Rachel Stern2019-02-12T06:24:36-05:00February 12th, 2019|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, What was it like to be a Jew in Nazi Germany? Come join the discussion tomorrow, February 12, at 6:30 pm, when I speak with Marion Kaplan, Skirball Professor of Modern Jewish History, NYU, about those who went underground, including Fritz Ascher, and endured the terrors of nightly bombings, hunger and cold, and the even greater fear of being discovered by the Nazis. At King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, 53 Washington Square South. This program accompanies the exhibition “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at the Grey Art Gallery of New York University here in New York - please check out the other stimulating programs here. And do not forget to see the exhibition, which is on view [...]
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 Stern2018-12-04T11:57:56-05:00December 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. [...]
Rachel Stern2018-12-04T12:07:01-05:00December 25th, 2017|Select Press Coverage|
Ein Zerrissener Das Potsdam Museum entdeckt Fritz Ascher, der sich in Potsdam vor den Nazis versteckte by Lena Schneider Wer war Fritz Ascher? Das Potsdam Museum hat diesem Unbekannten eine Sonderausstellung gewidmet. „Leben ist glühn“ heißt sie. Ein Bild, das hier hängt, kann man als bestürzende Antwort auf die Frage lesen. „Bajazzo“ heißt es, nach dem italienischen Bruder des Harlekin. Zu sehen ist eine schemenhafte Gestalt, in gelbem Kostüm. Im weiß geschminkten Gesicht ist so etwas wie ein trostloser Schatten des Clownsgenres auszumachen: schwarze Augen, die rot überzogen Mundwinkel krümmen sich nach unten. Das ganze Bild ist wie zerschossen von Farbpunkten. Die Antwort darauf, wer Fritz Ascher, geboren 1893 als Kind jüdischer Eltern, war, findet sich im Entstehungsdatum des Bildes: [...]
Rachel Stern2018-12-04T12:14:23-05:00December 22nd, 2017|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, I am humbled and honored to have received the Lea and Hans Grundig Prize for my work about Fritz Ascher. Right on time for his 125th birthday, the Fritz Ascher retrospective is now open in Berlin and Potsdam, the two places where the artist lived and worked. Museum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in der Villa Oppenheim in Berlin exhibits an overview of the artist’s creative development, with a focus on works that relate to Berlin. We see his sketch of the artist Max Liebermann as well as his love for music and performance in Weimar Republic paintings like “Beethoven” and “Bajazzo and Artists”. After surviving the Nazi terror regime in hiding in the Berlin Grunewald neighborhood, he painted these works over [...]
Rachel Stern2018-12-04T12:15:18-05:00December 21st, 2017|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, Today I am excited to share with you some photos of last week’s opening of “Beauteous Strivings: Fritz Ascher, Works on Paper”, which is on view at the New York Studio School daily 10:00am-6:00pm until December 3 (website link). In this exhibition, “powerful emotions seem to lurk just beneath the apparent directness and economy of the tree and flower paintings” of the 1950s and 1960s, observes curator Karen Wilkin in the catalogue that accompanies the exhibition. She continues: “A sense of near-obsession, of ferocious concentration, of focus that excluded everything else, was palpable, made visible in the traces of his rapidly moving hand, driving across the paper, making loops and whorls, and then abruptly changing direction. At the [...]
Rachel Stern2018-12-03T16:06:56-05:00December 10th, 2017|Exhibitions, Past Exhibitions|
Coming home: With more than 80 paintings and works on paper, the worldwide first Fritz Ascher Retrospective is on view at the places where Fritz Ascher lived and worked, with parallel exhibitions in Berlin and Potsdam. Each venue shows a representative group of powerful paintings and drawings, which span Ascher's whole oeuvre from first academic studies to monumental Expressionist figure compositions to late landscapes. Both venues present Fritz Ascher's poems, written while hiding from Nazi persecution, as "unpainted paintings" in relation to his artwork. The Potsdam Museum shows Ascher’s artistic development in four galleries, starting with early masterworks like the monumental “Golgotha” and “The Tortured”. The second gallery shows Ascher’s love for music and stage and for the Clown theme [...]
Rachel Stern2018-12-03T16:06:56-05:00December 8th, 2017|Exhibitions, Past Exhibitions|
Coming home: With more than 80 paintings and works on paper, the worldwide first Fritz Ascher Retrospective is on view at the places where Fritz Ascher lived and worked, with parallel exhibitions in Berlin and Potsdam. Each venue shows a representative group of powerful paintings and drawings, which span Ascher's whole oeuvre from first academic studies to monumental Expressionist figure compositions to late landscapes. Both venues present Fritz Ascher's poems, written while hiding from Nazi persecution, as "unpainted paintings" in relation to his artwork. In Berlin, Museum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in der Villa Oppenheim shows an overview of the artist’s creative development, with a focus on works that relate to Berlin. We see his sketch of the artist Max Liebermann as [...]
