Flight or Fight

Jan 5, 2022

Identity and Migration:
Artists and Composers who Fled Persecution
Sheen Center for Thought & Culture, New York

2022-03-28T19:23:45-04:00January 5th, 2022|, |Comments Off on Identity and Migration:
Artists and Composers who Fled Persecution
Sheen Center for Thought & Culture, New York

Opening remarks by Consul Yasemin Pamuk, Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in New York Distinguished Panelists Ori Z Soltes PhD, Georgetown University in Washington DC Artist Refugees from Nazi Germany in the United States Rebecca Erbelding PhD, Historian and Author in Washington DC US Immigration Policy during the 1930s Refugee Crisis Stephen M Rasche JD, Catholic University in Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq Identity in a Time of Forced Displacement: Religious Art and the Iraqi Christian Experience David Stern, German born American Artist in New York NY Immigration and Culture Shock in Times of Globalization Musical Performance (Piano) Carolyn Enger, Steinway Recording Artist: Arnold Schoenberg - Sechs kleine Klavierstücke Op. 19 Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou: Homesickness Pt. 1 Paul [...]

Dec 31, 2021

Jussuf Prince of Thebes –
Re-constructing the life and work of a forgotten talent from Safed
Featuring Dorothea Schöne, Berlin (Germany)

2022-03-02T19:19:46-05:00December 31st, 2021|, , |Comments Off on Jussuf Prince of Thebes –
Re-constructing the life and work of a forgotten talent from Safed
Featuring Dorothea Schöne, Berlin (Germany)

In the late nineteenth century, the sculptor Joseph M. Abbo (1888–1953) – who later renamed himself Jussuf Abbo – was born in Safed, in the province of Beirut of the Ottoman Empire. As a young man, he began working as a labourer on the restoration site being led by an architect, Hoffmann, on behalf of the German government. Abbo was noticed and was rapidly promoted to the drawing-office and to stone-carving. He was offered a scholarship at the Berlin School of Art. Jussuf Abbo arrived in Germany in 1911 and began studying at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin in 1913. By 1919 he had a master studio in the Prussian Academy of Fine Arts. Throughout the [...]

Oct 6, 2021

The Pencil and the Sword.
How Lily Renée (1921–2022)
Put her Art to Work Against the Nazis
Featuring Sabine Apostolo and Michael Freund
Jewish Museum Vienna, Austria

2022-08-26T04:58:17-04:00October 6th, 2021|, , |Comments Off on The Pencil and the Sword.
How Lily Renée (1921–2022)
Put her Art to Work Against the Nazis
Featuring Sabine Apostolo and Michael Freund
Jewish Museum Vienna, Austria

Born 1921 in Vienna, Lily Renée Willheim led a sheltered and cultured life until the age of 17 when she had to flee from the Nazi powers, first to England, then to New York. By accident and because of her artistic talent, she became one of the leading cartoonists during World War Two, creating artwork in which anti-fascist messages were as important as aesthetic considerations. For many decades after the end of the war, she continued to work creatively in various art forms. Image above: Detail of Lily Renée, Title Page, Femforce Good Girl art quarterly, reprint, summer 1991 © Lily Renée In their presentations, Sabine Apostolo and Michael [...]

Oct 6, 2021

Eva Hesse (1936–1970): Returning to the Source?
Featuring Eva’s sister Helen Charash and Ori Z. Soltes, PhD

2022-08-26T05:30:27-04:00October 6th, 2021|, , |Comments Off on Eva Hesse (1936–1970): Returning to the Source?
Featuring Eva’s sister Helen Charash and Ori Z. Soltes, PhD

Eva Hesse arrived to the United States as a 3-year-old, was raised in a community largely of Holocaust survivors, and by her Twenties was a rising star on the New York art scene, contributing a unique voice to the shaping of post-Abstract Expressionist art. A key turning point in her innovative art was a return visit to Germany on an artist fellowship. How do we understand the work of this brilliant figure whose life suddenly ended, from brain cancer, at the age of 34? She was born into an observant Jewish family in Hamburg, in a Germany being devoured by the Nazis. She and her older sister Helen were sent to the Netherlands in 1938—when she was not [...]

May 11, 2021

Through the Prism of Time:
John H. Less (1923-2011)
and His Visual Impressions of
Holocaust Refuge in Shanghai

2022-02-18T05:25:20-05:00May 11th, 2021|, , |Comments Off on Through the Prism of Time:
John H. Less (1923-2011)
and His Visual Impressions of
Holocaust Refuge in Shanghai

Presentation by Steven Less, PhD Senior research fellow emeritus of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law and son of the artist in Heidelberg (Germany) and Hannah-Lea Wasserfuhr PhD Candidate at the Center for Jewish Studies in Heidelberg, Heidelberg (Germany) Moderated by Rachel Stern Director and CEO of the Fritz Ascher Society in New York Born in Berlin, John Hans Less (1923 – 2011) fled to Shanghai in September 1940 as a 16-year-old together with his family to escape Nazi persecution. Largely dependent on relief organizations to survive, the Less family soon went through further disruptions when the Japanese occupied the city and later confined Jewish refugees to the Hongkew [...]

Apr 29, 2021

Jeanne Mammen (1890-1976)-
A Life Dedicated to Art
Lecture by Dr. Martina Weinland, Berlin

2022-02-18T05:46:15-05:00April 29th, 2021|, |Comments Off on Jeanne Mammen (1890-1976)-
A Life Dedicated to Art
Lecture by Dr. Martina Weinland, Berlin

Lecture by Dr. Martina Weinland Commissioner for Cultural Heritage at the Museum of the City of Berlin in Berlin (Germany) Followed by Q&A moderated by Rachel Stern Director and CEO, Fritz Ascher Society in New York The Berlin artist Jeanne Mammen (1890-1976) is best known for her depictions of strong, sensual women and Berlin city life. But there is much more to her 70 years of artistic output, with unique sketches, paintings and sculptures. In 1975, she tells the art historian Hans Kinkel, who conducts the only interview she will ever give: “You must always write that my pictures were created between 1890 and 1975. …I have always wanted to be just a pair of eyes, walking through [...]