Dear Friends,
Art has the power to enlighten, uplift, and help us recognize our common humanity even when confronted by inhumanity. At FAS, we are constantly inspired by the artwork created by people who were persecuted for their identity or for their art by the German National Socialists and their European Allies 1933-1945. Learning about the strength and resilience of the artists and the moral and ethic values of those who refused to be perpetrators or bystanders helps guide our reflections and actions today.
In our 2024 program report you can find out more about our work:
Five more days in our fundraising campaign to ensure our virtual programming! Every donation will be matched dollar-for-dollar, so please:
The Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.
This month, our first virtual event features another artist who fled his home country to Paris in the 1930s:
WEDNESDAY, June 11, 12:00PM EDT
Victor Brauner’s Departures and Returns
Presentation by Irina Cărăbaș, Bucharest (Romania)
Followed by a conversation with Nicola Baird, London (UK)
Introductory remarks by Sorina Neagu
Victor Brauner, Hitler, 1934, oil on canvas, 22×16 cm, Centre Pompidou MNAM-CCI, Paris (INV. 2003-259), donated by Aubret Breton Elléouët in 2003 © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Born in Piatra Neamț, Romania into a Jewish family, Victor Brauner (1903-1966) took part in shaping several avant-garde groups in Bucharest since his early twenties. By the mid-1930s, he oscillated between Bucharest and Paris, where he nurtured and solidified his commitment to surrealism. During this time, Brauner also began exploring the representation of the human body—an investigation that he would develop in highly diverse directions throughout his life, always maintaining a connection with surrealist concepts. He later left Romania due to the rise of antisemitism never to return. His forced hiding in France during World War II became a period of experimentation with new materials and a deep dive into esotericism. The end of the war brought both personal uncertainties and new opportunities—encounters, exhibitions, and growing recognition of his work.
This presentation by Irina Cărăbaș from the National University of Arts in Bucharest will focus on several key artistic and political contexts relevant to Brauner’s work and biography, as well as his reception in Romania. It will be followed by a conversation with Nicola Baird, PhD. Introductory remarks by Sorina Neagu, Director of DOR – Romanian Diaspora.
Prof. Dr. Irina Cărăbaș is assistant professor at the Department of Art History and Theory, National University of Arts in Bucharest.
Dr Nicola Baird is an independent art historian and curator affiliated with the Centre for the Study of the Networked Image at London South Bank University.
This event is part of the online series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.” It is a collaboration with DOR-Romanian Diaspora CIC.
I don’t know about you, but we always look for stimulating reading – especially before the summer.
WEDNESDAY, June 25, 12:00PM ET ONLINE
The Art Spy.
The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland
Book Talk by Michelle Young, New York and Paris
In this book talk, author Michelle Young will present WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland (1898–1980), an unlikely heroine who infiltrated the Nazi leadership in Paris during World War II to save the world’s most treasured artworks.
Rose Vallant was a curator at the Jeu de Paume Museum in Paris when the Nazis invaded France, occupied the museum, and began using it as a sorting center for thousands of pieces of stolen art from across Europe. Valland made herself appear as nonthreatening and essential as possible, retaining her position in the museum for years while keeping meticulous secret records of the provenance and destination of every piece of art. Her gathered intelligence enabled the recovery of hundreds of thousands of looted artworks, stashed in the salt mines of Austria and in German castles, by the Monuments Men in the last days of the war and after.
The event is part of the online series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.”
Were you fascinated by our recent virtual event about the Austrian born photographer Trude Fleischmann (link to the recording below)?
Next week, the discussion about her legacy continues in New York:
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 5:30 PM EST
Austrian Cultural Forum New York
11 East 52nd Street New York, NY 10022
Find out how groundbreaking female photographers – including Trude Fleischmann, Edith Tudor-Hart, Dora Horovitz, Aenne Biermann, and Helen Levitt – captured childhood through a lens that challenged convention and emphasized individuality, emotion, and agency.
Presentation by Dr. Elizabeth Cronin, Robert B. Menschel Curator of Photography at The New York Public Library, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Stephanie Buhmann, Head of Visual Arts, Architecture & Design at the ACFNY.
Do you remember Ori Soltes’ talk about Ben Shahn (1898-1969), who arrived in 1906 as a child to the United States from Tsarist-governed Lithuania? Well, the Jewish Museum New York just opened an exhibition featuring the artist.
Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity is on view until October 12, 2025 at the Jewish Museum New York.
This is the first U.S. retrospective in nearly half a century dedicated to social realist artist and activist Ben Shahn (1898-1969). It shows the prolific and progressive artist’s commitment to chronicling and confronting crucial issues of his era, spanning from the Great Depression to the Vietnam War, as well as his exploration of spirituality and Jewish texts. Featuring 175 artworks and objects from the 1930s to the 1960s, including paintings, mural studies, prints, photographs, commercial designs, and ephemera, the exhibition highlights the enduring relevance of Shahn’s art across media, while revealing new insights into the complexity of his aesthetic and his decisive shift from documentary to allegorical and poetic styles in pursuit of a visual language that would resonate widely.
Do you remember co-curator and museum director Lynn Gumpert’s talk about the Parisian art dealer Berthe Weill (1865-1951), who was featured in the landmark exhibition at The Grey Art Museum in New York, NY this spring? Well, the exhibition just opened in Montreal.
Berthe Weill, Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-Garde is on view until September 7, 2025 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Berthe Weill was a trailblazing art dealer who exhibited works by emerging artists in her Parisian gallery from 1901 to 1941. Even though many of them went on to become key avant-garde figures, Weill’s role has been omitted from most historical accounts of 20th-century modernism. In this presentation, Lynn Gumpert, a co-curator of the first exhibition on Weill, provides an overview of this remarkable woman.
You can find the recordings of our other virtual May events here, to watch, re-watch and/or pass on to those who might be interested in them:
