Berlin Archives - Page 5 of 7 - Fritz Ascher Society

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 [...]

Mar 18, 2019

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #26, March 2019

Rachel Stern2019-03-18T14:20:11-04:00March 18th, 2019|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #26, March 2019

Dear Friends, Catch it while you can: The exhibition “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at the Grey Art Gallery of New York University here in New York is on view only until April 6. You can find installation photos of the exhibition on our website (link). And for the last minute people among you: on April 3 at 6:30pm there is a gallery conversation with J. English Cook, Graduate Curatorial Assistant, Grey Art Gallery, and Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU. In the exhibition, you can see Fritz Ascher’s gouache “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” It depicts a settlement of 1,100 flats and 800 detached houses in Berlin Zehlendorf that borders the Grunewald city forest in the South. It was built in [...]

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 [...]

Jul 4, 2018

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #21, July 2018

Rachel Stern2018-12-04T12:17:07-05:00July 4th, 2018|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #21, July 2018

Dear Friends,I am so very excited today to share new insights into Fritz Ascher’s work. Fritz Ascher’s Dancers from 1921 is a drawing that has dazzled and fascinated me since I saw it first. In the Fritz Ascher exhibition catalogue, I described the eight female and male dancers as “dancing in a circle in naked ecstasy,” “mythical figures in timeless space” (p. 220). Looking at Ascher’s drawing, Henri Matisse’s Dance from 1910 comes to mind, where “the rhythm of the bodies swaying in dance becomes the sole theme of a painting for the first time.” Commonly recognized as a key point of Matisse's career and in the development of modern painting, it was painted for the Russian businessman and art [...]

May 23, 2018

“Leben ist Glühn” Der Expressionist Fritz Ascher  
 Museum Schlösschen im Hofgarten, Wertheim/Main (Germany)

Rachel Stern2018-12-03T16:06:56-05:00May 23rd, 2018|Exhibitions, Past Exhibitions|Comments Off on “Leben ist Glühn” Der Expressionist Fritz Ascher  
 Museum Schlösschen im Hofgarten, Wertheim/Main (Germany)

The worldwide first Fritz Ascher Retrospective is on view at Museum Schlösschen im Hofgarten in Wertheim/Main until September 9, 2018. Here, a representative group of powerful paintings and drawings spans Ascher's whole oeuvre from first academic studies to monumental Expressionist figure compositions to late landscapes. Fritz Ascher's poems, written while hiding from Nazi persecution, can be discovered as "unpainted paintings" in relation to his artwork. In Wertheim, Ascher’s work can be seen in the context of his supporter Max Liebermann and his teachers Lovis Corinth, Ludwig Dettmann and Curt Agthe, thanks to the Schlösschen’s exquisite collection of Berlin Secession art. (website link) SWR Aktuell reported. (website link) Photos by Elmar Kellner and David Stern. A comprehensive German/English catalogue with [...]

Mar 23, 2018

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #19, March 2018

Rachel Stern2018-12-04T11:47:15-05:00March 23rd, 2018|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #19, March 2018

Dear Friends, I was touched by how many neighbors and friends from near and far came out into the chilly but sunny winter weather on February 21 to celebrate Fritz Ascher and recognize his persecution by the National Socialists by laying a “Stolperstein” (stumbling stone) at Niklasstraße 21/23 in Berlin-Zehlendorf, where his family lived from 1909. Thank you to the anonymous donor for making this event possible, to Dirk Jordan (AG Stolpersteine), Michael Rohrmann (Projekt Stolpersteine) and Wolfgang Ellerbrock for organizing it, to Cornelie von Bismarck for creating a beautiful context, and to Sabine Witt from Museum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in Berlin and Jutta Götzmann from Potsdam Museum for supporting it. A special thank you to the students from Potsdam for reciting [...]

Feb 8, 2018

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #18, February 2018

Rachel Stern2018-12-04T11:50:09-05:00February 8th, 2018|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #18, February 2018

Dear Friends, Fritz Ascher is getting a “Stolperstein” (stumbling stone)! Please join us for the ceremony on Wednesday, February 21 at 11:00am at Niklasstr. 21/23 in Berlin-Zehlendorf Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) is a project of the artist Gunter Demnig. The project commemorates people who were persecuted by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945. Stolpersteine are concrete blocks measuring 10x10cm which are laid into the pavement in front of the last voluntarily chosen places of residence of the victims of the Nazis. Their names and fate are engraved into a brass plate on the top of each Stolperstein. In Berlin, thousands Stolpersteine were installed since 1996. Today, Stolpersteine can be found in 1099 German cities and in 20 European countries. (link) We [...]

Dec 27, 2017

2017, December 22 – Elke Linda Buchholz in tagesspiegel.de

Rachel Stern2018-12-04T11:57:56-05:00December 27th, 2017|Select Press Coverage|Comments Off on 2017, December 22 – Elke Linda Buchholz in tagesspiegel.de

Fritz-Ascher-Retrospektive „Leben ist Glühn“ Die Wiederentdeckung des Expressionisten Fritz Ascher: eine Doppelausstellung in der Villa Oppenheim und im Potsdam Museum. by Elke Linda Buchholz Einen so vollständig vergessenen Künstler zurückzuholen in die Aufmerksamkeit, braucht Kraft, Geduld und kreative Energie. Vor 30 Jahren stieß die deutsch-amerikanische Kuratorin Rachel Stern bei einem Sammler auf Arbeiten von Fritz Ascher. Sie hatte noch nie von ihm gehört. Jetzt ist sie als quasi weltweit einzige Expertin für den 1893 geborenen Maler wieder zurück in der Stadt, wo auch er einst gelebt und gearbeitet hat. Hier bei Max Liebermann holte der junge Wilde sich als 16-Jähriger nach abgebrochener Schule die höheren Weihen einer Empfehlung an die Königsberger Kunstakademie und startete zwischen Secessionisten und Expressionisten seine Karriere. [...]

Dec 26, 2017

2017, December 7 – Mathias Richter in Märkische Allgemeine, p. 12

Rachel Stern2018-12-04T12:05:52-05:00December 26th, 2017|Select Press Coverage|Comments Off on 2017, December 7 – Mathias Richter in Märkische Allgemeine, p. 12

Der vergessene Expressionist Das Potsdam-Museum zeigt Werke des von den Nazis verfolgten Malers Fritz Ascher by Mathias Richter Sie gehören zur sogenannten verlorenen Generation. Künstler wie Gertrude Sandmann, Magda Langenstrass-Uhlig oder Eric Isenburger. Sie hatten Anfang der 30er Jahre grosse Ambitionen und wahrscheinlich eine grosse Karriere vor sich. Doch mit dem Machtantritt von Adolf Hitler erhielten sie Berufsverbot, wurden verfolgt, ihre Werke als "entartete Kunst" verfemt. Wer die Nazi-Zeit überlebte war vergessen und stand vor dem Nichts. Einer der Angehörigen dieser verlorenen Generation ist Fritz Ascher. Das Potsdam-Museum widmet dem radikalen Berliner Expressionisten in Kooperation mit der Villa Oppenheim in Berlin-Charlottenburg von Sonntag an eine Sonderausstellung. 80 Gemälde und Grafiken sind in den beiden Museen zu sehen, davon etwa 50 [...]