Rachel Stern2020-03-26T08:37:32-04:00March 26th, 2020|Newsletter|
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 [...]
Rachel Stern2020-02-06T08:01:15-05:00February 6th, 2020|Newsletter|
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 [...]
Rachel Stern2020-03-03T09:28:34-05:00November 28th, 2019|Events, Past Events|
January 15, 2020 from 6:00 to 8:00pm 6:00-7:00pm Lecture Rachel Stern, Curator and Director Fritz Ascher Society "Forgotten but not Lost: The German Expressionist Fritz Ascher (1893-1970)" 7:00-8:00pm Opening Reception and Exhibition Preview Fritz Ascher: Expressionist Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art University of Richmond Museums 453 Westhampton Way Richmond, VA 23173 Information: 804-289-8276 Exhibition on view: January 16 - May 24, 2020 Watch the video of the lecture here. "Fritz Ascher: Expressionist" presents paintings and works on paper by a Jewish artist who belonged to Germany's Lost Generation - those whose careers were interrupted or destroyed by the Nazi terror regime. Coming to maturity during the Weimar Republic, Fritz Ascher (1893-1970) was taken under the [...]
Rachel Stern2020-03-03T07:55:35-05:00August 10th, 2019|Events, Past Events|
ZWISCHEN UTOPIE UND EXIL ARCHITEKTUR, MALEREI UND FILM IM POTSDAM UM 1930 Eine musikalische Zeitreise mit dem Bus in drei Etappen Auf dieser Bustour wird das Potsdam am Ende der Weimarer Republik wieder lebendig. Lassen Sie sich überraschen von der Vielfalt der modernen Architektur und den faszinierenden Kunstwerken jener Zeit, oft gespiegelt in den wechselvollen Lebenswegen ihrer Schöpfer. Zum Abschluss der Exkursion sind im selten zugänglichen Studio des Filmorchester Babelsberg die großen Hits der UFA-Zeit ebenso zu erleben wie die spannenden Geschichten ihrer Entstehung. 10.30 Uhr Musikalischer Auftakt im Nikolaisaal Matthew Rubenstein, Klavier 11.00 Uhr Erste Etappe Die Architektur der Potsdamer Moderne (Rundfahrt mit Stopps u.a. am Luftschiffhafen) Referentin: Prof. Karin Flegel, Urania Potsdam 12.30 Uhr Intermezzo: Mittagessen im Kongresshotel [...]
Rachel Stern2020-03-03T09:23:23-05:00January 25th, 2019|Events, Past Events|
Panel Discussion: Expressionism for Our Time New York Studio School, 8 West 8th Street Wednesday, March 6, 6:30–7:30 pm Expressionism for Our Time features a brief history of Western Expressionism by art critic and curator Karen Wilkin, followed by a conversation between contemporary artists Rochelle Feinstein, Judy Glantzman, and Adrianne Rubenstein with art historian Robert Slifkin. Watch the video of the event here. Karen Wilkin is an independent curator and critic, a regular contributor to New Criterion, the Wall Street Journal, and Hudson Review. She teaches the New York Studio School’s MFA art history seminars. Robert Slifkin is Associate Professor of Fine Arts at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. His book Out of Time: Philip Guston and the Refiguration of [...]
Dave2019-04-07T07:43:51-04:00December 20th, 2018|Events, Past Events|
April 3, 2019, 6:30-7:30pm J. English Cook: Gallery Conversation Grey Art Gallery at NYU, New York (please add map) Please join J. English Cook, Graduate Curatorial Assistant, Grey Art Gallery, and Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU for a gallery conversation. The event is sponsored by the Grey Art Gallery, New York University and The Fritz Ascher Society. It is 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).
Rachel Stern2018-12-03T16:06:56-05:00October 12th, 2018|Exhibitions, Past Exhibitions|
Last German venue! (link) At the Kallmann-Museum, 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. With this exhibition, the Kallmann-Museum continues its examination of artists who became victims of the National Socialist art policy. Photos by Gerald Förtsch, Rasmus Kleine and Rachel Stern. A comprehensive German/English catalogue with essays by Jörn Barfod, Eckhart Gillen, Wiebke Hölzer, Ingrid Mössinger, Ori Z. Soltes and Rachel Stern accompanies the exhibition. (catalogue link) The Fritz Ascher retrospective was on view at the Felix-Nussbaum-Haus in Osnabrück (September 25, [...]
Rachel Stern2019-02-05T12:43:50-05:00October 12th, 2018|Exhibitions, Past Exhibitions|
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 [...]
Rachel Stern2018-11-26T05:40:08-05:00September 4th, 2018|Newsletter|
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 [...]
Rachel Stern2018-12-04T11:47:15-05:00March 23rd, 2018|Newsletter|
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 [...]
Rachel Stern2018-12-04T11:50:09-05:00February 8th, 2018|Newsletter|
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 [...]
Rachel Stern2018-12-04T11:57:56-05:00December 27th, 2017|Select Press Coverage|
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. [...]
