Ori Soltes
“Narr der ich bleib…”
Poems and Artwork by Fritz Ascher
Preview of “Poesiealbum” by Märkischer Verlag
Forum Jacob Pins
Westerbachstr. 35-37, Höxter, NY, Germany
Reading of Poems by Stephan Weigelin and Reflexion on Artwork by Julia Diekmann The event previews a "Poesiealbum" of Fritz Ascher’s poems, which will be published in December 2020 by Märkischer Verlag Wilhelmshorst, in the series “Ostracized Poets – Burned Books.” "Fritz Ascher's poetic voice rises at a time when his artistic voice is forced to fall silent. Fear of death, hunger and immobility, isolation and loneliness are his daily reality. In this situation he writes poems in which he shares his thoughts and innermost feelings and creates unpainted pictures. Ascher's poems are authentic, tender and powerful, and live from the expressive, creative use of language." Rachel Stern "... we can now safely include him in our canon of [...]
Kunstpause
Guided Tour through the Exhibition
“The Loner. Clowns in the Art of Fritz Ascher”
by Curator Julia Diekmann, Höxter (Germany)
Forum Jacob Pins
Westerbachstr. 35-37, Höxter, NY, Germany
Exhibition curator Julia Diekmann guides through the exhibition. Whether in dramatic context or as individual figure, the clown always plays the role of the outsider, of the one opposite the many. He is laughed at and ridiculed, is the fool, despised, and humiliated, always operating from the margin. In Ascher’s work, the figure of the clown, the Bajazzo, appears first around 1916. It becomes a lifelong interest, expressed in paintings, drawings, lithographs and poems. Based on the opera I Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857-1919), which was popular in the 1920s, Ascher creates both dramatic scenes of the tragic love burlesque and studies of the Bajazzo, the Pagliaccio or clown as a single figure. The intensity in the artistic expression of the figure, [...]
“Trauma, Memory and Art”
An interdisciplinary virtual conference
with Ori Z. Soltes, Larry R. Squire,
Natan P.F. Kellermann and Eva Fogelman
1014 - space for ideas
1014 5th Avenue, New York, New York, NY, United States
WATCH THE RECORDING OF THIS EVENT HERE. In this interdisciplinary conference, four experts discuss the transmission of Holocaust trauma and memory against the backdrop of art. The starting point of the discussion is the art of Holocaust survivor Alice Lok Cahana and how artistic sensibilities, traumatic memory—and a sense of obligation to improve the world—have been expressed through three generations of her family—both in who her children and grandchildren are and in how they express themselves artistically. The discussion will amplify this layered issue from other angles: what have recent biological and psychological investigations offered, regarding what memory is and how it works, if and how trauma can be carried in the DNA—and the implications of all of this for [...]
Immortality, Memory, Creativity, and Survival:
The Arts of Alice Lok Cahana,
Ronnie Cahana, and Kitra Cahana
Lecture by Ori Z Soltes, Washington DC
1014 - space for ideas
1014 5th Avenue, New York, New York, NY, United States
WATCH THE RECORDING OF THIS EVENT HERE. Lecture featuring Ori Z Soltes, Teaching Professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC Moderated by Rachel Stern, Executive Director of the Fritz Ascher Society in New York This lecture explores several interlocking themes. The work of three artists, each in a different medium—Alice was primarily a painter, Ronnie is a poet, and Kitra is a well-recognized photographer and filmmaker—will be presented and explored with regard to both aesthetic and conceptual intentions and outcomes. Since these three artists represent three generations from within one family, the question of how that familial relationship does or does not impinge on the artistic output will be explored. Inevitably, the fact that the first of the three was a [...]
Legacy And Creativity:
The Filmmaking and Photography of Kitra Cahana
In Conversation with Ori Z Soltes
1014 - space for ideas
1014 5th Avenue, New York, New York, NY, United States
WATCH THE RECORDING OF THIS EVENT HERE. Conversation featuring Kitra Cahana, Documentary Photographer, Videographer and Photo/Video Artist and Ori Z Soltes, Teaching Professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC Introduced by Rachel Stern, Executive Director of The Fritz Ascher Society in New York NY Kitra Cahana's award winning work ranges from photographic studies of American Teens for National Geographic Magazine to documentaries on the annual life-saving dance competition in a small town in northern Canada. She is renowned for work that consistently reflects a deep sense of empathy with her subjects. Her grandmother was a teen-aged Holocaust survivor who became an intense and powerful painter. Her father, a rabbi and a poet, was severely disabled by a stroke at the [...]
Between Art and Record Keeping –
Artistic Representations of the Holocaust
Ori Z Soltes, Washington DC
1014 - space for ideas
1014 5th Avenue, New York, New York, NY, United States
WATCH THE RECORDING OF THIS EVENT HERE. Visual art during and after the Holocaust, by victims and survivors eloquently contradicts the famous comment by Theodor Adorno that "after the Holocaust to make art is barbaric." On the contrary, it was and is necessary: as part of the record of events as they were transpiring, and as part of the human response to horror--to express anger, to raise questions, to offer healing--in the time after those events. Who creates the art and what kind of art is created? What role does it play in wrestling with the question of what God is and what we humans are? These issues have implications both from within the heart of the Holocaust and from well beyond its particular boundaries. [...]
Becoming Jewish:
The Sculptor Benno Elkan (1877-1960)
Christian Walda, Dortmund with
Wolfgang Weick and Ori Z. Soltes
1014 - space for ideas
1014 5th Avenue, New York, New York, NY, United States
Born 1877 in Dortmund, the sculptor Benno Elkan (1877-1960) first studied painting in Munich and Karlsruhe. At the end of his studies, he turned to sculpture. As a young artist, he spent time in Paris, Rome, and Frankfurt. Elkan’s oeuvre was largely made up of commissions. In the beginning, he mainly created tombs. Medals, portrait busts of well-known personalities, monuments to victims and candelabras follow, partly for the religious (Jewish and Christian) context. Elkan fled persecution by the German Nazi regime to Great Britain in 1934and lived with his family in London until the end of his life. Perhaps the most important work besides the Menorah in Jerusalem (1956) was never built: Memorial to the Defenseless Victims of the Bombing [...]
Alice Lok Cahana –
Beyond ‘The Last Days’:
Familial Continuity, Creativity, and Immortality
With Michael Berenbaum, Michael Z Cahana, Ken Lipper, Ori Z Soltes
1014 - space for ideas
1014 5th Avenue, New York, New York, NY, United States
Join us for a discussion about the Hungarian born Holocaust survivor Alice Lok Cahana, whose life and art are recently recognized in two very different ways: The just remastered, Academy Award®-winning documentary, The Last Days, presented by Steven Spielberg and USC Shoah Foundation and the book Immortality, Memory, Creativity, and Survival: The Arts of Alice Lok Cahana, Ronnie Cahana, and Kitra Cahana, recently published by the Fritz Ascher Society of Persecuted, Ostracized and Banned Art, which investigates three generations of the Cahana family and their art in the context of biological and psychological research, allowing a deep understanding of how trauma and especially the Holocaust experience is remembered. This event investigates the portrayal of Alice Lok Cahana, her life and art, in art book [...]
IN-PERSON CONFERENCE: Welcoming the Stranger.
Abrahamic Hospitality and Contemporary Implications
Fordham University, New York
Fordham University School of Law
150 West 62nd Street, New York, NY, United States
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. Such notions have been seriously challenged on many occasions throughout history—at no time more profoundly than in [...]
BOOK LAUNCH: Welcoming the Stranger.
Abrahamic Hospitality and Its Contemporary Implications
Fordham University, New York
Fordham University School of Law
150 West 62nd Street, New York, NY, United States
Join us for an evening of stimulating conversation, and refreshments, as we celebrate the publication of Welcoming the Stranger. Abrahamic Traditions and Its Contemporary Implications. Advance copies of the book are available for purchase. This book is a collection of thought-provoking essays exploring the theme of hospitality as a means of building bridges between different cultures and communities. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in interfaith dialogue, social justice, and creating a more inclusive society. Its contents could hardly be more relevant today. Beginning with the story of Abraham’s hospitality to the three strangers described in Genesis18, the narrative explores both the theological evolution in and beyond the Abrahamic traditions of the principle of “welcoming the stranger,” [...]
