about art used as a form of resistance and mental escape and healing. The film has garnered multiple international awards including Best Film at the prestigious Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in Greece as well as in Warsaw\, Argentina\, Los Angeles and others. It won the Director’s Choice Gold Medal for Excellence\, Award for Best Impact of Music in a Documentary at the Park City Film Music Festival. It was shown at the United Nations for their special Holocaust Remembrance Program and subsequently screened at UN offices throughout the world including the EU Headquarters in Brussels\, Vienna’s UNIS\, Israel\, Myanmar\, South Africa\, the Philippines and Namibia\, as a human rights film. \nHilary’s passion for film led her to the position of Executive Director/CEO/co-founder of the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival LAJFF)\, now in its sixteenth year.  \nBeyond film\, Hilary has curated art exhibitions including “Samuel Bak: Between Worlds” for the Jewish Federation in Los Angeles\, “Memory and Meaning” for the LA Museum of the Holocaust\, and the most recent traveling exhibit\, “Art Survives: Expressions from the Holocaust\,” based on the artwork in As Seen Through These Eyes. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis event was organized by the Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art\, in partnership with Austrian Consulate General Los Angeles\, the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany New York\, Classrooms Without Borders\, Descendants of Holocaust Survivors\, Goethe Institut New York\, German Film Office\, the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan\, Mensch International Foundation\, 3G New York – Descendants of Holocaust Survivors and the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.\nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU.\n\n\n\n\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/hilary-helstein/
LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230111T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230111T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090317
CREATED:20221108T011441Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230226T142537Z
UID:6912-1673438400-1673442000@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:Back into the Light. Four Women Artists - Their Works. Their Paths. Lecture by Eva Atlan\, PhD\, Frankfurt (Germany)
DESCRIPTION:Erna Pinner\, Rosy Lilienfeld\, Amalie Seckbach\, and Ruth Cahn were among the first women artists in Frankfurt to enjoy professional success. Throughout the Roaring Twenties\, these four Jewish women left their mark on Frankfurt’s art scene\, published and exhibited internationally\, cultivated a cosmopolitan lifestyle\, and competed with their male colleagues. When the National Socialists seized power\, their careers came to an abrupt end. From then on\, they were persecuted as Jews and their works ostracized; later\, after the end of World War II\, they were largely forgotten. Now\, “Back into the Light” is at long last bringing them back to the public eye. \nThe departure point is an article by art historian Sascha Schwabacher\, published May 1935 in the Frankfurter Israelitisches Gemeindeblatt\, a German-language Jewish newspaper in Frankfurt. Schwabacher recalls her visits to the studios of the four artists and describes their personalities—at a time when these women had no more than limited job opportunities in Germany as a result of the persecution they suffered at the hands of the National Socialists. The lecture delves into these four studio visits\, and in doing so\, it brings the Frankfurt art scene of the 1920s back to life\, making palpable the disruption Nazi rule meant for the four artists’ work and lives. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis lecture by Dr. Eva Sabrina Atlan is based on research for the exhibition “Back into the Light. Four Women Artists – Their Works. Their Paths” which is on view until April 17\, 2023 at the Jewish Museum Frankfurt (Germany). Introduced by Rachel Stern\, director of the Fritz Ascher Society. \nEva Sabrina Atlan\, PhD\, is deputy director of the Jewish Museum Frankfurt. Previously she was curator for art and Judaica (2005 – 2018) and then head of collections. She is curator of the exhibition “Back into the Light. Four Women Artists – Their Works. Their Paths.” After studying art history\, classical archeology and Romance studies in Frankfurt am Main\, she spent a research stay in Boston/USA\, followed by her doctorate at the Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe University in 1997 on Samuel Bak. Work monograph from 1945 to 1990. In addition to the new permanent exhibition area Splendor of the Commandment\, she is responsible for numerous exhibitions and publications\, including as co-editor of Eternal Light. Samuel Bak. A Childhood in the Shadow of the Holocaust (1996)\, Access to Israel (2 vols.\, 2008) and 1938. Art. Artist. Politics”(2013) and as the author and co-editor of The Feminine Side of God. Art and Ritual (2020) and Back into the Light. Four Women Artists – Their Works. Their Paths (2022). \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImages above:  Left: Amalie Seckbach\, 15.11.43 Theresienstadt (original inscription by artist)\, 1943. Pastel on paper\, 24 x 16\,5 cm. The Ghetto Fighters’ House – Itzhak Katzenelson Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum\, Israel; Right: Ruth Cahn\, Girl in Red Jacket (Mädchen in roter Jacke)\, 1920-1935. Oil on hardboard\, 57\,5 x 47 cm. Edition Memoria\, Thomas B. Schumann\, Hürth\, Germany\n\n\n\n\nAmalie Seckbach\, Hydrangea Blossom (Hortensienblüte) (original title not known)\, 1939. Oil on China paper\, 33 x 24 cm. Buch Family Private Collection \nAmalie Seckbach\, 15.11.43 Theresienstadt (original inscription by artist)\, 1943. Pastel on paper\, 24 x 16\,5 cm. The Ghetto Fighters’ House – Itzhak Katzenelson Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum\, Israel \n\n\n\n\n\nAmalie Seckbach (1870\, Hungen – 1944\, Theresienstadt)\nThe German-Jewish artist Amalie Seckbach (1870-1944) moved with her parents from the town of Hungen to Frankfurt am Main in 1902. Inspired by Far Eastern philosophy and religion\, she built up a collection of Chinese woodblock prints that was highly praised in specialist circles as early as the early 20th century. It was only later in life\, after the death of her husband\, the architect Max Seckbach (1866-1922)\, that she began to work as a painter and sculptor. As early as 1929 she was able to exhibit her sculptural works in an exhibition with James Ensor (1860-1949) at the Musée des Beaux-Arts as well as in exhibitions at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris. \nFrom 1933 onwards\, she could only exhibit in Germany within the parameters of the Jewish Cultural Association or abroad\, as she did in 1936 at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1941\, when the Nazi regime persecution reached devastating proportions\, Amalie Seckbach decided to leave Germany\, but was arrested in September 1942 and deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Here she painted with the materials at her disposal\, but succumbed to the consequences of imprisonment in August 1944. \n\n\n\n\n\nErna Pinner (1890-1987)\, Four Women at Lago Maggiore (Vier Frauen am Lago Maggiore)\, 1925. Ink on transparent papir\, 16\,5 x 29\,4 cm. Jewish Museum Frankfurt / Estate of Erna Pinner \nErna Pinner\, William’s Jerboa (Williams’ Springmaus) (“Allactaga williamsi”)\, 1935 – 1948. Drawing\, 11 x 15\,5 cm. Jewish Museum Frankfurt © Estate of Erna Pinner \n\n\n\n\n\nErna Pinner (1890\, Frankfurt am Main – 1987\, London)\nThe exhibition sets out to juxtapose two fundamentally different phases of Erna Pinner’s life and work. In both phases\, though\, the focus is primarily on her oeuvre as a writer and illustrator. Erna Pinner gained public recognition in the 1920s with such publications as Das Schweinebuch (“The Book of Pigs”\, 1922)\, Eine Dame in Griechenland (“A Lady in Greece”\, 1927)\, and Ich reise um die Welt (“I Travel Around the World”\, 1931). Through her illustrations\, these books stand as quite independent works far removed from the influence of the expressionist writer Kasimir Edschmid. In them\, she not only attained a graphic style with a precise and elegant use of line\, but also effectively fused the seen and experienced with the written word. \n\n\nAfter emigrating to London in 1935\, she developed a new style of illustrations for popular science publications\, depicting volumes\, proportions\, and textures in almost photographic detail. She studied zoology at university and took courses in printmaking. After the war\, her publications increasingly dealt with the history of species. From the years after her emigration\, two books especially provide an impressive example of her mix of artistic insight and scientific research – Curious Creatures (1951\, 1953 in German) and Born Alive (1959). \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRuth Cahn\, Palm House in the Palm Garden (Palmenhaus im Palmengarten)\, 1924. Gouache on paper\, 88 x 68 cm. Historical Museum Frankfurt \nRuth Cahn\, Girl in Red Jacket (Mädchen in roter Jacke)\, 1920-1935. Oil on hardboard\, 57\,5 x 47 cm. Edition Memoria\, Thomas B. Schumann\, Hürth\, Germany \n\n\n\n\n\n\nRuth Cahn (1875\, Frankfurt am Main – 1966\, Frankfurt am Main)\nBorn in Frankfurt am Main in 1875\, the artist Amalie Leontine Cahn became known far beyond her hometown as Ruth Cahn. She studied art in Munich and Barcelona\, and in particular with the Fauvist painter Kees van Dongen in Paris. In the 1920s\, her paintings were shown at the Frankfurt art dealers H. Trittler and Ludwig Schames. In 1924\, the Dalmau Gallery in Barcelona presented Ruth Cahn’s pictures in a solo show. The same gallery also enabled Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí\, then unknown artists\, to have their first shows. \n\nRuth Cahn’s family was scattered across Spain\, Switzerland and South America. In 1935\, she emigrated from Nazi Germany to Chile\, only returning to Europe in 1953. After living in Barcelona for some years\, she moved back to Frankfurt in 1961. She died in her hometown five years later. Today\, the vast majority of Cahn’s oeuvre is thought to have been lost in the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War. We would like to reconstruct Ruth Cahn’s life and work. She belongs to that generation of Frankfurt German-Jewish women artists whose creative work was abruptly halted. \nOn 8 September 1984\, the Frankfurt Arnold auction house sold two of Cahn’s paintings. Since then\, all trace of them has been lost. Does anyone know where they could be now? \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRosy Lilienfeld (1896-1942)\, Woman Smoking a Pipe (Frau Pfeife rauchend)\, 1923. Etching\, 9\,4 x 6\,9 cm. Jewish Museum Frankfurt \nRosy Lilienfeld\, The Messiah flies over the Sambation (Der Messias überfliegt den Sambation) \, 1933. Pencil and chalk on paper\, 25 x 22\,5 cm. Jewish Museum Frankfurt \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRosy Lilienfeld (1896\, Frankfurt – 1942\, Auschwitz)\nRosy Lilienfeld was born in Frankfurt am Main on 17 January 1896. The family lived in Frankfurt’s Westend district. In the early 1920s\, Rosy Lilienfeld studied at the Städelschule art academy under artist Ugi Battenberg. The Städelschule also provided her with a studio in the Sachsenhausen artist’s quarter until 1936\, when the contract was terminated. Unemployed from 1933\, Lilienfeld could no longer pay the rent for the studio. On 17 July 1939\, Rosy Lilienfeld’s mother applied for permission for herself and her daughter to emigrate to England. But rather than their journey taking them to England\, it took them to Holland. From 23 November 1939\, Rosy Lilienfeld was registered as resident in Rotterdam. She lived at a variety of addresses in the city until 25 February 1941. At that point\, all traces of her mother are lost; her name is also not on the deportation lists. On 26 February 1941\, Rosy Lilienfeld moved to Utrecht. There\, she was arrested the following year and moved to the Westerbork transit camp. She was then deported to Auschwitz\, where just a few weeks later she was murdered. \nSome of Lilienfeld’s compositions are imbued with a strong sense of unease. Their almost nightmarish atmosphere may be an indication of the artist’s mental state. As records show\, after first attempting suicide in 1923 she was diagnosed as manic depressive and was in regular psychiatric treatment until 1935. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe exhibition “Back into the Light. Four Women Artists – Their Works. Their Paths” is on view until April 17\, 2023 at the Jewish Museum Frankfurt am Main (Germany). \n\n\n\n\n\n\nLINK TO EXHIBITION AT JEWISH MUSEUM FRANKFURT (GERMANY)\n\n\n\n\n\nThis event is part of our monthly series Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.\nFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.\nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\n\n\n\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/back-into-light/
LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221207T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221207T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090317
CREATED:20220525T090936Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221207T235336Z
UID:6579-1670414400-1670418000@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:The Shape and Color of Survival.Samuel Bak (born Vilnius\, Lithuania\, 1933)  Lecture by Ori Z Soltes\, PhD
DESCRIPTION:Image above: Samuel Bak\, Warsaw Excavation\, 2007. Oil on canvas\, 16 x 20 in. Image Courtesy Pucker Gallery © Samuel Bak\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSamuel Bak was 6 years old when the Nazis began ending his childhood\, as the war that they engendered would soon extend to his native Vilnius. The number “6” became an important element in his art\, since it is also the number of the Commandment with which God enjoins us not to commit murder\, for which the Holocaust represented such a profound abrogation. His father smuggled him out of the ghetto in the sack that he was still permitted to use to gather firewood—and was subsequently murdered by the regime. By then Bak himself had already chosen his career as an artist—he had his first exhibit\, as a young boy\, in the Ghetto itself. \n\n\n\n\n\nSamuel Bak\, Last Movement\, 1996. Oil on linen\, 55 x 63 in. Image courtesy Pucker Gallery © Samuel Bak \nSamuel Bak\, Pardes III\, 1994. Oil on linen\, 45.75 x 45.75 in. Image Courtesy Pucker Gallery © Samuel Bak \n\n\n\n\n\nAfter the Holocaust\, he and his mother immigrated to Palestine\, and as his life as a painter developed\, he migrated from Israel to Paris and ultimately to Western Massachusetts. There\, where he continues to reside\, he expanded his prolific and exceedingly skillful work–paint that appears as stone or wood masquerading as human flesh; figures and landscapes as surreal as they are straightforward. He offers a deeply configured narrative of the Jewish experience\, as literal\, metaphorical\, and mystical. \n\n\n\n\n\nSamuel Bak\, Warsaw Excavation\, 2007. Oil on canvas\, 16 x 20 in. Image Courtesy Pucker Gallery © Samuel Bak \nSamuel Bak\, Shema Israel. Oil on linen\, 40 x 39.5 in. Image courtesy Pucker Gallery © Samuel Bak \n\n\n\n\n\nThis talk\, illustrated with a range of paintings drawn from his both dark and yet often hopeful career—they draw the beauty of survival out of scarred emotional and intellectual depths—will explore Bak’s haunting imagery\, at once insightful and inciteful\, as it transcends the border between past and future\, subsuming time and space into an eternal present. \nOri Z Soltes\, PhD\, teaches at Georgetown University across a range of disciplines\, from art history and theology to philosophy and political history. He is the former Director of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum\, and has curated more than 90 exhibitions across the country and overseas. He has authored or edited 25 books and several hundred articles and essays. Recent volumes include Our Sacred Signs: How Jewish\, Christian and Muslim Art Draw from the Same Source; The Ashen Rainbow: Essays on the Arts and the Holocaust; and Tradition and Transformation: Three Millennia of Jewish Art & Architecture; and Growing Up Jewish in India: Synagogues\, Ceremonies\, and Customs from the Bene Israel to the art of Siona Benjamin. \nIntroduced by Rachel Stern\, Director and CEO of the Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art. \n\n\n\n\n\nPhoto of Samuel Bak\, Puckergallery\, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>\, via Wikimedia Commons \nFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU.\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/samuel-bak/
LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Hol-22-Bak-Warsaw-Excavat-2007.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221121T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221121T210000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090317
CREATED:20221111T002757Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221124T102457Z
UID:6924-1669057200-1669064400@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:RECKONINGS - The First ReparationsFilm Screening at Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan Followed by Q+A with Gideon Taylor and Karen Heilig
DESCRIPTION:In the aftermath of the Holocaust\, the unprecedented destruction and plight of survivors prompts the unthinkable – German and Jewish leaders meet in secret to grapple with the first reparations in history\, resulting in the groundbreaking Luxembourg Agreements of 1952. \n\nScreening followed by Q+A with Gideon Taylor and Karen Heilig\, from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \nWatch the Trailer: \n\n\n\n\n\n\nSCREENINGS\n\n\n\n\n\nIn the aftermath of the Holocaust\, German and Jewish leaders met in secret to negotiate the unthinkable – compensation for the survivors of the largest mass genocide in history. Survivors were in urgent need of help\, but how could reparations be determined for the unprecedented destruction and suffering of a people? Directed by award-winning filmmaker Roberta Grossman\, RECKONINGS is the first documentary feature to chronicle the harrowing process of negotiating German reparations for the Jewish people\, which resulted in the groundbreaking Luxembourg Agreements of 1952. \n\n\nFilmed in six countries\, this engrossing film brings these moments to life with dramatized scenes and interviews with historians as well as Ben Ferencz\, the one surviving participant from these historic talks\, who had previously served as prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. By confronting the past\, the German and Jewish leaders charted a better future for a desperate and traumatized people. Their actions led to the first time in history that individual victims of persecution received material compensation from the perpetrators. \nLearn more about the film at https://reckoningsfilm.org/. \nScreening at\nMarlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan\n334 Amsterdam Ave\nNew York\, NY 10023 \nTickets must be purchased before your arrival at the JCC. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nOrganized by the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan. \nIn partnership with 3GNY\, The Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art\, and American Society for Yad Vashem. \nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR PROGRAMS POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \nPLEASE DONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/reckonings/
LOCATION:Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan\, 334 Amsterdam Ave\, New York\, NY\, 10023\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Past Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221114
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20221115
DTSTAMP:20260420T090317
CREATED:20200424T095932Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230604T190206Z
UID:3963-1668384000-1668470399@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:IN-PERSON CONFERENCE: Welcoming the Stranger. Abrahamic Hospitality and Contemporary ImplicationsFordham University\, New York
DESCRIPTION:One of the signal moments in the narrative of Abraham is his insistent and enthusiastic reception of three strangers. That moment is a beginning point of inspiration for all three Abrahamic traditions as they evolve and develop the details of their respective teachings. On the one hand\, welcoming the stranger by remembering “that you were strangers in the land of Egypt” is enjoined upon the ancient Israelites\, and on the other\, oppressing the stranger is condemned by their prophets. These sentiments will be repeated in the New Testament and the Qur’an and elaborated in the interpretive literatures of Judaism\, Christianity\, and Islam. \nSuch notions have been seriously challenged on many occasions throughout history—at no time more profoundly than in the 20th and 21st centuries. The Holocaust began by the decision of the German government in the mid-1930s to turn specific groups of German citizens into strangers\, a process that expanded over the following decade to overrun much of Europe.  \nDeliberate marginalization leading to genocide expressed itself in the next half century from Bosnia and Cambodia to Rwanda. In the aftermath of September 11\, 2001\, the United States—which has wrestled with the question of welcoming the stranger since the middle of the 19th century—began an emphatic twist toward closing the door on those seeking refuge on these shores. We have arrived at an unprecedented slamming of that door within the last few years. The repercussions may be felt across the globe. \nThe purpose of this conference is to explore these issues\, from both a theoretical and theological perspective\, and a perspective that examines concrete historical and contemporary instances within the past 120 years in which aspects of these issues have played out\, most recently during the ongoing Ukrainian refugee crisis. \nThe conference was co-organized by the Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art and the Institute on Religion\, Law and Lawyer’s Work at Fordham University School of Law\, New York and took place at Fordham University\, 113 West 60th St\, New York\, NY 10023. \nThe conference was generously sponsored by the Allianz of America Corporation. \nConference Recording\nEndy Moraes\, LLM \nOri Z Soltes\, PhD \nThomas Massaro\, S.J.\nZeki Saritoprak\, PhD\nMorning Session \nWelcome Remarks\nEndy Moraes\, LLM\, Fordham University School of Law\nRachel Stern\, Fritz Ascher Society \nIntroductions\nOri Z Soltes\, PhD\, Georgetown University\, Washington DC \nPanel\n“Welcoming the Stranger in Judaism\, Christianity & Islam”\nOri Z Soltes\, PhD\, Georgetown University\, Washington DC\nThomas Massaro\, S.J.\, PhD\, Fordham University\nZeki Saritoprak\, PhD\, Nursi Chair in Islamic Studies\, John Carroll University \nRachel Stern \nCarol Prendergast \nMohsin Mohi Ud Din \nHon. Mimi E. Tsankov \nAfternoon Session \nIntroductions\nOri Z Soltes\, PhD\, Georgetown University\, Washington DC \nPanel\n“Fritz Ascher. A Jewish Artist in Germany”\nRachel Stern\, Fritz Ascher Society\, New York\n“Welcoming Beyond Offering Safe Heaven: Aspiring to Partner with Refugees”\nCarol Prendergast\, Senior Advisor\, Alfanar Venture Philanthropy\n“Reframing Narratives to Remodel the World”\nMohsin Mohi-Ud-Din\, Founder and CEO of #MeWe International \nHon. Mimi E. Tsankov\, President\, National Association of Immigration Judges  \nEndy Moraes\, LLM\, Director\, Institute on Religion\, Law\, and Lawyer’s Work at Fordham Law School\, is a Brazilian lawyer with extensive experience in interreligious and intercultural dialogue. Endy has an LLM\, cum laude\, from Fordham Law School\, and is admitted to practice in New York. She is a member of the Focolare Movement of the Catholic Church\, living in community. \nRachel Stern is the founding and executive director of the Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art in New York. Born and educated in Germany\, she immigrated to the United States in 1994. She wrote for the AUFBAU and worked for ten years in the Department of Drawings and Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Stern curates exhibitions\, publishes books and organizes events and conferences about the fate of artists who were persecuted under German National Socialism. In 2017\, she received the Hans and Lea Grundig Prize for this work. Stern serves on the board of the Fritz Ascher Stiftung at Stadtmuseum Berlin and is a member of Aktives Museum Berlin. Stern completed MAs in Art History and Economics at Georg August University in Göttingen. \nOri Z Soltes\, PhD\, teaches at Georgetown University across a range of disciplines\, from art history and theology to philosophy and political history. He is the former Director of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum\, and has curated more than 90 exhibitions across the country and overseas. He has authored or edited 25 books and several hundred articles and essays. Recent volumes include Our Sacred Signs: How Jewish\, Christian and Muslim Art Draw from the Same Source; The Ashen Rainbow: Essays on the Arts and the Holocaust; and Tradition and Transformation: Three Millennia of Jewish Art & Architecture; and Growing Up Jewish in India: Synagogues\, Ceremonies\, and Customs from the Bene Israel to the art of Siona Benjamin \nThomas Massaro\, S.J.\, is Professor of Moral Theology at Fordham University. A Jesuit priest of the United States East Province\, he has taught as professor of moral theology at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, at Boston College\, and at Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University\, where he also served as Dean. Father Massaro holds a doctorate in Christian social ethics from Emory University. His nine books and over one hundred published articles treat Catholic social teaching and its recommendations for public policies oriented to social justice\, peace\, worker rights and poverty alleviation. A former columnist for America magazine\, he writes and lectures frequently on such topics as the ethics of globalization\, peacemaking\, environmental concern\, the role of conscience in religious participation in public life\, and developing a spirituality of justice. His most recent book is Mercy in Action: The Social Teachings of Pope Francis (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers\, 2018). \nZeki Saritoprak\, PhD\, is the Bediuzzaman Said Nursi Chair in Islamic Studies and a Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at John Carroll University in Cleveland\, Ohio. He holds a Ph.D. in Islamic Theology from the University of Marmara in Turkey. His most recent books are Islam’s Jesus was published by the University Press of Florida in 2014 and Islamic Spirituality: Theology and Practice for the Modern World published by Bloomsbury in 2017. He is currently working on a book on Islamic Eschatology. \nCarol Prendergast has been a Senior Advisor to Alfanar Venture Philanthropy since 2017. Alfanar provides seed funding and technical support for social entrepreneurs in the MENA region\, focusing on organizations that economically empower women\, youth and refugees. Ms. Prendergast has developed and directed advocacy\, policy and direct service programs for NGOs serving refugees and asylum seekers in the U.S. Since her appointment as Visiting Senior Fellow in Human Rights at the London School of Economics\, she has served as a consultant to international NGOs and EU agencies addressing the needs of victims of forced migration. Ms. Prendergast is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and has pursued postgraduate study at NYU and the Centre for Refugee Studies at Oxford University. \nMohsin Mohi Ud Din is an artist\, activist\, and founder of the global nonprofit #MeWe International Inc. (#MeWeIntl). #MeWeIntl is a global network of artists\, scientists\, and community-builders who design methodologies and tools for creative expression and communication skills-building to advance the health\, human rights\, and representation of everyone. For over 15 years\, Mohsin has scaled his methodology across more than 15 countries\, from the valley of Kashmir to the Syrian refugee camps in the Middle East\, to the mountains of Morocco\, Honduras\, and Mexico. His movement has supported more than 8\,000 vulnerable youth and caregivers and dozens of community building organizations fighting violence\, forced displacement\, incarceration\, and poverty. Mohsin previously worked for human rights organizations such as Human Rights First\, and worked in the Strategic Communications Division for the MDGs and SDGs for the United Nations in New York. His work has received honors from SOLVE MIT at the UN\, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations\, Open Ideo and others. In 2009\, Mohsin received a Fulbright Scholarship to pilot his methodologies in Morocco. His words and visual pieces have been featured in VICE News\, Al Jazeera\, Huffington Post\, and The Nation. \nHon. Mimi E. Tsankov is an Immigration Judge at the New York Federal Plaza Immigration Court. She is speaking in her capacity as President of the National Association of Immigration Judges. In the past 15 years presiding at Immigration Courts in New York\, Colorado\, and California\, she has held a variety of national leadership roles including Pro Bono Liaison Judge\, contributing editor to the Immigration Judge Benchbook\, Chair\, Immigration Court – Board of Immigration Appeals Precedent Committee\, Mentor Judge\, and Juvenile Docket Best Practices Committee Chair.  She is currently the elected President of the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ) (2021 – 2023).\nJudge Tsankov completed her J.D. at the University of Virginia School of Law and was awarded an M.A. in International Relations at the University of Virginia Graduate School of Politics.  She completed her undergraduate degree at James Madison University. \nA book publication of the conference papers is planned for 2023. \nThe conference is organized by The Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art and Fordham University’s Institute on Religion\, Law & Lawyer’s Work\, in collaboration with Fordham University’s Center for Jewish Studies. \nIMAGE ABOVE: Rembrandt\, Abraham Serving the Three Angels\, 1646. Private collection. Image Public domain\, via Wikimedia Commons
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/fordham-conference/
LOCATION:Fordham University School of Law\, 150 West 62nd Street\, New York\, NY\, 10023\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Past Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Rembrandt_Abraham_Serving_the_Three_Angels_Rembrandt-Public-domain-via-Wikimedia-Commons.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Fordham University School of Law":MAILTO:lawreligion@law.fordham.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221102T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221102T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090317
CREATED:20220809T220153Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221102T184241Z
UID:6759-1667390400-1667394000@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:Out of Exile. The Photography of Fred Stein (1909-1967) With Son Peter Stein and Curator Ulrike Kuschel\, Berlin (Germany)
DESCRIPTION:Fred Stein lived through some of the greatest upheavals of the 20th century. He escaped Nazi Germany; he mingled with Chagall and Brecht in Paris; and he debated with Einstein in New York. He was a scholar\, a refugee\, and an idealist. But above all\, he was a photographer. An early innovator of hand-held street photography in 1930s France and 1940s New York\, his images are sophisticated\, beautiful\, and touching; his portraits include some of the most important people of the mid-20th century\, like Albert Einstein. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImage above: Fred Stein\, Americans All\, New York 1943 © Fred Stein Archive\n\n\n\n\nFred Stein\, Paris Evening\,\nParis 1934 © Fred Stein Archive \nFred Stein\, Berthold Brecht\, Paris 1935 © Fred Stein Archive \n\n\n\n\n\nFred Stein was born on July 3\, 1909 in Dresden\, Germany. His father was a rabbi and his mother taught religion. As a teenager he was deeply interested in politics and became an early anti-Nazi activist. He was a brilliant student\, and went to Leipzig University\, full of humanist ideals\, to study law. He obtained a law degree in an impressively short time\, but was denied admission to the German bar by the Nazi government for “racial and political reasons.” After the Gestapo began making inquiries about him\, Stein fled to Paris in 1933 with his new wife\, Liselotte Salzburg\, under the pretext of going on a honeymoon. \nIn Paris they were in the center of a circle of expatriates\, intellectuals and artists. There he took up photography\, and found his life’s passion. He was a pioneer of the small\, hand-held camera\, and with the Leica which he and his wife had purchased as a joint wedding present\, he went into the streets to photograph scenes of life in Paris. He took remarkable portraits of the people around him – people who were to become major intellectual figures\, such as Willy Brandt\, Arthur Koestler\, and Andre Malraux\, but also a flower vendor\, a stylish couple\, a refugee child…a host of poignant images that accuse the inequities of the social order\, and at the same time\, reveal the beauty and dignity of each individual. \nWhen Germany declared war on France in 1939\, Stein was put in an internment camp for enemy aliens near Paris. He managed to escape\, and after a hazardous clandestine journey through the countryside\, met his wife and baby girl in Marseilles\, where they obtained visas through the efforts of the International Rescue Committee. On May 7\, 1941\, the three boarded the S.S. Winnipeg\, one of the last boats to leave France. They carried only the Leica and some negatives. \n\n\n\n\n\nFred Stein\, Albert Einstein\, Princeton\, New Jersey 1946  © Fred Stein Archive \nFred Stein\, Dobbs Fifth Avenue\,\nNew York 1946 © Fred Stein Archive \n\n\n\n\n\n\nNew York was a vibrant center of culture\, and Stein seized the opportunity. He met and photographed writers\, artists\, scientists\, politicians\, and philosophers whose work he knew through his extensive reading and study. This enabled him to engage them in conversation during portrait sessions. He continued his fascination with humanity\, walking through the streets of New York\, documenting life from Fifth Avenue to Harlem. He worked unobtrusively and quickly\, valuing the freedom to capture the telling moment that reveals the subject in its own light\, not as incidental material for photographic interpretation. He preferred natural or minimal lighting\, and avoided elaborate setups as well as dramatic effects. He did not retouch or manipulate the negative. Stein was a member of the Photo League until he became disenchanted with their pro-Communist sympathies. Though portraits were his main income-generating work and he photographed many people on commission\, he generally worked without assignment\, shooting people and scenes that interested him. He would then offer his work to publishers and photo editors of magazines\, newspapers\, and books. \nStein died in 1967 at the age of 58. Though not a self-promoter\, his portraits and reportage had appeared in newspapers\, magazines\, and books throughout the world. His portrait of Albert Einstein is his most famous picture: an iconic image of a great soul. He also lectured and held a number of one-man exhibitions and had several books published. \nFred Stein’s work was exhibited widely in Europe and the US\, and is included in public collections like the Museum of Modern Art\, New York\, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art\, the National Portrait Gallery\, London and the Jewish Museum Berlin. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nFred Stein with Leica\, ca. 1935. Unknown Photographer © Fred Stein Archive \nFred Stein with Rolleiflex\, ca. 1945. Unknown Photographer © Fred Stein Archive \n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis program features curator Ulrike Kuschel and son Peter Stein in conversation\, moderated by Rachel Stern\, director of the Fritz Ascher Society. \nUlrike Kuschel studied Fine Arts at the Berlin University of the Arts (Hochschule der Künste) in Berlin and has realized numerous artistic projects in Germany and abroad. In 2010 she was a fellow at the Villa Massimo in Rome. At the same time\, she worked for a picture agency for many years and taught photography and the history of photography at various universities. From 2017 to 2020 she was a member of the jury of the Kunstfonds Foundation (Stiftung Kunstfonds) for the publication and education program. Since 2019\, she has been working on various projects at the German Historical Museum (Deutsches Historisches Museum) in Berlin: in 2019/2020 she assisted in the exhibition “Hannah Arendt and the 20th Century”\, and in 2021 she curated the exhibition “Report from Exile – Photographs by Fred Stein” (December 11\, 2020 to June 20\, 2021). She is currently working on a digital history project. \nPeter Stein\, ASC has been the Director of Photography on over 50 feature films\, TV movies\, and documentaries\, covering the last 35 years and was invited to join the prestigious American Society of Cinematographers in 1999. He grew up learning photography from his father\, noted street photographer and portraitist Fred Stein. After deciding on a career in film he became a camera operator on the feature film “Between the Lines” directed by Joan Micklin Silver. He has lensed major studio and independent releases\, including drama\, comedy\, suspense\, horror and various cult films – and has been nominated for two Emmy Awards.\nPeter has taught at SUNY Purchase and The School of Visual Arts\, has lectured on cinematography at the New School\, Hofstra\, Fairleigh Dickenson\, CCNY\, Marist and UMass\, and was a professor in the Graduate Film Program at New York University for 13 years\, where he also served as Head of Production.  He manages the photo archive of his father Fred Stein\, and produced and directed the film about him “Out of Exile – The Photography of Fred Stein.” \n\n\n\n\n\n\nWATCH THE FEATURE DOCUMENTARY HEREPassword: Exile \n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis event is part of our monthly series\nFlight or Fight. stories of artists under repression. \nFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nWe offer all our virtual programs free of charge. Please help us keep it that way. YOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\n\n\n\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/fred-stein/
LOCATION:Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan\, 334 Amsterdam Ave\, New York\, NY\, 10023\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Americans-All-New-York-1943.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221023T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221023T190000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090317
CREATED:20220828T153615Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221102T050936Z
UID:6825-1666544400-1666551600@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:Flucht ins Überleben [Escape to Survival]. Four Berlin Biographies from the Time of National Socialism Märkisches Museum\, Berlin (Germany)
DESCRIPTION:Four selected life stories tell of survival strategies in war\, flight and persecution – and of the consequences of the traumatic experiences for those affected. \nEVENT RECORDING FORTHCOMINGToday we believe that flight\, expulsion\, oppression and murder which dominated Europe 70 years ago have been overcome. Recent events in Ukraine show us that this is not the case. And again there are countless individuals whose lives are uprooted and who have to reorient themselves.\nBut what does that do to those affected\, what does it do to artists and how do they reflect on this experience? With four selected biographies of Berliners\, we recall the survival strategies they had to develop during the National Socialist regime and the consequences this traumatic experience had for their biographies: \n– The lawyer Hans Richter (1876-1955)\, grandson of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer\n– The printmaker Rudi Lesser (1902-1988)\n– The textile artist and Bauhaus member Anni Albers (1899-1994)\n– The painter\, graphic artist and poet Fritz Ascher (1893-1970) \nLectures by Rachel Stern from the Fritz Ascher Society New York and Dr. Martina Weinland\, Commissioner for Cultural Heritage at the Stadtmuseum Berlin. The actor\, writer\, stage director and moderator Ilja Richter reads poems by Fritz Ascher\, letters by Hans Richter and excerpts from his latest book Nehmen Sie’s persönlich. Porträts von Menschen\, die mich prägten. \nImage above (from left): Hans Richter\, Anni Albers\, Fritz Ascher\, Rudi Lesser \nRachel Stern \nIlja Richter \nMartina Weinland\, PhD \nRachel Stern is the founding and executive director of the Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art in New York. Born and raised in Germany\, she immigrated to the United States in 1994. Stern curates exhibitions\, publishes books and organizes events and conferences about the fate of artists who were persecuted under German National Socialism. In 2017\, Stern received the Hans and Lea Grundig Prize for this work. \nIlja Richter was one of the best-known TV stars in Germany in the 1970s\, mainly through the ZDF show disco and many movies. After his television career\, he devoted himself almost exclusively to the theater – and alongside his stage career he was always writing. Ilja Richter began his stage career at the age of nine. His multifaceted talent shows in his wide range of activities as a speaker for radio\, dubbing and audio books\, as an author\, director\, in TV films\, series and occasionally in film roles. In recent years he can be seen mainly in his solo programs on stage. \nDr. Martina Weinland studied art history\, German and theater studies at the Freie Universität Berlin and completed these courses in 1989 with a doctorate. From 1992 she was a research associate at the Stadtmuseum Berlin and since January 2018 she is the Representative for Cultural Heritage\, who is responsible for the dependent foundations. \nIlja Richter\, Nehmen Sie’s persönlich. Porträts von Menschen\, die mich prägten. Elsinor Verlag 2022. ISBN 978-3-942788-70-0 \nFritz Ascher. Poesiealbum 357\, Wilhelmshorst: Märkischer Verlag 2020. GTIN 978 3 943 708 57 8 \nFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \nSUPPORT US
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/escape-to-survival/
LOCATION:Märkisches Museum\, Am Köllnischen Park 5\, Berlin\, 10179\, Germany
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2022_10_23_image-copy-scaled.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Stadtmuseum Berlin":MAILTO:info@stadtmuseum.de
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221003T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221003T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090317
CREATED:20220624T133950Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221003T175427Z
UID:6677-1664798400-1664802000@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:From Generation to Generation: The Upbringing and Art ofMimi Gross (born 1940\, New York)
DESCRIPTION:Mimi Gross is the daughter of well-known sculptor Chaim Gross (1902–1991). She grew up to become an artist and one obvious question one might ask is how her work was influenced by and/or diverged from her father’s work. But both Chaim and his wife Renee were immigrants–so New York City-born Mimi grew up as an American in an immigrant household\, which might raise the question: were there issues derived from the particulars of her growing up that affected her and her art–and might one imagine the curve of her life as different in a non-immigrant context\, or a context experienced at a different time in American and world history? \nThese and other questions are discussed in a dialogue between Mimi Gross and Georgetown University Professor Ori Z Soltes. Rachel Stern\, Founder and CEO of the Fritz Ascher Society\, introduces the program. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImage above: Mimi Gross\, Songs of the Senses\, 1991. Installation at Inax Gallery\, Japan © Mimi Gross\n\n\n\n\nMimi Gross\, After Manet’s “the Bar at the Folies Bergere”\, 1978. Pastel drawing for O’Neal’s restaurant mirror\, 55 x 75 inches © Mimi Gross \n\nMimi Gross\, Dark Air\, After Delacroix’s “Women of Algiers”\, 1980-1981. Oil paint on mixed media\, 109” x 115” x 20” © Mimi Gross \n\n\n\n\n\n\nMimi Gross is a painter\, as well as a set-and-costume designer\, and maker of interior and exterior installations.  She has lived and worked in TriBeCa for the last 40 years\, and is known especially for her portraiture\, and for working with oil crayon and chalk pastel\, in addition to oil paint. Gross considers portraiture a form of mutual collaboration. Her paintings have a poignant expressiveness and connection to the subject. Hers is a world of bold\, unapologetic color.  The directness of Gross’s portraiture\, and her propensity to paint all aspects of her community can be linked in particular to the work of Alice Neel\, who was a close friend.\nGross’s work can be found in the collections of the Jewish Museum\, New York; the New York Public Library; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art\, New York. She is the recipient of awards and grants including from the New York State Council on the Arts\, the National Endowment for Visual Arts\, the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters\, and a “Bessie” for sets and costumes. Gross grew up in South Harlem in Manhattan. Her father was Chaim Gross\, the sculptor known for woodcarving\, and her parents were consummate art collectors. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nMimi Gross\, Portrait of Success Garden\, 1993. Installation at the Port Authority Bus Terminal\, New York\, NY © Mimi Gross \n\nMimi Gross\, Cassations\, 2012. Set and costumes for Douglas Dunn and Dancers\, 92nd Street Y © Mimi Gross \nMimi Gross\, The Arrival\, 1620\, installation view October 2 – January 31\, 2021 at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum © Mimi Gross \n\n\n\n\n\n\nOri Z Soltes\, PhD teaches at Georgetown University across the disciplines of theology\, art history\, philosophy and politics. Since 1997 he is a Founding Director of the Holocaust Art Restitution Project (HARP). A former Director of the B’nai B’rit Klutznick National Jewish Museum Museum in Washington\, D.C.\, he has extensive experience in developing and executing exhibition concepts. He is the author or editor of 25 books\, including The Ashen Rainbow: The Holocaust and the Arts; Symbols of Faith: How Jewish\, Christian\, and Muslim Art Draw from the Same Source; and Tradition and Transformation: Three Millennia of Jewish Art and Architecture. He recently edited Immortality\, Memory\, Creativity\, and Survival: The Arts of Alice Lok Cahana\, Ronnie Cahana and Kitra Cahana (New York: The Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art 2020). \n\n\n\n\n\n\nMimi Gross in her Studio\, July 2022. Photo Rachel Stern © Mimi Gross \nMimi Gross Studio\, July 2022. Photo Rachel Stern © Mimi Gross \nMimi Gross Website\n\n\n\n\n\nThis event is part of our monthly series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.” \nFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nWe offer all our virtual programs free of charge. Please help us keep it that way.  \nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\n\n\n\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/mimi-gross/
LOCATION:Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan\, 334 Amsterdam Ave\, New York\, NY\, 10023\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220928T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220928T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090317
CREATED:20220624T133227Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220928T183506Z
UID:6672-1664366400-1664370000@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:The Enduring Legacy of Chaim Gross (1902-1991) With Daughter Mimi Gross and Sasha Davis
DESCRIPTION:Chaim Gross (1902-1991) fled Europe as a teenager after experiencing the violence of World War I and the disruption of his artistic training due to anti-Semitic policies. He arrived in New York City in 1921 and quickly found a welcoming environment among fellow artists\, many of whom were also immigrants\, at the Educational Alliance Art School. Despite difficult beginnings\, Gross rose to become one of America’s leading twentieth-century sculptors and a key proponent of the direct carving movement. Although a small number of his works referenced his horrific early experiences and the later murder of family members in the Holocaust\, his themes were largely joyful\, showing mothers at play or acrobats and dancers. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImage above: Chaim Gross in the studio at Grand Street\, 1975. Unknown Photographer © The Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation\n\n\n\n\n\nChaim Gross\, Jewish Cemetery in Kolomyia\, 1920. Photo by Jacob Burckhardt © The Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation \n\n\nChaim Gross\, Acrobats Balancing\, 1938. Unknown photographer © The Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGross was born to a Jewish family in Austrian Galicia\, in the village of Wolowa in the Carpathian Mountains. In 1911\, his family moved to Kolomyia. During World War I\, Russian forces invaded Austria-Hungary; amidst the turmoil\, the Grosses fled Kolomyia. They returned when Austria retook the town in 1915\, refugees of the war. When World War I ended\, Gross and brother Abraham (Avrom-Leib) went to Budapest\, where Gross attended the city’s art academy and studied with painter Béla Uitz\, though within a year a new regime under Miklos Horthy took over and attempted to expel all Jews and foreigners from the country. After being deported from Hungary\, Gross began art studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna shortly before emigrating from Europe. \nIn New York City\, Gross’s studies continued at the Educational Alliance Art School on the Lower East Side. Gross first began to exhibit his work as a student at the Alliance in 1922\, joining the faculty in 1927. Gross also attended the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design from 1922-25\, where he studied sculpture with Elie Nadelman\, and at the Art Students League in 1926 with sculptor Robert Laurent.\nIn 1933\, Gross joined the government’s PWAP (Public Works of Art Project)\, which transitioned into the WPA (Works Progress Administration). Under these programs Gross taught and demonstrated art\, made sculptures for schools and public colleges\, and created works including for the Federal Trade Commission Building\, and for the France Overseas and Finnish Buildings at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Gross was recognized during these years with a silver medal at the 1937 Exposition universelle in Paris. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nChaim Gross\, The Family at Bleecker St. Park\, 1979. Unknown photographer © The Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation \n\nRene and Chaim Gross\, c 1980. Photo Susan Weiley. © The Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn the 1950s Gross began to make more bronze sculptures alongside his wood and stone pieces\, and in 1957 and 1959 he traveled to Rome to work with several well-known bronze foundries. In 1959\, a survey of Gross’s sculpture in wood\, stone\, and bronze was featured in the exhibit Four American Expressionists curated by Lloyd Goodrich at the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 1963\, Gross and his family moved from their longtime residence at 30 West 105th Street to Greenwich Village\, following the purchase of a four-story historic townhouse at 526 LaGuardia Place\, which is now the Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation. \n\nHere\, Gross’s studio and much of the family’s private living spaces have been preserved. In addition\, the Foundation rotates temporary exhibitions. The current exhibition Artists and Immigrants celebrates the 2021 centennial of their immigration to the United States. The exhibition explores the many artists in the Foundation’s collection that were also immigrants to the U.S. and the various policy changes and world events that affected immigration throughout the first half of the twentieth century. The exhibition includes nearly 100 works by over 50 artists. The larger Artists and Immigrants project also includes an exhibition catalogue and ongoing virtual programming. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation\, Chaim Gross’ Studio\, undated. Photo Elizabeth Felicella © The Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation \nThe Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation\, Dining Room\, undated. Photo Elizabeth Felicella © The Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation \n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis program delves into Gross’s biography\, work\, and the legacy that the Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation continues to preserve for the public benefit. Featuring Mimi Gross\, President of the Foundation and daughter of Renee and Chaim Gross\, and Sasha Davis\, Executive Director of the Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation. \nMimi Gross is a painter\, as well as a set-and-costume designer\, and maker of interior and exterior installations.  She has lived and worked in TriBeCa for the last 40 years\, and is known especially for her portraiture\, and for working with oil crayon and chalk pastel\, in addition to oil paint. Gross considers portraiture a form of mutual collaboration. Her paintings have a poignant expressiveness and connection to the subject. Hers is a world of bold\, unapologetic color.  The directness of Gross’s portraiture\, and her propensity to paint all aspects of her community can be linked in particular to the work of Alice Neel\, who was a close friend.\nGross’s work can be found in the collections of the Jewish Museum\, New York; the New York Public Library; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art\, New York. She is the recipient of awards and grants including from the New York State Council on the Arts\, the National Endowment for Visual Arts\, the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters\, and a “Bessie” for sets and costumes.\nGross grew up in South Harlem in Manhattan. Her father was Chaim Gross\, the sculptor known for woodcarving\, and her parents were consummate art collectors. \nSasha Davis is Executive Director of the Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation\, the historic home and studio of American sculptor Chaim Gross (1902-91) in New York City. She is responsible for the Foundation’s operations\, strategy\, curatorial vision\, and programming. Davis was appointed Executive Director in 2017 after serving as Curator of Collections. Prior to her work at the Foundation\, Davis held internships at The Museum of Modern Art\, MoMA PS1\, and the Newark Museum. Davis holds a BA from New York University in Art History with a minor in Studio Art and a certificate in Arts Administration and Collections Management\, also from New York University. Davis regularly presents on the Foundation’s collection and the work of Gross\, notably at the College Art Association\, Southeastern College Arts Conference\, and Provincetown Art Association and Museum. She has contributed to the Aspen Institute’s Artist-Endowed Foundation Initiative and completed the Seminar on Strategy for Artist-Endowed Foundation Leaders in 2018 with the Aspen Institute and University of Miami School of Law. She is also an alumna of the distinguished 2016 Attingham Summer School. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation’s collection numbers over 12\,000 objects\, with significant holdings in African\, American\, European\, Oceanic\, Pre-Columbian\, and decorative arts in addition to an extensive library and archive. \n\n\n\n\n\nThe Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation\n\n\n\n\n\nThis event is part of our monthly series\nFlight or Fight. stories of artists under repression. \nFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nWe offer all our virtual programs free of charge. Please help us keep it that way. YOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\n\n\n\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/chaim-gross/
LOCATION:Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan\, 334 Amsterdam Ave\, New York\, NY\, 10023\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220907T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220907T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090317
CREATED:20220328T100057Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220907T195251Z
UID:6447-1662552000-1662555600@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:Behind the Bronze.  The Sculptor Maurice Blik (born 1939 Amsterdam) Featuring Maurice Blik and Julian Freeman (both London\, UK)
DESCRIPTION:Maurice Blik has lived in England since being liberated from Bergen Belsen concentration camp\, where he was taken as a small child from his birthplace\, Amsterdam. The ability to come to terms with this experience and to confront the face of humanity that he has witnessed\, stayed silent in his life for some 40 years. It finally found a voice in the passionate sculptures which began to emerge in the late 1970s when he created a series of horses’ heads. These noble and benevolent creatures posses an energy and a life force that seem just barely harnessed long enough to take their shape in the clay itself. Later he progressed to more figurative work in which the irrepressible joy of life and the destructive\, inpenetrable shadow of existence\, are held together in a struggling unity. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImage above: Studio of Maurice Blik\, London (UK)\n\n\n\n\nMaurice Blik\, Second Breath\, 2011. Bronze\, Height 70.9 inches (1.8m). Chandler Hospital\, Kentucky (US) \n\n\n\n\n\nThis program features Maurice Blik\, who will read from his recently published autobiographical book\, ‘The Art of Survival’\, followed by a conversation with the British art historian\, curator\, author and innovative educator Julian Freeman. Their conversation will offer an insightful exploration of Blik’s sculptures and the influence his life experiences have on his artwork.  The event is moderated by FAS Director Rachel Stern. \n\n\n\n\n\nMaurice Blik\, Summers Return. Bronze \n\n\n\n\n\nMaurice Blik was born to Jewish parents in Amsterdam in 1939. In 1943\, Blik’s father was sent to Auschwitz\, while Blik\, his sister\, his pregnant mother and grandmother were sent to the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. Liberated by the Russian army in 1945\, he moved with his mother and oldest sister to England.\nBlik had an extensive career in Art Education\, teaching at all levels from Primary to Postgraduate. He studied sculpture at Hornsey College of Art in London (1960) and has a post-graduate Art Teacher’s Certificate with distinction from the University of London (1969).\nIn the 1980s he began to develop his own artwork and in 1991 gave up teaching to work full time as a sculptor. He was awarded resident status by the US Government in 1992 as ‘person of extraordinary artistic ability’ and was elected President of the Royal British Society of Sculptors (1996-1997)\, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (1997). Blik is exhibiting widely both in the UK and the US. His sculptures can be found in private and public collections\, including ‘Renaissance’ at East India Docks in London (1995); ‘Behold’ at Middlesex University in London (2000); ’Splishsplash’ at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville\, US (2005); ‘Second Breath’ at Chandler Hospital of University of Kentucky\, US (2011)\, or ‘Every Which Way’ at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire\, UK (2017).\nBlik has been the subject of films and documentaries: ‘The Art of Remembering’ BBC\, directed by Tim Robinson (1998); performance film ‘Second Breath’ directed by Gillian Lacey (2007)\, ‘Hollow Dog’ directed by by Clive Martin Ya Media (2017)\, ‘The Last Survivors’ BBC\, directed by Arthur Cary (2019)\, and ‘Belsen Our Story’ BBC\, directed by Tom Stubberfield (2020). \n\n\n\n\n\nMaurice Blik\, Thinking. Bronze. \nMaurice Blik\, Renaissance\, 1993. Bronze\, Height 177 inches (4.5m). Docklands\, London \nJulian Freeman\, PhD\, (b 1950) is an art historian\, curator\, author and innovative educator who has worked almost exclusively in and with galleries\, universities and colleges in London and the South of England. He is presently a Gallery Educator for The Courtauld Gallery\, London.\nJulian’s research preferences lie within modern British art and its contexts\, and he has drawn on this for contributions to a range of day-schools and conferences\, from Brighton to New York to Reykjavik. He has reviewed for art journals past and present\, including The Burlington Magazine\, Apollo\, The Art Book\, and The British Art Journal. There have also been two books\, each intended to demystify its subject: the very irreverent Art: a crash course (Simon & Schuster 1998)\, and British Art: a walk round the rusty pier (Southbank 2006). An important re-evaluation of the later work of the English painter-printmaker (and war artist) Anthony Gross was published in October 2021 by the Goldmark Gallery in Rutland. \nORDER THE BOOK “THE ART OF SURVIVAL” HEREThis event is part of our monthly series\nFlight or Fight. stories of artists under repression. \nFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \n\nThank you for being part of our community. Your support makes our work possible. \n\nSUPPORT US
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/maurice-blik/
LOCATION:Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan\, 334 Amsterdam Ave\, New York\, NY\, 10023\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220818T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220818T210000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090317
CREATED:20220714T184052Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220826T094955Z
UID:6696-1660849200-1660856400@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:Sneak Preview of Theatrical Release "Three Minutes - A Lengthening"Post-Screening Q&A with Director Bianca Stigter and Author Glenn Kurtz\, moderated by Dr. Ori Z SoltesQuad Cinema\, New York
DESCRIPTION:“‘Three Minutes’ is more than a documentary about the Holocaust — it is an investigative drama\, a meditation on the ethics of moving images and a ghost story about people who might be forgotten should we take those images for granted.” Beatrice Loayza\, The New York Times (Critic’s Pick) [FULL ARTICLE HERE] \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThank you to everyone who made the sneak screening such a huge success! Catch a screening of the film: \n\n\n\n\n\nNOW SCREENING NATIONWIDE – FIND YOUR CITY HERE\n\n\n\n\nThree minutes of footage of a 16mm home movie found in an attic in South Florida\, shot by David Kurtz in 1938\, are the only moving images remaining of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk\, Poland before the Holocaust. \nThose precious minutes are examined in intricate detail to unravel the human stories hidden in the celluloid. Tracing the story of those three minutes begins with the journey of Glenn Kurtz to discover more about his grandfather’s film\, ultimately leading to identifying people and places otherwise erased from history\, and helping to connect a Holocaust Survivor with his lost childhood. Produced by acclaimed Director Bianca Stigter. Co-Produced by Steve McQueen (Director\, ’12 Years a Slave’). Narrated by Helena Bonham Carter. \nThe Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art hosted a sneak-preview of the theatrical release of Three Minutes: A Lengthening at the Quad Cinema\, followed by a Q&A with Director Bianca Stigter and Author Glenn Kurtz\, moderated by Dr. Ori Z Soltes. This special screening is being co-sponsored by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany New York and the World Jewish Congress North America\, in cooperation with the Abraham Berger Foundation\, Descendants of Holocaust Survivors\, German Film Office (a joint initiative of German Films and Goethe-Institut)\, Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC)\, Leo Baeck Institute\, March of the Living\, Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan\, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research\, 3GNY\, 3GNJ & 3G Philly\, and Mean Streets Management\, Overton VC and Cayle White Advisory Group. \n\n\n\n\n\nReception for New York Theatrical Release Sneak Preview: (from left) Jeremy Robert\, Consul General of France\, author Glenn Kurtz\, film director Bianca Stigter\, WJC Executive director Betty Ehrenberg\, Fritz Ascher Society director Rachel Stern\, Anton Klix\, Consul of Federal Republic of Germany in NY; Rachel Stern at Olami Manhattan\nReception for August 18 New York Theatrical Release Sneak Preview at Olami Manhattan \n\n\n\n\n\nOn August 18\, the post-screening Q&A with book author Glenn Kurtz and filmmaker Bianca Stigter was moderated by Ori Z Soltes\, PhD\, who teaches at Georgetown University across the disciplines of theology\, art history\, philosophy and politics. He is the former Director and Curator of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum where he curated some 80 exhibitions. He is the author of several hundred articles and catalogue essays\, and the author or editor of 25 books\, including The Ashen Rainbow: The Holocaust and the Arts; Symbols of Faith: How Jewish\, Christian\, and Muslim Art Draw from the Same Source; and Tradition and Transformation: Three Millennia of Jewish Art and Architecture (second edition forthcoming). \n\n\n\n\n\nAugust 18 Sneak Screening of THREE MINUTES – A LENGTHENING with post-screening Q&A with director Bianca Stigter and author Glenn Kurtz\, moderated by Dr. Ori Z Soltes\, Georgetown University.\nAugust 18 Sneak Screening of THREE MINUTES – A LENGTHENING with post-screening Q&A with director Bianca Stigter and author Glenn Kurtz\, moderated by Dr. Ori Z Soltes\, Georgetown University.\n\n\n\n\n\nAs a child\, David Kurtz emigrated from Poland to the United States. In 1938 he returned to Europe for a sightseeing trip and whilst there he visited Nasielsk\, the town of his birth. Specifically for this trip\, he bought a 16mm camera\, then still a novelty rarely seen in a small town never visited by tourists. Eighty years later his ordinary pictures\, most of them in color\, have become something extraordinary. They are the only moving images that remain of Nasielsk prior to the Second World War. Almost all the people we see were murdered in the Holocaust. \nFor this film essay\, director Bianca Stigter examined the footage in the fullest detail\, to see what the celluloid would yield to viewers almost a century later. The footage is treated as an archaeological artifact to gain entrance to the past. \nThree Minutes – A Lengthening is an experiment that turns scarcity into a quality. Living in a time marked by an abundance of images that are never viewed twice\, we do the opposite here: circle the same moments again and again\, convinced that they will give us a different meaning each time. The film starts and ends with the same unedited found footage\, but the second time you will look at it quite differently. \nThree Minutes – A Lengthening investigates the nature of film and the perception of time. Through the act of watching\, the viewers partake in the creation of a memorial. \n\n\n\n\n\nJewish townspeople of the predominantly Jewish village of Nasielsk\, Poland in 1938 as seen in Bianca Stigter’s Three Minutes – A Lengthening. Image courtesy of Family Affair Films\, © US Holocaust Memorial Museum. \nChildren living in the predominantly Jewish village of Nasielsk\, Poland in 1938 as seen in Bianca Stigter’s Three Minutes – A Lengthening. Image courtesy of Family Affair Films\, © US Holocaust Memorial Museum\nIn Three Minutes – A Lengthening Glenn Kurtz shares his extensive knowledge of his grandfather’s footage from Nasielsk\, which had 3000 Jewish inhabitants in 1938. By the end of the Second World War fewer than 100 were still alive. Glenn Kurtz’ book Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film\, traces his four-year journey to identify the people in his grandfather’s images. \n\nBianca’s feature film directorial debut\, Three Minutes: A Lengthening\, World-Premiered at the 2021 Venice Film Festival\, followed by Telluride\, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)\, and DOC NY. The film was accepted to the 2022 Palm Springs International Film Festival and screened at the Sundance Film Festival. The film had its Southeast Premiere at the 2022 Miami Jewish Film Festival\, won the Documentary Jury Prize at the 2022 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival\, the Best Documentary Award at the 2022 Virgin Dublin International Film Festival\, the European Young Jury Award and a Special Mention at the 2022 Brussels International Film Festival\, and the 2022 DocAviv and Yad Vashem’s Prize for Cinematic Excellence in a Documentary on the Holocaust.\n\n\n\n\nBianca Stigter\, director of Three Minutes - A Lengthening. Photo credit: Annaleen Louwes\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBianca Stigter is a writer\, director\, historian and cultural critic. She made the short film essays Three Minutes -Thirteen Minutes – Thirty Minutes (2014) and I Kiss This Letter - Farewell Letters from Amsterdammers (2018). She is associate producer of Steve McQueen’s feature films 12 Years a Slave and Widows. In 2019 she published the book Atlas of an Occupied City: Amsterdam 1940-1945.\n\nSteve McQueen is an artist and filmmaker. He directed four critically acclaimed feature films\, Hunger\, Shame\, Widows and 12 Years A Slave\, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. McQueen’s most recent project\, Small Axe\, is an anthology of five films which brings to life the experiences of London’s West Indian community. Two of the films were selected for the 2020 Cannes Film Festival. McQueen’s artwork is exhibited and held in major museums around the world. In 2019/2020 Tate Modern showed a retrospective of his work and Tate Britain was home to his Year Three exhibit. \nHelena Bonham Carter is a two-time Academy Award nominee for her roles in The Wings of the Dove and The King’s Speech (BAFTA winner for Best Actress). Other film credits include Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass; A Room with a View; Howard’s End; Harry Potter; Corpse Bride; Ocean’s 8 and more recently Enola Holmes. Helena recently played Princess Margaret in the highly successful The Crown for Netflix (SAG Award winner). Other credits include Enid; Live from Baghdad; Merlin; Fatal Deception: Mrs Lee Harvey Oswald. Helena has voiced many audio books\, documentaries\, animations and short films. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nPlease become part of our SUMMER CAMPAIGN. YOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\n\n\n\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/three-minutes/
LOCATION:Quad Cinema\, 34 West 13th Street\, New York\, NY\, 10011\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220803T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220803T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090317
CREATED:20220519T170135Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220803T185223Z
UID:6554-1659528000-1659531600@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:Ludwig and Else Meidner. An Artist Couple Exiled in LondonLecture by Erik Riedel\, Frankfurt/Main (Germany)
DESCRIPTION:When Ludwig and Else Meidner met in 1925\, he was already an established artist well-known for his so-called Apocalyptic Landscapes. Although Else started as Ludwig’s student\, she developed a distinct independent style and he always praised her art as more refined than his own “coarse” works. As Else Meidner slowly gained recognition in Berlin art circles\, her career was abruptly cut short by the Nazi-regime in 1933. She moved to Cologne with her husband in 1935; and they emigrated to England in 1939 only a few weeks before the war started. In London both lived largely unnoticed by the English art scene. But while Ludwig frustratedly returned to Germany\, she decided to stay in England. \nTheir complicated relationship developed from intial passion and humorous banter to artistic rivalry and finally estrangement while each of them followed their separate artistic path. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImage above: Else Meidner\, Masks\, ca. 1960-62\, oil on canvas. © Ludwig Meidner-Archiv\, Jewish Museum Frankfurt\n\n\n\n\nLudwig Meidner\, Street at Kreuzberg in Berlin\, 1918\, heliogravure after a drawing from 1913. © Ludwig Meidner-Archiv\, Jewish Museum Frankfurt \nLudwig Meidner\, I\, Battered Lump of Clay\, 1917\, ink. © Ludwig Meidner-Archiv\, Jewish Museum Frankfurt \nLudwig Meidner (1884–1966) became famous for his expressionist paintings and drawings centering on big city dynamics\, as well as catastrophes and the end of the world. At the outbreak of World War I\, as the imagined catastrophes of what are referred to as his Apocalyptic Landscapes seemed to have become a horrible reality\, Meidner increasingly turned to religious themes. His expressive figures hover between ecstasy and despair. In the mid-1920s\, he returned to his religious roots and became a devout Jew. Subsequently\, religious topics became an important focus of his artistic work.\nIn order to escape antisemitic repressions\, he moved to Cologne where he became an art teacher at Yawneh Jewish School in 1935. In 1939 he fled with his family to England\, where he was interned as an enemy alien on the Isle of Man. While in exile\, Meidner produced primarily drawings and watercolor paintings\, but very few oil paintings. Despite the disheartening impoverishment and lack of acknowledgement as an artist that characterized Meidner’s life in London\, in an artistic sense\, these years are regarded as highly productive.\nMeidner returned to Germany in 1953\, where he was moderately successful as portraitist. \nElse Meidner\, Self-portrait with Red Tablecloth\, 1926/27\, oil on canvas. © Ludwig Meidner-Archiv\, Jewish Museum Frankfurt \nElse Meidner\, Interior\, ca. 1956-60\, oil on canvas. © Ludwig Meidner-Archiv\, Jewish Museum Frankfurt \nElse Meidner (1901–1987) grew up the daughter of the well-to-do Berlin physician Dr. Heinrich Meyer and his wife\, Margarete\, née Fürst. She was encouraged by Käthe Kollwitz and Max Slevogt to pursue her dream of becoming an artist and studied at the Applied Arts School and the Art Academy in Berlin. She later attended Ludwig Meidner’s drawing class at the Berlin Studienatelier für Malerei und Plastik.\nShe was predominantly a portraitist but also created landscapes and symbolic scenes. In the late 1920s\, Else Meidner slowly gained recognition in the Berlin art circles. In May 1932\, she held a solo exhibition at Juryfreie in Berlin that was well received by critics. Her career was abruptly cut short by the Nazi-regime in 1933. She moved to Cologne with her husband in 1935; and they emigrated to England in 1939 only a few weeks before the war started.\nIn her memoirs\, she writes\, “Here in London I walk about as in a dream and am surprised I’m here. Some plants thrive wherever you transplant them\, but I could never put down new roots. My roots are in Berlin.” However\, when Ludwig Meidner moved back to Germany in 1953\, Else Meidner remained in London. \nLudwig and Else Meidner at the opening of their joint exhibition at Ben Uri Gallery in London\, 1949 (detail). © Ludwig Meidner-Archiv\, Jewish Museum Frankfurt \nIn this lecture\, Erik Riedel\, head of exhibitions at the Jewish Museum Frankfurt and curator of the museum’s Ludwig Meidner Archives in Frankfurt/Main (Germany)\, speaks about Ludwig and Else Meidner’s art\, their complicated relationship\, and finally estrangement. \nErik Riedel studied art history\, history\, and philosophy in Heidelberg and Frankfurt. He is head of exhibitions at the Jewish Museum Frankfurt and curator of the museum’s Ludwig Meidner Archive. The archive consists of the artistic estates of Ludwig and Else Meidner and several other artists who were forced into exile. Erik Riedel has curated numerous exhibitions on 19th- and 20th-century art\, for instance on Moritz Daniel Oppenheim\, Ludwig and Else Meidner\, Charlotte Salomon\, and Arie Goral. Apart from several exhibitions catalogues he has published the catalogue raisonné of Ludwig Meidner’s sketchbooks and the conference proceedings “Ludwig Meidner. Expressionism\, Ecstasy\, Exile” (2018). \nThe event is moderated by FAS Director Rachel Stern. \nThis event is part of our monthly series\nFlight or Fight. stories of artists under repression. \nFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \n\nAll our virtual programs are free of charge. Please help us keep it that way and join our SUMMER CAMPAIGN. YOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\nSUPPORT US
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/meidner/
LOCATION:Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan\, 334 Amsterdam Ave\, New York\, NY\, 10023\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220726T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220726T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090317
CREATED:20220608T004759Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220825T170120Z
UID:6610-1658836800-1658840400@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:Death and Immortality:The Gentle Power of Hans von Trotha's "Pollak's Arm" Hans von Trotha and Ori Z Soltes in conversation
DESCRIPTION:Ludwig Pollak (Prague 1868-1943 Auschwitz) was an extraordinary connoisseur of antiquities–an Austro-Hungarian Jew whose path into academia was impeded by his religion\, but who settled in Rome\, where he carved out a unique place for himself as an expert in recognizing\, understanding\, and organizing great works of art. It was he who shaped and articulated the magnificent collections of JP Morgan. Of perhaps even greater consequence\, his astute eye saw a sculpted fragment of an arm in a flea market that\, he deduced\, was the limb missing from the spectacular Hellenistic-Roman sculptural group known as Laocoon. He gifted that arm fragment to the Vatican so that it might complete the work that occupied an important place within its museum collections. \nHans Von Trotha’s spellbinding and sensitive novel\, Pollak’s Arm\, derives from a treble consequence of these data: that Pollak was\, as a Jew\, on the list of those to be deported to Auschwitz when the Nazis took control of Rome; that a key figure in the Church hierarchy–the semi-anonymous Monsignor F–aware of this\, dispatched an emissary to Pollak’s apartment to bring his family and him to the safe territory of the Vatican; that Pollak refused asylum–spending the waning hours of his freedom sharing many of the details of his life with that emissary\, who reported them to the Monsignor\, and thus to us\, listening eagerly over the Monsignor’s shoulder to the mesmerizing details of a narrative that leads ultimately to a failed rescue attempt: Pollak and his family disappear into the black hole of Auschwitz. \nWatch the lively presentation by Hans von Trotha\, and a penetrating conversation between him and Georgetown University Professor Ori Z Soltes\, moderated by Rachel Stern\, Director of the Fritz Ascher Society. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImage above: Book cover\, POLLAK’S ARM by Hans von Trotha\, New York: New Vessel Press\, 2022\n\n\n\n\nLaocoön and His Sons\, attributed by Pliny the Elder to the Rhodian sculptors Agesander\, Athenodoros\, and Polydorus\, Vatican Museums\, Rome \nHans von Trotha\, PhD\, is a German historian\, novelist and journalist who spent ten years as editorial director of the Nicolai publishing house in Berlin (Germany). \nOri Z Soltes\, PhD\, teaches at Georgetown University across the disciplines of theology\, art history\, philosophy and politics. He is the former Director and Curator of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum where he curated some 80 exhibitions. He is the author of several hundred articles and catalogue essays\, and the author or editor of 25 books\, including The Ashen Rainbow: The Holocaust and the Arts; Symbols of Faith: How Jewish\, Christian\, and Muslim Art Draw from the Same Source; and Tradition and Transformation: Three Millennia of Jewish Art and Architecture (second edition forthcoming). \nLudwig Pollak with his family: his wife Julia Pollak\, née Süssmann\, as well as Susanna Pollak\, far right\, and Wolfgang Pollak\, middle. The eldest daughter Angelina\, far left\, died in 1942. Photo by Francesco Reale\, Roma 1921\, Museo Barracco\, Archivio Pollak 46.2.1. \nStudy in Pollak’s apartment in Palazzo Odescalchi\, illustrated postcard\, Rome\, Barracco Museum\, Pollak Archive \nPOLLAK’S ARM by Hans von Trotha was translated from the German by Elisabeth Lauffer. New York: New Vessel Press\, 2022. Paperback ISBN 978-1-954404-00-7. \nPURCHASE THE BOOKFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \n\nAll our virtual programs are free of charge. Please help us keep it that way and join our SUMMER CAMPAIGN. YOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\nSUPPORT US
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/pollaks-arm/
LOCATION:Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan\, 334 Amsterdam Ave\, New York\, NY\, 10023\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220720T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220720T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090317
CREATED:20220610T005220Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220720T172912Z
UID:6633-1658318400-1658322000@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:Nazi Billionaires. The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest DynastiesAuthor David de Jong and Rachel Stern in conversation
DESCRIPTION:This event features a conversation between Rachel Stern and David de Jong\, author of the landmark work of investigative journalism\, which reveals the true story of how Germany’s wealthiest business dynasties amassed untold money and power by abetting the atrocities of the Third Reich – and how America knowingly allowed these horrors to happen. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn 1946\, Günther Quandt – patriarch of Germany’s most iconic industrial empire\, a dynasty that today controls BMW – was arrested for suspected Nazi collaboration. Quandt claimed that he had been forced to join the party by his archrival\, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels\, and the courts acquitted him. But Quandt lied. And his heirs\, and those of other Nazi billionaires\, have only grown wealthier in the generations since\, while their reckoning with this dark past remains incomplete at best. Many of them continue to control swaths of the world economy\, owning iconic brands whose products blanket the globe. The brutal legacy of the dynasties that dominated Daimler-Benz\, cofounded Allianz\, and still control Porsche\, Volkswagen\, and BMW has remained hidden in plain sight—until now. \nUsing a wealth of untapped sources\, NAZI BILLIONAIRES shows how these tycoons seized Jewish businesses\, procured slave laborers\, and ramped up weapons production to equip Hitler’s army as Europe burned around them. Most shocking of all\, de Jong exposes how America’s political expediency enabled these billionaires to get away with their crimes\, covering up a bloodstain that defiles the German and global economies to this day. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nDavid de Jong is a journalist who previously covered European banking and finance from Amsterdam and hidden wealth and billionaire fortunes from New York for Bloomberg News. His work has also appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek\, the Wall Street Journal\, and the Dutch Financial Daily. A native of the Netherlands\, de Jong currently lives in Tel Aviv and is the Middle East correspondent for the Dutch Financial Daily. He spent four years reporting from Berlin while researching and writing this book.  \nPURCHASE THE BOOKNazi Billionaires. The Dark History of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties by David de Jong. New York: Mariner Books. An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers\, 2022.\nHardcover ISBN: 9781328497888\, Audio ISBN: 9780358690177\, E-book ISBN: 9780063078949  \nWe offer all our virtual programs free of charge. Please help us keep it that way and become part of our SUMMER CAMPAIGN. \nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \nSUPPORT US
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/nazi-billionaires/
LOCATION:Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan\, 334 Amsterdam Ave\, New York\, NY\, 10023\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220706T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220706T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090317
CREATED:20220610T022507Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220706T175202Z
UID:6605-1657108800-1657112400@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:Judith and Gerson Leiber.A Life of Beauty\, Love and InspirationLecture by Ann Fristoe Stewart
DESCRIPTION:“If Romeo and Juliet had lived into their 90s\, they would have been Judy and Gerson.” That’s how Jeffrey Sussman described Judith and Gerson Leiber. \nJoin us as Ann Fristoe Stewart gives a unique insight into the astonishing story of famed handbag designer Judith Leiber\, a survivor of Hitler’s Europe who came to America and took the fashion accessory industry by storm\, and of highly accomplished and creative artist Gerson Leiber\, and speaks about the creativity\, humanity\, the love and the genius of Judith and Gerson Leiber. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImage above: Judith and Gerson Leiber © The Leiber Collection\n\n\n\n\n\nJudith Leiber\, Peacock-Shaped Minaudiére with Multicolor Crystal Rhinestones and Black Onyx & Sodalite Stone Details\, 2004. Photo credit: Gary Mamay © The Leiber Collection \n\n\nJudith Leiber\, Gold Box with Multicolor Crystal Rhinestone Wave Design & Black Onyx Stones on Body & Lock\, 2004. Photo credit: Gary Mamay © The Leiber Collection \n\n\n\n\n\n\nJudith Leiber (born Judit Pető\, 1921–2018) was known for her small crystal-covered handbags called minaudiéres\, many of which took the whimsical forms of animals\, flowers or other objects. The bags were often decorated with gems or semi-precious stones and were gold or silver plated. Singers\, Hollywood celebrities\, and Divas\, as well as many US First Ladies\, have carried her bags.  Judith Leiber has won almost every award offered to fashion designers\, and her handbags are in the collections of many museums including The Museum of Modern Art in New York City\, The Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Corcoran Museum in Washington DC\, to name a few. \nBorn in 1921\, Judith Peto Leiber was the first female apprentice and master in the Hungarian handbag guild. She survived World War II in hiding\, and met her husband Gerson\, an American soldier\, in the streets of Budapest when the city was liberated. After moving to the United States as a GI bride\, Leiber worked as a pattern maker and then foreman for several handbag companies until she formed her own company in 1963. Initially\, she and her husband were the sole employees of the company. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nGerson Leiber\, Structured Model in Blue\, 1993. Oil on linen\, 74 x 62 inches. Photo credit: Gary Mamay © The Leiber Collection \n\n\nGerson Leiber\, Model in Blue\, 1981. Oil on linen\, 60 x 50 inches. Photo credit: Gary Mamay © The Leiber Collection \n\n\n\n\n\n\nGerson Leiber\, also known as Gus (1921-2018)\, was a Modernist Artist who created paintings\, prints and sculptures inspired by his life in the Fashion world and by his beloved gardens. His work has been featured in several prominent US museums\, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art\, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC\, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. \nBorn in Brooklyn in 1921\, Gerson showed promise in his high school art classes. Later\, while stationed in Hungary in the army\, he took classes at the Royal Academy of Art in Budapest. After the war\, he studied at the Art Students League–painting with Louis Bosa and printmaking with Will Barnet. Later\, at the Brooklyn Museum’s art school\, Gerson began engraving with Gabor Peterdi. His prints won many awards and were featured in many one-person shows\, including exhibitions at Associated American Artists and the Alex Rosenberg Gallery. \nTo support the couple during his art studies\, Gerson’s wife\, Judith Leiber\, designed handbags for major manufacturers. In the 1960s\, Gerson persuaded Judith to produce her bags independently\, and they opened their own business based on Judith’s designs. The now-famous company reflects the couple’s shared taste in art. \n\n\n\n\n\nJudith and Gerson Leiber In Gus’ Studio. Photo Lindsay Morris © The Leiber Collection \n\nThe Leiber Collection Museum. Photo credit: Wil Weiss © The Leiber Collection \n\n\n\n\n\n\nAnn Fristoe Stewart is the Director and Curator of The Leiber Museum and Sculpture Garden in East Hampton\, New York. She had the great honor of working side by side with Judith and Gerson Leiber until their deaths in 2018. She is dedicated to keeping their legacy alive through the continuation of their museum\, and through sharing their extraordinary works and the story of their fascinating lives with fans around the globe.\nAnn received a Masters of Fine Arts degree from Parsons School of Design in New York City\, where she worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and for artists such as Jeff Koons\, Rona Pondick and Kara Walker. \nThe Leiber Collection is housed in a magnificent Renaissance styled Palladian edifice\, which sits majestically in a sublime sculpture garden designed by Gerson Leiber. It is located in the East Hampton\, New York hamlet of Springs. \n\n\n\n\n\nTHE LEIBER COLLECTION\n\n\n\n\n\nThis event is part of our monthly series\nFlight or Fight. stories of artists under repression. \nFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nWe offer all our virtual programs free of charge. Please help us keep it that way and become part of our SUMMER CAMPAIGN. \nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\n\n\n\nDONATE HERE
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/leiber/
LOCATION:Quad Cinema\, 34 West 13th Street\, New York\, NY\, 10011\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220629T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220629T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090318
CREATED:20220607T104911Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220630T114820Z
UID:6590-1656504000-1656507600@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:#LastSeen - Pictures of Nazi DeportationsLecture by Christoph Kreutzmüller\, Berlin (Germany)
DESCRIPTION:Between 1938 and 1945\, the National Socialists deported hundreds of thousands of men\, women and children from the German Reich to ghettos and camps. The deportations took place everywhere\, in broad daylight and for all to see. And yet so far only a few photos are known. Knowing these pictures tell many stories – of the deportees\, the perpetrators\, and the spectators – this initiative invites your participation in helping us to discover and analyze previously unknown photographs that survive in museums\, archives\, private attics\, basements\, or dusty photo albums. \nIn this lecture\, Berlin-based Dr. Christoph Kreutzmüller\, historian and coordinator developing the educational tool for #LastSeen\, speaks about the importance of this project\, and how you can become part of it.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImage above: Deportation photos can be hidden in photo boxes or family albums from the Nazi era (Photo: Christoph Kreutzmüller)\n\n\n\n\nPhotos of Deportations from Brandenburg an der Havel (Germany)\, Arolsen Archives \n\n\n\n\n\nThe 550 existing photographs of deportations from the German Reich are often the last known images of the victims of persecution before they were murdered. The pictures show the crimes in a local context. The deportations took place on public squares\, in front of buildings and on streets that are often still part of townscapes today. But there is still so much we don’t know\, because we have absolutely no photos of many deportations. \nPhotos of Nazi mass deportations have never before been brought together\, made available as a collection\, and analyzed collectively in any systematic way. Nor has there been a concerted effort to search for more photos. \nThis new project aims to gather\, analyze\, and digitally publish pictures of Nazi mass deportations of Jews\, Romani people and people with disabilities from the German Reich between 1938 and 1945. The project is a cooperation of the Arolsen Archives\, the City Archives of Munich\, the Center for the Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University Berlin\, the House of the Wannsee Conference memorial site\, and the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research. \n#LastSeen also focuses explicitly on the deportation of Sinti and Roma people and the Krankenmorde to find potential leads to more information and increase public awareness and remembrance of these groups of victims. \n\n\n\n\n\nAsperg\, May 22\, 1940: Several hundred Sinti and Roma people from all over southwest Germany were forced to assemble at the Hohenasperg near Stuttgart on May 16\, 1940. They were then deported from the Asperg train station to concentration and extermination camps. (Photo: German Federal Archives\, R 165 image 244-47\, no information available – photographer unknown) \n\n\n\n\n\n\nDr. Christoph Kreutzmüller is a Berlin based curator\, historian and educator working for the House of the Wannsee-Conference memorial and education centre and Arolsen Archives. From 2015 to 2019\, he prepared the segment “Catastrophe” for the new permanent exhibition of the Jewish Museum Berlin. His numerous publications include the award winning “Final Sale in Berlin. The destruction of Jewish commercial activity. 1930-1945” (New York/Oxford 2015) and (with Tal Bruttmann and Stefan Hördler)\, Die fotografische Inszenierung des Verbrechens. A Photo Album from Auschwitz\, Darmstadt 2019. \n\nKreutzmüller describes the importance of #LastSeen\, “These photos show that the deportations were organized by the police\, city administrators and the railway company. It was possible to watch this process in action\, and people did – including photographers. The pictures show the deportees as well as many perpetrators and spectators. You see neighbors watching the deportees as they are sent into the unknown. Today we know the deportees were mostly being sent straight to their death. That’s what gives the pictures such an impact even now.” … “This raises questions we have to grapple with: What would I have done if I had seen this happening back then? And what do we do today when we see obvious injustices taking place? Do we step in? Do we act\, or do we remain passive spectators? Is there any such thing as a passive spectator – or are spectators always an audience?” \n\n\n\n\n\n\nMORE INFORMATION ABOUT #LASTSEEN\n\n\n\n\n\n\nYou can find future events and the recordings of past events HERE. \n\nWe offer all our virtual programs free of charge. Please help us keep it that way and become part of our SUMMER CAMPAIGN. \nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\n\n\n\nSUPPORT US
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/lastseen/
LOCATION:Quad Cinema\, 34 West 13th Street\, New York\, NY\, 10011\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220622T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220622T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090318
CREATED:20220601T225309Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220622T190142Z
UID:6586-1655899200-1655902800@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:Charlotte. Animated Film about German-Jewish Artist Charlotte Salomon (1917-1943)Producer Julia Rosenberg in conversation with Ori Z Soltes
DESCRIPTION:Join us as the film’s producer\, Julia Rosenberg\, speaks with Ori Z Soltes from Georgetown University in Washington DC about her motivation\, thoughts and decisions that went into the creation of her newly released animated film “Charlotte.” Moderated by Rachel Stern\, Executive Director of the Fritz Ascher Society. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImage above: Film poster “Charlotte”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“Charlotte” is an animated drama that tells the true story of Charlotte Salomon (1917-1943)\, a young German-Jewish painter who comes of age in Berlin on the eve of the Second World War. Fiercely imaginative and deeply gifted\, she dreams of becoming an artist. Her first love applauds her talent\, which emboldens her resolve. But the world around her is changing quickly and dangerously\, limiting her options and derailing her dream. When anti-Semitic policies inspire violent mobs\, she leaves Berlin for the safety of the South of France. There she begins to paint again\, and finds new love. But her work is interrupted\, this time by a family tragedy that reveals an even darker secret. Believing that only the extraordinary will save her\, she embarks on the monumental adventure of painting her life story.  \nDirected by Eric Warin and Tahir Rana\nWritten by Erik Rutherford and David Bezmozgis\nStarring Keira Knightley\, Brenda Bleythyn\, Jim Broadbent\, Sam Claflin\, Eddie Marsan\, Helen McCrory\, Sophie Okonedo\, Mark Strong  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nStill image from “Charlotte\,” Charlotte Salomon paints in her studio \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe idea for making Charlotte dawned on a morning run. “I had this idea that Charlotte Salomon drew her life story\, so I had to produce an animated film\, a film that’s drawn\, of her life story\,” explains producer Julia Rosenberg (Natasha\, Being Julia). The inspiration\, however\, was more than just a runner’s high. Rosenberg had received Salomon’s Life? Or Theatre? at age 13\, and\, by her own admission\, almost fetishized the book. “I’ve seen that same look in the eyes of other people who know her\,” she explains. “One becomes really attached to Charlotte and her work. It’s almost fierce.” \n\nThe film “Charlotte” can be watched on each major platform: iTunes\, AppleTV\, Amazon\, Vudu\, and Google. \n\n\n\n\n\nWATCH “CHARLOTTE” ON AMAZON\n\n\n\n\n\nOver her twenty-five year career\, Julia Rosenberg has been one of Canada’s top executives and producers. After eighteen months as a feature film executive at Alliance Communications Corporation\, she was the only executive who moved with Robert Lantos to his new venture\, Serendipity Point Films. From 1998 through 2004\, Julia oversaw all development and production at Serendipity\, during which time eight features and one series were greenlit\, among them “Being Julia” starring Annette Bening. In 2005\, she launched January Films where she has produced award-winning features and documentaries\, most recently “Charlotte”\, an animated feature for adults starring Keira Knightley (and Marion Cotillard in the French version) that premiered the English version at TIFF 2021 and the French version at Annecy 2022. Drawing on her relationships at home and abroad\, Julia has produced with the best of Canadian and international talent\, executives\, and financing. \n“There absolutely was a concerted effort to pay homage to Charlotte\,” says Toronto-based co-director Tahir Rana (Angry Birds). “All throughout the process\, what was in the back of my mind was ‘I have to do good by Charlotte’. I think we all felt that\, and that was sort of a guiding principle throughout this journey. No matter how challenging it got\, we just thought of Charlotte\, and what she went through.” \n\nOri Z Soltes\, PhD\, teaches at Georgetown University across the disciplines of theology\, art history\, philosophy and politics. He is the former Director and Curator of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum where he curated some 80 exhibitions. He is the author of several hundred articles and catalogue essays\, and the author or editor of 25 books\, including The Ashen Rainbow: The Holocaust and the Arts; Symbols of Faith: How Jewish\, Christian\, and Muslim Art Draw from the Same Source; and Tradition and Transformation: Three Millennia of Jewish Art and Architecture (second edition forthcoming). \nFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nPlease support this and future programs with a donation. Thank you. Your support makes our work possible. \n\n\n\n\n\nSUPPORT US
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/charlotte/
LOCATION:Quad Cinema\, 34 West 13th Street\, New York\, NY\, 10011\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220601T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220601T130000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090318
CREATED:20220213T211435Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220607T154944Z
UID:6333-1654084800-1654088400@fritzaschersociety.org
SUMMARY:Charlotte Salomon (1917-1943): A Life Before AuschwitzLecture by Monica Bohm-Duchen\, London (UK)
DESCRIPTION:Charlotte Salomon (1917–1943)\, was a hugely talented Berlin-born artist who was murdered at Auschwitz\, four months pregnant\, at the age of twenty-six. Her main body of work\, a sequence of nearly 800 gouache images entitled Leben? oder Theater? (Life? or Theatre?)\, and created while seeking refuge in the South of France\, is an ambitious fictive autobiography which deploys both images and text\, and a wide range of musical\, literary and cinematic references. The narrative\, informed by Salomon’s experiences as a cultured\, and assimilated German Jewish woman\, depicts a life lived in the shadow of Nazi persecution and a family history of suicide\, but also reveals moments of intense happiness and hope. Challenging the artistic conventions of Salomon’s time\, it remains almost impossible to categorize.  \nThis lecture by London-based art historian Monica Bohm-Duchen explores the multiple aspects of this sophisticated\, complex and haunting work and reflects on its relevance for our own time. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImage above: Charlotte Salomon\, Leben? oder Theater? [Life? or Theater?]\, 1940-1942. Gouache on paper\, 10 x 13 inches. Collection Jewish Museum\, Amsterdam. © Charlotte Salomon Foundation\n\n\n\n\nCharlotte Salomon\, Leben? oder Theater? [Life? or Theater?]\, 1940-1942. Gouache on paper\, 10 x 13 inches. Collection Jewish Museum\, Amsterdam. © Charlotte Salomon Foundation \nCharlotte Salomon\, Leben? oder Theater? [Life? or Theater?]\, 1940-1942. Gouache on paper\, 10 x 13 inches. Collection Jewish Museum\, Amsterdam. © Charlotte Salomon Foundation \nCharlotte Salomon\, Leben? oder Theater? [Life? or Theater?]\, 1940-1942. Gouache on paper\, 10 x 13 inches. Collection Jewish Museum\, Amsterdam. © Charlotte Salomon Foundation \nCharlotte Salomon\, Leben? oder Theater? [Life? or Theater?]\, 1940-1942. Gouache on paper\, 10 x 13 inches. Collection Jewish Museum\, Amsterdam. © Charlotte Salomon Foundation \n\n\n\n\n\n\nMonica Bohm-Duchen is a London-based writer\, lecturer and exhibition organizer. She was co-curator of Life? or Theatre? The Work of Charlotte Salomon\, shown at the Royal Academy of Arts\, London in 1998\, and co-edited an anthology of critical essays entitled Charlotte Salomon: Gender\, Trauma\, Creativity\, published by Cornell University Press in 2006. Her  book\, Art and the Second World War was published by Lund Humphries in association with Princeton University Press\, in 2013/14. She teaches a course on Art and War: 1914 to the Present at Birkbeck\, University of London and at New York University London\, and contributed an essay on “The Two World Wars” to War and Art: A Visual History of Modern Conflict (Reaktion Books\, 2017). She is the founding Director of Insiders/Outsiders [Insiders Outsiders Festival]\, an ongoing celebration of the contribution of refugees from Nazi Europe to British culture and beyond. \n\nCharlotte Salomon’s work can be viewed HERE\,\nand a digital “Life? or Theater?” can be explored HERE. \nThis event is part of our monthly series\nFlight or Fight. stories of artists under repression. \nFuture events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE. \nPlease support this and future programs with a donation. Thank you. Your support makes our work possible. \n\n\n\n\n\nSUPPORT US
URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/charlotte-salomon/
LOCATION:Quad Cinema\, 34 West 13th Street\, New York\, NY\, 10011\, United States
CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events
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