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 Stern2019-09-23T17:36:19-04:00September 23rd, 2019|Newsletter|
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 [...]
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 Stern2020-03-03T07:56:16-05:00August 9th, 2019|Events, Past Events|
Welcoming the Stranger: Abrahamic Hospitality and Its Contemporary Implications One of the signal moments in the narrative of the biblical Abraham is his insistent and enthusiastic reception of three strangers. That moment is a beginning point of inspiration for all three Abrahamic traditions as they evolve and develop the details of their respective teachings. On the one hand, welcoming the stranger by remembering “that you were strangers in the land of Egypt” is enjoined upon the ancient Israelites, and on the other, oppressing the stranger is condemned by their prophets throughout the Hebrew Bible. These sentiments will be repeated in the New Testament and the Qur’an and elaborated in the interpretive literatures of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Such notions have [...]
Rachel Stern2020-05-27T04:55:59-04:00August 7th, 2019|Exhibitions, Past Exhibitions|
"Fritz Ascher: Expressionist" presents works by this German Jewish artist, who lived through the Weimar Republic, the Nazi regime, and into the postwar years. With the support of prominent Berlin painter Max Liebermann, Fritz Ascher (1893–1970) studied in Berlin before traveling to Oslo, where he met Edvard Munch. During a prolonged stay in Munich, he associated with the artists who contributed to Simplicissimus magazine, and back in Berlin, he fell in with the artists of Die Brücke. His early work is steeped in old myths, spirituality, and reflections on the human condition. From 1933 he was forbidden to produce, exhibit, or sell his art. Interned at the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in 1938, he survived the Nazi era mostly in [...]
Rachel Stern2019-06-17T11:54:24-04:00June 17th, 2019|Select Press Coverage|
"Sustained by art through the darkness. Fritz Ascher’s work, now on show in New York, reflects his reclusive, obsessive nature and his turbulent life.” (scroll down for translation into German) Fritz Ascher's "Sunflower", c. 1958. ©Bianca Stock You have probably never heard of Fritz Ascher, a passionate and peculiar painter who, nearly 40 years after his death, is finally getting a smidgen of renown at New York’s Grey Art Gallery. Ascher belonged to a generation of German artists the Nazis hounded into hiding – or worse – leaving a chapter in the history of art truncated and brimming with might-have-beens. He was lucky enough to survive, though the war’s after-effects kept shuddering [...]
Rachel Stern2019-06-07T08:01:34-04:00June 7th, 2019|Newsletter|
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 [...]
Rachel Stern2019-03-26T08:33:22-04:00March 26th, 2019|Select Press Coverage|
NYC-ARTS News: February 28 – March 7 Televised news segment about Fritz Ascher: Expressionist on Channel Thirteen’s NYC-ARTS program. Arts news highlights: “Half the Picture: A Feminist Look at the Collection” at Brooklyn Museum; “Ajijaak on Turtle Island” at The New Victory Theater; “Fritz Ascher: Expressionist” at Grey Art Gallery; “One. One & One” at Baryshnikov Arts Center. AIRED: 3/1/2019 | 0:07:01 Watch Video
Rachel Stern2019-03-26T08:09:16-04:00March 26th, 2019|Select Press Coverage|
"What If? The Life And Work of Fritz Ascher Part II" http://artwithhillary.blogspot.com (scroll down for translation into German) Fritz Ascher (1893 - 1970), Untergehende Sonne (Sunset), c. 1960, oil on canvas, 49.2 × 50 in. ( 125 × 126 cm) Private collection. Photo: Malcolm Varon. © Bianca Stock This is Part II of the blog post on the exhibition Fritz Ascher: Expressionist at New York University's Grey Art Gallery. Please see ArtWithHillary, February 2019 for Part I. From 1942 until the end of the war in 1945, Fritz Ascher (1893 - 1970) was hidden from the Nazis by Martha Grassman (1881 - 1971). Her home was in Grunewald, a famous forest area of Berlin noted for its pine and oak trees. In [...]
Rachel Stern2019-03-26T08:08:38-04:00March 25th, 2019|Select Press Coverage|
"What If? The Life And Work of Fritz Ascher Part I" http://artwithhillary.blogspot.com (scroll down for translation into German) Fritz Ascher (1893 - 1970), Untergehende Sonne (Sunset), c. 1960, oil on canvas, 49.2 × 50 in. ( 125 × 126 cm) Private collection. Photo: Malcolm Varon. © Bianca Stock The current exhibition Fritz Ascher: Expressionist at New York University's Grey Art Gallery is artistically impressive and historically important. Accordingly, ArtWithHillary February 2019 and ArtWithHillary March 2019 are devoted to an account of the show. The artist Fritz Ascher (1893 - 1970) suffered through a horrific period of time from 1933 through 1945 in which he was prohibited from producing art. No one will leave the exhibit without thinking what if the artist had [...]
Rachel Stern2019-03-18T14:20:11-04:00March 18th, 2019|Newsletter|
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 [...]
Rachel Stern2020-03-03T09:05:47-05:00February 18th, 2019|Exhibitions, Past Exhibitions|
“In the Country of Numbers. Where the Men have no Names” tells the story of the detention and exile of November pogrom prisoners in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on the basis of twelve individual destinies. One of those individuals is Fritz Ascher. The interviews presented in the exhibition with children and grandchildren of the persecuted as well as family biographical photos and documents are new material first shown in Germany, which was researched in the USA, Great Britain and Israel. More than 6,300 Jewish men were brought to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp after the November pogroms in 1938. After a few weeks, the vast majority was set free, with the condition to emigrate immediately from Germany. Many have therefore [...]
