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 Stern2019-03-26T08:33:22-04:00March 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 Stern2019-02-15T10:25:48-05:00February 15th, 2019|Select Press Coverage|
"Finally Home with the Greats. An exhibition places the under-the-radar Fritz Ascher squarely in the canon of 20th-century German artists.” (scroll down for translation into German) ‘Golgotha’ (1915), by Fritz Ascher, in which inflections of Pieter Bruegel the Elder coalesce with James Ensor to create a scene of pandemonium and horror. ©Bianca Stock For those of us who consider themselves familiar with German Expressionism, the compelling new exhibition at New York University’s Grey Art Gallery, “Fritz Ascher: Expressionist,” makes us wonder why this artist hasn’t been on our radar screens. The 67 works of art on display, along with sketchbooks and documentary materials, may not quite qualify as a discovery, but they significantly [...]
Rachel Stern2018-12-01T21:41:16-05:00May 28th, 2018|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, The G.D.P.R., Europe’s New Data Law, is upon us. Please check our Terms of Service/Terms of Usage and our Privacy Policy. If you give us permission to continue sending you these bimonthly newsletters, you do not have to do anything. If you do not want to receive these emails, please send us an email or opt out below. I just returned from Germany, from the May 13 opening of the Fritz Ascher retrospective at Museum Schlösschen im Hofgarten in Wertheim on the Main river, a historic building with an amazing collection of artwork of the Neue Secession. Here, Ascher’s work can be seen in connection with works by his teachers Max Liebermann, Lovis Corinth, Ludwig Dettmann and Curt [...]
Rachel Stern2018-12-03T16:06:56-05:00May 23rd, 2018|Exhibitions, Past Exhibitions|
The worldwide first Fritz Ascher Retrospective is on view at Museum Schlösschen im Hofgarten in Wertheim/Main until September 9, 2018. Here, 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. In Wertheim, Ascher’s work can be seen in the context of his supporter Max Liebermann and his teachers Lovis Corinth, Ludwig Dettmann and Curt Agthe, thanks to the Schlösschen’s exquisite collection of Berlin Secession art. (website link) SWR Aktuell reported. (website link) Photos by Elmar Kellner and David Stern. A comprehensive German/English catalogue with [...]
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 Stern2018-12-21T06:00:22-05:00September 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 Stern2018-12-04T12:43:56-05:00July 28th, 2016|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, Today we are all about literature. 400 years ago the poet William Shakespeare died (1564-1616). Ever since, the dramatic scenes in his plays have inspired many artists’ brush and pen, like William Turner, Edvard Munch, Max Slevogt and Lovis Corinth. Fritz Ascher drew scenes from Shakespeare’s "King John“, "King Richard II." and "Henry IV." He is almost certainly inspired by numerous performances, especially in Berlin. Most famous was the Austrian theater producer Max Reinhardt, who staged Shakespeare's plays at the "Deutsches Theater" and the "Großes Schauspielhaus". The drawing below shows the stage in the right background; in the foreground a man and a woman sit in a box, the rest of the audience sits below. Stage plays have [...]
