Berlin Artist Archives - Page 2 of 4

Oct 14, 2020

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #36, October 2020

Rachel Stern2020-11-24T20:14:35-05:00October 14th, 2020|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #36, October 2020

Dear Friends, On October 17 we celebrate Fritz Ascher’s birthday - this year with the launch of DigiFAS - diverse, innovative digital initiatives that provide new ways of engagement with the art and life of artists persecuted by an authoritarian regime. DigiFAS is generously sponsored by Allianz Partners. This launch includes the Society’s first-ever fully digital exhibition “Fritz Ascher: Themes and Variations.” You can explore the exhibition HERE. We have worked on this for months and can’t wait for your reactions! We also invite you to participate in the 2- week digital engagement project “Send in the Clowns,” which explores the clown as a figure between tragedy and comedy, between self- identification [...]

Sep 17, 2020

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #35, September 2020

Rachel Stern2020-09-17T22:58:37-04:00September 17th, 2020|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #35, September 2020

Forum Jacob Pins in Höxter, Germany Dear Friends, The Jewish New Year is upon us, and it feels as if the New keeps coming. The exhibition “The Loner. Clowns in Fritz Ascher's Art (1893-1970)” at Forum Jacob Pins in Höxter, Germany was opened with an event following social distancing rules, my video greeting and a concert in the courtyard. The exhibition is on view until November 29, and I very much encourage you to see it (more information HERE). In the exhibition, Ascher’s depictions of clowns are contrasted with depictions of nature, which dominated his post-Holocaust work. Inspired by the nearby Grunewald, the artist created vivid landscapes and powerful close-ups of the sun, trees and flowers, which [...]

Aug 20, 2020

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #34, August 2020

Rachel Stern2020-08-20T21:32:19-04:00August 20th, 2020|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #34, August 2020

Dear Friends, What a strange summer this is. But I have exciting news of some degree of normalcy: an exhibition in Germany! This is no small feast in these times, and I am thankful to my co-curator Julia Diekmann for her flexibility and creativity in co-organizing the exhibition. Who would have thought that the largest hurdle is getting the artwork out of the locked down campus of Richmond University? In the end it all worked - our shipper Cadogan Tate had just taken up operation again and flight schedules for art opened up, the drawings, which have never been shown before will be matted and framed practically overnight, the artwork will be hanged as fast as it probably never [...]

Jul 9, 2020

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #33, July 2020

Rachel Stern2020-07-15T15:54:15-04:00July 9th, 2020|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #33, July 2020

Dear Friends, Antisemitism and racism are not the same. But they are both based on the lack of regard to the values this country was founded on: freedom, justice and equality. As a proud immigrant, I deeply believe in these values, admire the dynamic energy of this country, and hope that this unprecedented time helps speed up the process towards realizing these ideals of freedom, justice and equality for all. As an individual and as the executive director of the Fritz Ascher Society, I strive to do my part in this process. The Fritz Ascher Society tells the stories of artists, who lived and worked in Germany, as the country abandoned its first and very fragile democracy and instead [...]

May 30, 2020

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #32, May 2020

Rachel Stern2020-06-02T16:23:50-04:00May 30th, 2020|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #32, May 2020

Dear Friends, I hope you and your families are well despite the continuing challenges, both physical and psychological. “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art in Richmond, Virginia “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art in Richmond, Virginia These are the last impressions of “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at the Harnett Museum of Art in Richmond. The exhibition is now officially closed, even though the artwork will stay in solitary confinement until the art shippers are back in business. This past week, we celebrated Fritz Ascher, the exhibition in Richmond, and the winners of our competition, with a virtual event. [...]

Mar 26, 2020

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #31, March 2020

Rachel Stern2020-03-26T08:37:32-04:00March 26th, 2020|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #31, March 2020

Dear Friends, How much has our life changed over the past few days! “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art in Richmond, Virginia is closed. Until our online exhibition is up, you can see photos of the installation here. “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art in Richmond, Virginia We also invite you to be part of our free online conversations, which we will announce on our website, on Facebook, and on Twitter. “Housebound and Hiding. From Fritz Ascher in 1942 to Ourselves Today in 2020” is the first conversation on Thursday, on March 26th, at 8:00pm EDT, commemorating the 50th anniversary of [...]

Feb 6, 2020

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #30, February 2020

Rachel Stern2020-02-06T08:01:15-05:00February 6th, 2020|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #30, February 2020

Dear Friends, “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” is now on view at the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art in Richmond, Virginia, until May 24 (link). You can listen to my opening lecture here. “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art in Richmond, Virginia In every venue, different hanging bring out new aspects of single artworks, and unexpected connections between artworks provide new insights. The Harnett Museum of Art is no exception. For the first time, “The Tortured” (“Der Gequälte”) takes up center stage. It is a monumental painting measuring 59 x 79.4 inches. Fritz Ascher created it in the 1920s, as social and racial tensions in [...]

Dec 10, 2019

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #29, December 2019

Rachel Stern2019-12-10T06:06:07-05:00December 10th, 2019|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #29, December 2019

Dear Friends, Today I have exciting news: on November 13, the Fritz Ascher Stiftung (Fritz Ascher Foundation) was founded at Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin (City Museum Berlin) (link). The foundation's board of trustees consists of Paul Spies, director of Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, Eckhart Gillen, art historian and curator, and Rachel Stern, director of the Fritz Ascher Society. from left: Paul Spies, Peter-Stephan Prause, Eva Bünte, Rachel Stern, Martina Weinland, Peter Bünte Ephraim Palais, Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, Berlin (Germany) The foundation was initiated by private collectors of the artistic work of Fritz Ascher, to give his work a publicly accessible home and to present it in the context of his artistic contemporaries in [...]

Sep 23, 2019

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #28, September 2019

Rachel Stern2019-09-23T17:36:19-04:00September 23rd, 2019|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #28, September 2019

Dear Friends, Fall is finally upon us. Fritz Ascher’s “Landscape with a Cloudy Sky” from c. 1960 captures the rich colors and dramatic light of late afternoon, brought forth with spontaneous, dynamic brushstrokes that characterize the artist’s late work. Fritz Ascher, Landscape with a Cloudy Sky, 1960s. Oil on canvas, 39.4 x 37.4 in. While he was hiding from the Nazis 1942-1945, the artist wrote: I have spent the summer re-reading the poems I have access to, marveling at their rich verbal imagery and thinking about a publication of this powerful manifestation of the artist’s creativity, which translates so easily into disciplines other than the visual [...]

Jun 7, 2019

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #27, June 2019

Rachel Stern2019-06-07T08:01:34-04:00June 7th, 2019|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #27, June 2019

Dear Friends, I hope you all were able to see “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at NYU’s Grey Art Gallery that closed on April 6. Thanks to director Lynn Gumpert and her fabulous team, the exhibition looked great and was complemented by an engaging program. The show was well received, both by visitors and critics. In the meantime, most reviews are translated into German here. If you were not able to visit in person, you can see photos on our website here. The exhibition was part of Wunderbar Together: The Year of German-American Friendship 2018/19, an initiative of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany and the Goethe-Institut, with the support of the Federation of German Industries (BDI). “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at Grey [...]

Oct 12, 2018

“Umkämpfte Wege der Moderne. Wilhelm Schmid und die Novembergruppe”  
 Potsdam Museum – Forum für Kunst und Geschichte, Potsdam (Germany)

Rachel Stern2019-02-05T12:43:50-05:00October 12th, 2018|Exhibitions, Past Exhibitions|Comments Off on “Umkämpfte Wege der Moderne. Wilhelm Schmid und die Novembergruppe”  
 Potsdam Museum – Forum für Kunst und Geschichte, Potsdam (Germany)

The exhibition "Umkämpfte Wege der Moderne. Wilhelm Schmid und die Novembergruppe" is dedicated to the controversial epoch of 1918-1933 and the radical changes during the following period. (link) Some of the artistic pioneers took the 1918/1919 revolution as an opportunity to unite as the "November Group", probably the most prominent political artistic group of the Weimar Republic. These self-proclaimed "revolutionaries of the mind" set out on new paths of artistic expression with their motives, colors and forms, rejecting the old imperial conventions in form and content. The members of the group not only caused a sensation with their revolutionary demand to participate in the new state in all art-related issues. For in the exhibitions - primarily at the Great Berlin [...]

Sep 4, 2018

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #22, September 2018

Rachel Stern2018-11-26T05:40:08-05:00September 4th, 2018|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #22, September 2018

Dear Friends, I know, this summer I seem obsessed with Fritz Ascher’s I know, this summer I seem obsessed with Fritz Ascher’s Dancers from 1921. But there is one more thought about the drawing that I want to share. Fritz Ascher, Dancers, 1921. Private collection. Photo Malcolm Varon ©2018 Bianca Stock Fritz Ascher, Dancers, 1921. Private collection. Photo Malcolm Varon ©2018 Bianca Stock When the drawing was created,“Freikörperkultur” (FKK) or “free body culture” had become popular in Germany. Founded in 1898 in Essen, Germany, the nudist culture was about celebrating the body unencumbered by clothes, in nature and sunlight. Many of the naturists came from the Wandervogel movement, the pre-eminent German youth movement, founded to escape the repressive and [...]