art Archives - Page 2 of 6 - Fritz Ascher Society

Sep 2, 2025

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter SEPTEMBER 2025

Rachel Stern2025-12-29T06:24:44-05:00September 2nd, 2025|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter SEPTEMBER 2025

Dear Friends, Happy September! This month, we continue our exploration of the work and life of the German-born artist Samson Schames (1898-1967), who we first discussed on August 27th - you can find the link to the recording below. On September 17th, our virtual event will focus on friends and family. By then, the exhibition at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York will have opened, and the publication date of the addition of Samson Schames to our online exhibition "Identity, Art and Migration" will be announced. But first, we'll start with the Hungarian-born artist Theodore Fried: WEDNESDAY, September 3, 12:00PM EDT online Theodore Fried (1902-1980): In Hiding and Beyond Presentation by Sofia [...]

Jul 29, 2025

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter AUGUST 2025

Rachel Stern2025-11-09T06:20:57-05:00July 29th, 2025|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter AUGUST 2025

Dear Friends, Immediately after Adolf Hitler’s ascent to power in Germany in 1933 the Nazi government started persecuting Jews. Within months, tens of thousands of Jews left Germany. But soon emigration slowed considerably as visas became impossible to obtain. About 10,000 children were saved by leaving the country on a Kindertransport to Great Britain between December 1, 1938 and September 1, 1939. Later this month, we are screening the documentary My Knees Were Jumping; Remembering the Kindertransports and feature a discussion with Melissa Hacker, the film director. There were also individuals who stood up against the Nazi regime by saving people from persecution. Did you know that Aristides de Sousa Mendes saved artist Tamara DE LEMPICKA's daughter and stepdaughter? [...]

Jul 2, 2025

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter JULY 2025

Rachel Stern2025-11-07T10:45:31-05:00July 2nd, 2025|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter JULY 2025

Dear Friends, Summer is here! As we are heading for July 4th, I hope you are staying cool in this sweltering heat. Looking for inspiring summer reading, we bring you a virtual book talk about another strong woman: WEDNESDAY, July 9, 12:00PM EDT DEAR MISS PERKINS. A Story of Frances Perkins’s Efforts to Aid Refugees from Nazi Germany Book talk by Rebecca Brenner Graham, Ph.D. REGISTER HERE In this book talk, Rebecca Brenner Graham describes how Secretary of Labor Francis Perkins helped save the lives of countless Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany - without fanfare, and despite powerful opposition. Frances Perkins’s early experiences working in Chicago’s famed Hull House, and as a firsthand [...]

Jun 23, 2025

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter JUNE 2025

Rachel Stern2025-06-23T04:46:38-04:00June 23rd, 2025|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter JUNE 2025

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: PROGRAM REPORT 2024 Five more days in our fundraising campaign to ensure our virtual programming! Every donation will be [...]

Apr 29, 2025

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter MAY 2025

Rachel Stern2025-04-29T10:30:15-04:00April 29th, 2025|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter MAY 2025

Dear Friends, May is the month during which we celebrate the fifth anniversary of our virtual event series "Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression." You can now find about 150 artist videos on our YouTube channel @fritzaschersociety! Throughout this month, we ask you to donate to the Fritz Ascher Society to enable us to continue this important virtual program, which brings artists to a global audience, who are not widely known because they were persecuted or murdered by the German Nazis. We need to raise $10,000.00 to ensure the continuation of this program. And I am happy to announce that every donation made this month will be matched dollar-for-dollar until we reach that amount, so please: [...]

Apr 2, 2025

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter APRIL 2025

Rachel Stern2025-04-29T10:31:47-04:00April 2nd, 2025|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter APRIL 2025

Dear Friends, Spring is here, with the energy of renewal and growth and blossoming trees, plants and flowers. Holidays abound, and we honor Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. We have organized fabulous virtual events for you, but first I have a story with a happy ending for you, at least for the art: Pretty exactly a year ago, the reporter and writer Julie Zigoris told the story of artwork that was found on a park bench in San Francisco’s Crane Cove Park in 2022. City employees had rescued the art and found the majority of the artworks to be by the Jewish painter Ary Arcadie Lochakov (1892-1941), a member of the famed School of Paris group that includes [...]

Mar 7, 2025

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter MARCH 2025

Rachel Stern2025-04-29T10:32:39-04:00March 7th, 2025|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter MARCH 2025

Dear Friends, During these breathtakingly turbulent times, we prepared very diverse online programs for you: we start this month by looking back at US history by discussing immigrant American artist Ben Shahn, then focus on the state of Nazi era art restitution by presenting the much disputed collection of the Jewish art dealer Alfred Flechtheim, and conclude the month with a panel discussion of curator Ori Z Soltes, poet Rabbi Ronnie Cahana, and photographer Kitra Cahana about our Portland (OR) exhibition Survival and Intimations of Immortality: The Art of Alice Lok Cahana, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana, and Kitra Cahana, which is on view until May 25. First we present the American artist, Social Realist painter, and child refugee from Tzarist-governed [...]

Mar 6, 2025

Art and Conscience in a Time of Upheaval.
Ben Shahn (1898-1969)
Presentation by Ori Z Soltes, Washington (DC)

Rachel Stern2025-03-12T14:22:13-04:00March 6th, 2025|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on Art and Conscience in a Time of Upheaval.
Ben Shahn (1898-1969)
Presentation by Ori Z Soltes, Washington (DC)

Georgetown University professor Ori Z Soltes will speak about Ben Shahn (1898-1969), who arrived in 1906 as a child to the United States from Tsarist-governed Lithuania. Four years after the Tsarist authorities had exiled his father to Siberia for alleged revolutionary activities, his mother managed to bring the family to New York. There they reconnected with Ben's father who had escaped from Siberia and made it to the US by way of South Africa. Image above: Ben Shahn, Detail of the Mural "The Meaning of Social Security," Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building, Washington, D.C. Within 25 years Shahn emerged as perhaps the key figure in the developing arena of American Social [...]

Feb 12, 2025

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter FEBRUARY 2025 with Signs and Wonders

Rachel Stern2025-02-12T07:45:33-05:00February 12th, 2025|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter FEBRUARY 2025 with Signs and Wonders

Dear Friends, February is a busy month with many interesting events in our orbit, starting with two film screenings at the JCC Manhattan, continuing with a virtual conversation with author Melvin Bukiet and a presentation of Fritz Ascher's art, and two exhibitions, of which one is closing in early March in Germany, and one just opened in Portland, Oregon. Please join us at the JCC Manhattan for two important film screenings: Tuesday, February 4, 7:00PM ET The Return from the Other Planet, 2023 Screening followed by Q+A with director Assaf Lapid Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, New York 20% off tickets with code fritz2025 Tuesday, February 11, [...]

Jan 20, 2025

Opening reception
SURVIVAL AND INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY:
The Arts of Alice Lok Cahana, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana and Kitra Cahana
Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Portland, Oregon

Rachel Stern2025-01-27T07:31:46-05:00January 20th, 2025|Events, Past Events|Comments Off on Opening reception
SURVIVAL AND INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY:
The Arts of Alice Lok Cahana, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana and Kitra Cahana
Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Portland, Oregon

Please join us for the opening event! Survival and Intimations of Immortality: The Art of Alice Lok Cahana, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana, and Kitra Cahana is a unique and powerful exhibition that explores the role of art and creativity, bringing the past into the present by focusing on three generations of artists from the same family. Alice Lok Cahana (1929-2017) was a Holocaust survivor who pledged she would become an artist if she survived the war. Rabbi Ronnie Cahana, Alice’s oldest son, is a poet and survivor of a major stroke. Kitra Cahana, Ronnie’s daughter, is a filmmaker and photographer. This exhibition reveals how the tragedy of the Holocaust impacted multiple generations of a family and how each member transformed [...]

Jan 2, 2025

Plunderer. The Life and Time of a Nazi Art Thief
Screening followed by Q+A with producer John Friedman
Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, New York

Rachel Stern2025-02-12T14:47:01-05:00January 2nd, 2025|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on Plunderer. The Life and Time of a Nazi Art Thief
Screening followed by Q+A with producer John Friedman
Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, New York

Hermann Goering’s art dealer, Bruno Lohse, prospered by selling stolen art for decades after WWII, while Jewish families struggled to regain their paintings and memories. Captured and interrogated by the Monuments Men after the war, he served a brief prison sentence. After his release, he dealt profitably in stolen art for sixty years after the war, selling to collectors, galleries, and major museums. Highlighting stories of Holocaust survivors working to reclaim their families' lost artworks, Plunderer reveals the failures of post-war justice and the continuing complicity of governments and the art trade. Screening followed by Q+A with producer John Friedman. In partnership with The Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted, Ostracized and Banned Art. Director: Hugo Macgregor Year: 2024 Runtime: [...]

Dec 4, 2024

Love, Betrayal and Ascher’s Unpainted Pictures
Tour by Exhibition Curator Jutta Götzmann
Haus der Graphischen Sammlung, Freiburg (Germany)

Rachel Stern2024-12-18T05:55:27-05:00December 4th, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on Love, Betrayal and Ascher’s Unpainted Pictures
Tour by Exhibition Curator Jutta Götzmann
Haus der Graphischen Sammlung, Freiburg (Germany)

Jutta Götzmann, exhibition curator of "Love and Betrayal," presents the artist Fritz Ascher (1893-1970) during a tour. In addition to early charcoal, graphite and ink drawings, colorful gouaches are fascinating. Poems that are considered his "unpainted pictures" and were created in secret during the National Socialist era complement the exhibition. BUY TICKETS HERE The Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. YOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. DONATE HERE