FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter Year End 2020

Dear Friends,
I HAVE to let you know before 2020 ends: The book is out!

We are very excited about this interdisciplinary volume, which explores the painting of Alice Lok Cahana, a survivor of three Holocaust concentration camps; the poetry of her son, Ronnie Cahana; and the photography and award-winning filmmaking of her granddaughter, Kitra Cahana. It places that layered narrative within the context of art, the biology of memory, and the physiological and psychological question of how both creativity and intense trauma can be transmitted from one generation to the next.
The book is generously sponsored by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in New York.
Please email fritzaschersociety@gmail.com to receive details how to order a copy.

We are starting 2021 with a Parisian love story: on January 6, 2021, 12:00pm EST Jason Andrew from New York will speak about “Biala (1903-2000): The Rash Acts of Rescue and Escape“ in our lecture series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression”.
Biala (1903-2000) was a Polish born American painter whose career stretched over eight decades and spanned two continents. Through it all, she retained an intimacy in her art rooted in Old World Europe—sensibilities that began with memories of her childhood in a Polish village, shaped by School of Paris painters like Bonnard, Matisse and Braque, inspired by Velázquez and the Spanish Masters, and broadened by the community of loft-living artists in Post War Downtown New York.
Jason Andrew is joined by choreographer Julia K. Gleich, who will give voice to the letters of Biala.
[Registration Link]

Biala, “Jeune Femme,” c. 1933.
Oil on panel, 25 1/2 x 21 1/4 in. (66 x 55.9 cm)
Collection of the Estate of Janice Biala © Estate of Janice Biala / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Biala and Ford Madox Ford, Rockefeller Center, 1934. Publicity portraiture for Ford’s book “Provence,” featuring drawings by Biala. © Estate of Janice Biala / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

As this most unusual year comes to a close, we look back to an extremely busy and productive year, which for us started with a retrospective of Fritz Ascher’s work at the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art in Richmond, VA and ended with a Fritz Ascher exhibition at Forum Jacob Pins in Hoexter, Germany. Both had to close prematurely, so we designed the digital exhibition “Fritz Ascher: Themes and Variations” [LINK].
In spring, we started the extremely successful monthly Zoom lecture series, “Flight or Fight: Stories of Artist under Repression” [LINK].
And we used the prominence of the “clown” figure in Fritz Ascher’s work as a lens through which to explore the duality of the clown both historically and today, in the interactive 2-week digital engagement project “Send in the Clowns” [LINK].
In “DigiFAS” [LINK] we gave these digital initiatives a home on our website. Our recent publication initiated events around “Trauma, Memory and Art” [LINK], a theme which we’ll continue exploring next year.

“Otherness” was the theme of our school competition in spring. The timing could not have been worse. However, we were inspired by creativity of the students who participated. One of the competition winners, Stella Wright, 7th grader of Tomahawk Creek Middle School in Midlothian, VA depicted “Otherness” through puzzle pieces of similar shapes and diverse colors, which create a complex “Oneness”.

Ending the year with a drastically expanded global community, we are grateful to each one of you for being part of this community, discovering and discussing artists who were persecuted, ostracized and/or banned by the German Nazi terror regime 1933-1945 as well as the relevance of their challenges, experiences and their art for us today.

I am grateful to those who I worked with – for their commitment and tireless work, their flexibility and creativity. And we are most grateful to those of you who have supported our work. Please continue to SUPPORT OUR WORK.

We very much look forward to a New Year of celebrating and commemorating with you the artists Hitler was so desperate to wipe out, and who continued to create art, against all odds.

We send you all best wishes for happy holidays and a healthy 2021,

Rachel Stern, Executive Director

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