Rachel Stern2022-02-18T06:37:23-05:00March 4th, 2021|Events, Past Events|
The International Tracing Service (ITS), since 2019 called Arolsen Archives, was established by the Allies in 1948 as a central search and information center. They house the world’s most extensive collection of documents about the victims of National Socialist persecution, including documents from Nazi concentration camps, ghettoes and penal institutions, documents about forced laborers, and documents from the early post-war period about Displaced Persons, mainly Holocaust survivors, former concentration camp prisoners, and forced laborers. People who had fled the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union for political reasons are also included. The archive's holdings consist of 30 million documents in total and belong to UNESCO’s Memory of the World. At this event, Floriane Azoulay (Director) and Giora Zwilling (Deputy [...]
Rachel Stern2022-02-18T06:04:58-05:00March 3rd, 2021|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
The Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) achieved world fame with his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes. Rüdiger Görner, author of the first English-language biography, depicts the artist in all his fascinating and contradictory complexity. He traces Kokoschka’s path from bête noire of the bourgeoisie and a so-called ‘hunger artist’ to a wealthy and cosmopolitan political and critical artist who played a major role in shaping the European art scene of the twentieth century and whose relevance is undiminished to this day. In 1934, Kokoschka left Austria for Prague, and in 1938, when the Czechs began to mobilize for the expected invasion by the German Wehrmacht, Kokoschka fled to the United Kingdom, where he remained during the war. Although he [...]
Rachel Stern2022-02-18T07:06:06-05:00February 22nd, 2021|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
Born 1877 in Dortmund, the sculptor Benno Elkan (1877-1960) first studied painting in Munich and Karlsruhe. At the end of his studies, he turned to sculpture. As a young artist, he spent time in Paris, Rome, and Frankfurt. Elkan’s oeuvre was largely made up of commissions. In the beginning, he mainly created tombs. Medals, portrait busts of well-known personalities, monuments to victims and candelabras follow, partly for the religious (Jewish and Christian) context. Elkan fled persecution by the German Nazi regime to Great Britain in 1934and lived with his family in London until the end of his life. Perhaps the most important work besides the Menorah in Jerusalem (1956) was never built: Memorial to the Defenseless Victims of the Bombing [...]
Rachel Stern2022-02-18T06:31:18-05:00February 17th, 2021|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
During the first four decades of the twentieth century, Polish Jewish artist Arthur Szyk (1894–1951) was best known for his richly detailed book illustrations and magnificent illuminations on Jewish themes. He portrayed the Jews as a heroic nation that had resisted oppression through the ages and eventually triumphed. His Jews were fighters for their own freedom and the freedom of others. Szyk sought to redefine how the Jews viewed themselves and how others viewed them. His works thus challenged the notion that Jewish history was merely one long saga of suffering and, at the same time, refuted the then common antisemitic canard that the Jews were a cowardly people. With the coming to power in Germany of Adolf Hitler [...]
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 Stern2018-12-04T12:14:23-05:00December 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 Stern2018-12-04T12:21:16-05:00October 25th, 2017|Select Press Coverage|
Bilder eines Vereinsamten Das Museum Gunzenhauser erinnert an den kaum bekannten jüdischen Künstler Fritz Ascher: Dessen expressionistisch-symbolistische Bilder sind eine echte Wiederentdeckung wert, denn zwei Weltkriege konnten seine künstlerische Kraft nur schwächen - aber nicht brechen Matthias Zwarg CHEMNITZ - Es gibt ein Porträt von Fritz Ascher aus dem Jahr 1912, gemalt von seinem Freund Eduard Bischoff. Es zeigt einen optimistischen jungen Mann: Anzug, rote Krawatte, frech den Kopf auf den Arm gestützt, lächelt er froh und selbstbewusst dem Betrachter entgegen. Und es gibt ein Selbstporträt von Fritz Ascher aus dem Jahr 1953: Weiss und grau über schwarzer Tusche, Aquarell-Farbtupfer wie Wunden in dem Gesicht, in das so etwas wie die Suche nach Fassung nach dem Entsetzen eingeschrieben ist. Dazwischen [...]
Rachel Stern2018-12-04T12:26:37-05:00September 17th, 2017|Select Press Coverage|
Der Gezeichnete Sven Goldmann Gefördert von Max Liebermann, geschätzt wie Grosz, Dix und Heartfield – doch es bedurfte des 125. Hertha-Geburtstages, um dem Maler Fritz Ascher neue Aufmerksamkeit zu verschaffen. Schwarze Tusche und Grafit auf Papier: „Fußball konnte er also auch malen.“ Verena Veldes Augen huschen über den Ausstellungskatalog, „Leben ist Glühn“, Abbildung 37 auf Seite 202. Eine Zeichnung mit sechs kräftigen Burschen in knielangen Hosen. Einer kommt von links mit kräftigem Spreizschritt herangestürmt, zu spät, der Ball befindet sich schon in den Händen des Torhüters, der drückt ihn zugleich zärtlich und energisch an sich. Konzentriertes Schweigen am anderen Ende des Tisches. So sah Fußball vor 100 Jahren aus – gar nicht so viel anders als heute. „Gefällt mir“, sagt [...]
Rachel Stern2018-12-21T06:00:22-05:00September 17th, 2017|Selected Publications|
Wiebke Hölzer. Fritz Ascher. Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL), vol. 38, Nordhausen: Verlag Traugott Bautz GmbH. pp. 66-71 Download PDF Geboren am 17.10.1893 in Berlin, gestorben am 26.03.1970 in Berlin; expressionistischer Maler und Grafiker, Dichter. Er wuchs als Sohn der jüdisch assimilierten Eltern Hugo Ascher (27.7.1859-18.08.1922) und Minna Luise Ascher, geb. Schneider (17.01.1867-17.10.1938) zusammen mit seinen zwei jüngeren Schwestern Charlotte (08.10.1894-06.12.1978) und Margarete (11.06.1897-15.01.1973) auf. 1899 trat Hugo Ascher mit seinen Kindern aus dem Judentum aus und ließ Fritz 1901 evangelisch taufen. Sein Vater war durch die Entwicklung von künstlichem Zahnschmelz zu Wohlstand gekommen und konnte somit Wohnungen in der Friedrichstraße und der Jägerstraße und später den Bau einer Villa in der Niklasstraße in Zehlendorf finanzieren. 1909 besuchte Ascher — durch das [...]
Rachel Stern2018-12-04T12:33:00-05:00September 1st, 2017|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, It was fun to attend the opening of “Hauptstadtfussball” at the Ephraim Palais in Berlin, celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Berlin soccer club Herta BSC and its local rivals. I learned so many things about soccer in Berlin, and about Herta BSC in this creative, well researched exhibition. And you can see Fritz Ascher’s “Soccer Players” from c. 1916! It will be on view until January 8, 2018. link Thank you to Sven Goldmann for bringing Fritz Ascher alive in his full page piece in the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel! link Here in New York, the preparations for “‘Beauteous Strivings.’ Fritz Ascher - Works on Paper” at the New York Studio School are in full swing. The New [...]
Rachel Stern2018-12-04T12:35:37-05:00May 15th, 2017|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, I am very excited to invite you to the opening of the Fritz Ascher exhibition at the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz MUSEUM GUNZENHAUSER on March 4, 2017 at 7:30pm. For the first time ever, Fritz Ascher’s “Golem” from the collection of the Jewish Museum Berlin will here be reunited with other works he created between 1913 and 1933. The Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz is home to an important collection of German Expressionism, dominated by artwork of the locally founded Expressionist group Brücke and especially Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, who grew up in Chemnitz, along with Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Erich Heckel. The Museum Gunzenhauser is home to the vast Expressionist art collection of Alfred Gunzenhauser, with the worldwide largest collection of works by Otto [...]
Rachel Stern2021-02-24T07:06:52-05:00March 3rd, 2017|Select Press Coverage|
EXPRESSIONISTISCHE KUNST IM MUSEUM GUNZENHAUSER Chemnitz – Zur Eröffnung der 26. Tage der jüdischen Kultur in Chemnitz wird am Samstag eine Sonderausstellung zum deutschen Künstler Fritz Ascher präsentiert. Die Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz zeigen im Museum Gunzenhauser rund 40 Gemälde und Grafiken des 1893 in Berlin geborenen Expressionisten, der bisher nur wenigen Kunstkennern ein Begriff ist. Die in New York lebende Kuratorin, Rachel Stern, hat erstmals eine Einzelausstellung zu Fritz Ascher organisiert, die nun in Chemnitz Station macht. Als Kind von evangelisch getauften, assimilierten Juden fand der Künstler zu einer kraftvollen Bildsprache, die seine Spiritualität – aber auch seine innere Zerrissenheit widerspiegelt. Während der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus war Fritz Ascher zeitweise im Gefängnis und im KZ Sachsenhausen inhaftiert, konnte bis Kriegsende jedoch [...]
