London Archives - Fritz Ascher Society

Nov 21, 2024

Fred Kormis – Sculpting the Twentieth Century
Presentation by Barbara Warnock, London (England)

Rachel Stern2025-01-09T14:27:52-05:00November 21st, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on Fred Kormis – Sculpting the Twentieth Century
Presentation by Barbara Warnock, London (England)

Born in 1894 in Frankfurt into an Austrian and German Jewish family, Fred Kormis’ life and career were shaped and disrupted by some of the most significant events of the twentieth century. Kormis saw action and was wounded in the First World War as part of the Austrian army, before being held for four years as a prisoner of war in Siberia. Image above: Fred Kormis, Two Heads, c. 1930s © Wiener Holocaust Library Collections He worked as an artist during the politically and culturally tumultuous Weimar period, and during the Nazi era revealed himself to be Jewish, a decision that led to the removal of his art from galleries. Kormis and his wife Rachel Sender [...]

Oct 27, 2023

Klaus Friedeberger (1922-2019).
Journey Around the World
Lecture by Monica Sidhu, London
Q&A with wife Julie Friedeberger and British Museum curator Stephen Coppel, London

Rachel Stern2023-12-06T14:00:09-05:00October 27th, 2023|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on Klaus Friedeberger (1922-2019).
Journey Around the World
Lecture by Monica Sidhu, London
Q&A with wife Julie Friedeberger and British Museum curator Stephen Coppel, London

Presentation by Monica Sidhu, followed by a conversation with the late Klaus’ wife Julie Friedeberger and British Museum curator Stephen Coppel, London. Image above: Klaus Friedeberger, Children Playing, 1959-1962, oil on canvas. Copyright Klaus Friedeberger estate Born in Berlin in 1922 the artist Klaus Friedeberger escaped Nazi Germany in 1937. After studying at the Quaker School in Holland he arrived in London as a refugee in 1939. Classified as ‘enemy alien’ he was interned and subsequently deported to Australia on the transport ship Dunera. He spent two years in internment camps at Hay in New South Wales. Released in 1942 he joined the Australian Army labour corps and after demobilisation he studied art at East [...]

Aug 31, 2023

From Émigré to Englishman: Fred Uhlman, ‘Painter of Dreams’
Lecture by Dr. Nicola Baird, London

Rachel Stern2023-09-13T13:30:35-04:00August 31st, 2023|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on From Émigré to Englishman: Fred Uhlman, ‘Painter of Dreams’
Lecture by Dr. Nicola Baird, London

Manfred [Fred] Uhlman was born on 19th January 1901 in Stuttgart, Germany, the eldest child of Ludwig Uhlman (1869–c.1943), a textile merchant, and his wife, Johanna Grombacher (1879–c.1943), both of whom were later to perish at Theresienstadt concentration camp. He studied law at the Universities of Freiburg, Munich, and Tübingen, graduating with a doctorate in 1923. In 1927 he joined the Social Democrat Party, becoming its official legal representative in 1932. Image above: Fred Uhlman, Still Life with African Figures, oil on canvas, Hatton Gallery, © the artist's estate / Bridgeman Images. Photo credit: Hatton Gallery In March 1933, after a warning that his arrest was imminent because of his political affiliations, he fled [...]

Aug 23, 2023

Samson Schames: Fragments of Exile
Lecture by Annika Friedman, Frankfurt

Rachel Stern2023-12-15T11:28:36-05:00August 23rd, 2023|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on Samson Schames: Fragments of Exile
Lecture by Annika Friedman, Frankfurt

This event is sponsored by Ilona Oltuski in memory of Ruth Drory. Image above: Samson Schames, Kindling of the Lights, c. 1956. Glass tiles on glass, 56 x 71 cm. Jewish Museum Frankfurt Samson Schames (1898-1967) came from a long-established Jewish family in Frankfurt am Main. With the support of his uncle, renowned gallery owner Ludwig Schames, he made his way into the 1920s art scene and began his training as a painter, graphic artist, and stage designer. Schames’ designs, drawings, and oil paintings from the period up to 1933 testify to his deep connection to Frankfurt and her landscapes. Samson Schames, Opernplatz Frankfurt, 1930. Jewish Museum Frankfurt [...]

Jul 26, 2023

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter August 2023

Rachel Stern2024-01-24T07:04:07-05:00July 26th, 2023|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter August 2023

This month, we are kicking off our SUMMER FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN. Before the start of the new Jewish year, we aim to raise $8,000.00 to support our virtual lecture program. Help us continue educating about Antisemitism and the Holocaust through the Arts. Telling the stories of artists persecuted by the German Nazi regime and putting them in their historical and societal context initiates discussions that could not be more relevant today. To sponsor a lecture in honor or memory of someone, please contact Rachel Stern at stern@fritzaschersociety.org. If you like what we do, please show us! DONATE TODAY We have two extraordinary virtual events in our series “Flight or Fight. Stories of Artists under Repression” planned [...]

Jul 26, 2023

THE ISLAND OF EXTRAORDINARY CAPTIVES
Book Talk by author Simon Parkin, London

Rachel Stern2023-08-23T14:13:45-04:00July 26th, 2023|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on THE ISLAND OF EXTRAORDINARY CAPTIVES
Book Talk by author Simon Parkin, London

In May 1940, faced with a country gripped by paranoia, Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the internment of all German and Austrian citizens living in the country. Most were refugees who had come to the country to escape Nazi oppression. They were now imprisoned by the country in which they had staked their trust. More than 1,200 men were taken to Hutchinson camp, on the Isle of Man, which a group of world-renowned artists, musicians and academics turned into history’s most extraordinary prison camp. This is a story of a battle between fear and compassion at a time of national crisis that reveals how Britain’s treatment of refugees during the Second World War led to one of the [...]

Jul 17, 2023

A Painter in Search of an Audience:
Marie-Louise von Motesiczky in Exile
Talk by Ines Schlenker, London

Rachel Stern2023-08-09T14:35:11-04:00July 17th, 2023|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on A Painter in Search of an Audience:
Marie-Louise von Motesiczky in Exile
Talk by Ines Schlenker, London

Marie-Louise von Motesiczky was born into a wealthy, aristocratic Jewish family in Vienna in 1906. She trained under the German painter Max Beckmann, a family friend, and embarked on a promising career. When the National Socialists marched into Austria in 1938 Motesiczky fled the country for the Netherlands, eventually settling in England. Her attempts to build a new life in a foreign country were supported by a network of fellow émigrés, among them the painter Oskar Kokoschka and the writer Elias Canetti, with whom she had a long relationship. Lecture by Ines Schlenker, introduced and moderated by Rachel Stern. Image above: Self-Portrait with Red Hat, 1938 (Private Collection) ©️Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust 2023 [...]

Jul 9, 2023

Between America and France:
Varian Fry and the Rescue of Artists
Talk by Ori Z Soltes, PhD

Rachel Stern2023-07-19T13:51:04-04:00July 9th, 2023|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on Between America and France:
Varian Fry and the Rescue of Artists
Talk by Ori Z Soltes, PhD

With a belated reminder of the proximity of the American and French Independent Day celebrations, this talk focuses on the artists’ Schindler, the American journalist, Varian Fry (1907-1967). Using methods both legal and not, Fry managed to rescue some 2,000 individuals from France between 1940 and 1941. France had become largely swallowed up by Nazi Germany, the “free” parts in Southern France (Vichy France) were not necessarily unreluctant to assist with the deportation of Jews into Nazi-held territories, and the US immigration policies were far from open-handed to those seeking refuge. Who was he and who were some of those he helped—or in some cases, could not help—to escape destruction? Lecture by Ori Z. Soltes, introduced and moderated by [...]

Apr 19, 2023

Benno Elkan (1877-1960)
and the Definition of Israeli Art
Talk by Ori Z Soltes, PhD

Rachel Stern2023-04-26T13:54:56-04:00April 19th, 2023|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on Benno Elkan (1877-1960)
and the Definition of Israeli Art
Talk by Ori Z Soltes, PhD

In honor of Yom Ha'azmaut, Israel's Independence Day, and this year's 75th anniversary of the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948, this talk by Georgetown University professor Ori Z Soltes addresses the question of what defines Israeli art and when it began to take shape. Is it made only by Israelis---then how did Elkan's Menorah become the consummate symbol of Israel when he never lived in the state? Did "Israeli" art begin with or before the birth of the state? How does this relate to the opening of the Bezalel School of Art in 1906--and closing by 1929, only to re-open years later? How does it relate to the question of defining Jewish art? Benno Elkan's stunning work, [...]

May 19, 2022

Ludwig and Else Meidner.
An Artist Couple Exiled in London
Lecture by Erik Riedel, Frankfurt/Main (Germany)

Rachel Stern2022-08-03T14:52:23-04:00May 19th, 2022|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on Ludwig and Else Meidner.
An Artist Couple Exiled in London
Lecture by Erik Riedel, Frankfurt/Main (Germany)

When Ludwig and Else Meidner met in 1925, he was already an established artist well-known for his so-called Apocalyptic Landscapes. Although Else started as Ludwig’s student, she developed a distinct independent style and he always praised her art as more refined than his own “coarse” works. As Else Meidner slowly gained recognition in Berlin art circles, her career was abruptly cut short by the Nazi-regime in 1933. She moved to Cologne with her husband in 1935; and they emigrated to England in 1939 only a few weeks before the war started. In London both lived largely unnoticed by the English art scene. But while Ludwig frustratedly returned to Germany, she decided to stay in England. Their complicated relationship developed from [...]

Apr 11, 2022

Prison Diaries by Hans Uhlmann, 1933-1935:
Drawing as Life Line
Featuring Dorothea Schöne, Berlin (Germany)

Rachel Stern2022-05-04T15:26:49-04:00April 11th, 2022|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on Prison Diaries by Hans Uhlmann, 1933-1935:
Drawing as Life Line
Featuring Dorothea Schöne, Berlin (Germany)

On October 26, 1933, Hans Uhlmann was arrested by the Gestapo on the street. In the notorious Columbia-Haus, he was interrogated for several weeks and then found guilty by the court of appeal of “preparations for a traitorous enterprise.” He spent a year and a half in prison—first in Moabit and then in Tegel Prison. The artist recorded his experiences of those years in diaries. In parallel with these diaries, he produced four books of sketches. In his diary entries Uhlmann describes his arrest as well as scenes from daily life in confinement but above all his artistic concerns and projects: “I think often of freedom; of my first works; I occupy myself here by imagining these figures” (May [...]

Mar 28, 2022

Behind the Bronze.
The Sculptor Maurice Blik (born 1939 Amsterdam)
Featuring Maurice Blik and Julian Freeman (both London, UK)

Rachel Stern2022-09-07T15:52:51-04:00March 28th, 2022|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on Behind the Bronze.
The Sculptor Maurice Blik (born 1939 Amsterdam)
Featuring Maurice Blik and Julian Freeman (both London, UK)

Maurice Blik has lived in England since being liberated from Bergen Belsen concentration camp, where he was taken as a small child from his birthplace, Amsterdam. The ability to come to terms with this experience and to confront the face of humanity that he has witnessed, stayed silent in his life for some 40 years. It finally found a voice in the passionate sculptures which began to emerge in the late 1970s when he created a series of horses’ heads. These noble and benevolent creatures posses an energy and a life force that seem just barely harnessed long enough to take their shape in the clay itself. Later he progressed to more figurative work in which the irrepressible joy [...]