Modern Art

Mar 24, 2025

Léo Maillet (1902-1990): The Broken Mirror
Presentation by Erik Riedel, Frankfurt am Main (Germany)

2025-04-09T14:22:41-04:00March 24th, 2025|, , |Comments Off on Léo Maillet (1902-1990): The Broken Mirror
Presentation by Erik Riedel, Frankfurt am Main (Germany)

Curator Erik Riedel presents the work of the painter and graphic artist Léo Maillet, who changed his original name Leopold Mayer in exile, reflecting the numerous fractures in his biography. Image above: Léo Maillet, Le Graveur (Self-Portrait), 1944. Oil on cardboard. Permanent loan by the Adolf und Luisa Haeuser-Stiftung für Kunst und Kulturpflege. © estate of Léo Maillet: Daniel Maillet and Nikolaus Mayer After his dramatic escape from a deportation train bound for Auschwitz, Maillet lived in the French Cévennes under a false identity from 1942 onwards. He painted and drew with the simplest of materials. Some years later, he took up the works he had created during his flight and persecution and transformed them [...]

Mar 6, 2025

Art and Conscience in a Time of Upheaval.
Ben Shahn (1898-1969)
Presentation by Ori Z Soltes, Washington (DC)

2025-03-12T14:22:13-04:00March 6th, 2025|, , |Comments Off on Art and Conscience in a Time of Upheaval.
Ben Shahn (1898-1969)
Presentation by Ori Z Soltes, Washington (DC)

Georgetown University professor Ori Z Soltes will speak about Ben Shahn (1898-1969), who arrived in 1906 as a child to the United States from Tsarist-governed Lithuania. Four years after the Tsarist authorities had exiled his father to Siberia for alleged revolutionary activities, his mother managed to bring the family to New York. There they reconnected with Ben's father who had escaped from Siberia and made it to the US by way of South Africa. Image above: Ben Shahn, Detail of the Mural "The Meaning of Social Security," Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building, Washington, D.C. Within 25 years Shahn emerged as perhaps the key figure in the developing arena of American Social [...]

Feb 14, 2025

“There is something mad about the art”
The German-Jewish Art Dealer Alfred Flechtheim and his Heirs’ Fight for Restitution
Presentation by Journalist Michael Sontheimer, Berlin (Germany)

2025-03-26T16:04:21-04:00February 14th, 2025|, , |Comments Off on “There is something mad about the art”
The German-Jewish Art Dealer Alfred Flechtheim and his Heirs’ Fight for Restitution
Presentation by Journalist Michael Sontheimer, Berlin (Germany)

Journalist and author Michael Sontheimer speaks about Alfred Flechtheim, who was born in 1878 in Münster as the son of a wealthy German Jewish grain dealer. He was trained as a trader but did not want to stay in the family business. As he was fascinated with art, he left his hometown and moved to Düsseldorf, where he opened a gallery in 1913. Image above: Rudolf Großmann, Alfred Flechtheim, 1922-27. Pencil, ink, and gouache on paper, 5.3 x 3.8 in. Museum für Moderne Kunst, Freiburg (Germany) G 62/008 b. After serving in the German Army during the First World War, in 1921 he opened a second gallery in Berlin, the place to be in the 1920s. [...]

Jan 20, 2025

Love and Betrayal. The German-Jewish artist Fritz Ascher (1893-1970)
A presentation by Rachel Stern, organized by Saint Elizabeth University, Morristown (NJ)

2025-03-02T04:34:45-05:00January 20th, 2025|, , |Comments Off on Love and Betrayal. The German-Jewish artist Fritz Ascher (1893-1970)
A presentation by Rachel Stern, organized by Saint Elizabeth University, Morristown (NJ)

Rachel Stern will present insights into the art and life of the German-Jewish artist Fritz Ascher and the mission of The Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted, Ostracized and Banned Art. Introduced by Richard Quinlan, Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education at Saint Elizabeth University in Morristown (NJ). Image above: Fritz Ascher, Male Portrait in Red, c. 1915. Private collection © Bianca Stock Fritz Ascher (1893-1970), a painter, graphic artist, and poet, was recommended to the art academy in Königsberg by the renown German painter Max Liebermann at the age of 16. From 1913 onwards, he gained recognition as a painter in Berlin. Ascher was a keen observer of his era; the [...]

Dec 22, 2024

Making Way for Berthe Weill—
Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-Garde
A presentation by Lynn Gumpert, New York

2025-01-22T13:31:12-05:00December 22nd, 2024|, , |Comments Off on Making Way for Berthe Weill—
Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-Garde
A presentation by Lynn Gumpert, New York

Berthe Weill was a trailblazing art dealer who exhibited works by emerging artists in her Parisian gallery from 1901 to 1941. Even though many of them went on to become key avant-garde figures, Weill’s role has been omitted from most historical accounts of 20th-century modernism. In this presentation, Lynn Gumpert, a co-curator of the first exhibition on Weill, provides an overview of this remarkable woman. Image above: Amedeo Modigliani, Fille rousse (Girl with red hair), c. 1915. Oil on canvas, 16 x 14 3/8 in. (40.5 x 36.5 cm). Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris. Jean Walter and Paul Guillame Collection, 1960.46 © Photo: Musée de l’Orangerie / Sophie Crépy Passionate and outspoken, Weill was the [...]

Aug 12, 2024

LOVE AND BETRAYAL – The Expressionist Fritz Ascher from New York Private Collections
November 8, 2024 – March 2, 2025
Haus der Graphischen Sammlung, Freiburg, Germany

2025-03-03T12:08:54-05:00August 12th, 2024|, |Comments Off on LOVE AND BETRAYAL – The Expressionist Fritz Ascher from New York Private Collections
November 8, 2024 – March 2, 2025
Haus der Graphischen Sammlung, Freiburg, Germany

The late Expressionist artist Fritz Ascher (1893-1970) survived two world wars and persecution by the National Socialist regime. A close observer of the horrors of World War I and revolutionary unrest, he turned to Christian spiritual themes, which he radically reinterpreted. In intimate drawings, he dealt with the theme of love and betrayal from 1916 onward, both in his exploration of the crucifixion theme and with the figure of Bajazzo in the tragicomic opera "I Pagliacci." Ascher's strong and unique artistic voice is evident not only in his artwork, but also in his poems. These were written when he was no longer allowed to work under National Socialism because of his Jewish roots and as a representative of modernism, [...]

Feb 2, 2024

„I’m always on the go…” –
The painter Franz Domscheit / Pranas Domšaitis (1880-1965)
Lecture by Jan Rüttinger, Lüneburg (Germany)

2024-02-28T14:34:35-05:00February 2nd, 2024|, , |Comments Off on „I’m always on the go…” –
The painter Franz Domscheit / Pranas Domšaitis (1880-1965)
Lecture by Jan Rüttinger, Lüneburg (Germany)

Searching, wandering, not arriving - this is how the person and art of Franz Domscheit/Pranas Domšaitis can be characterized. Born into a German-Lithuanian family as the son of a farmer and innkeeper, it was primarily his Lithuanian origins that interested him. The early landscape and cultural impressions of his homeland, Prussian-Lithuania, at the interface of German and Lithuanian culture, shaped his work throughout his life. Landscape is one of the painter's main themes, who is primarily perceived as an expressionist. Image above: Franz Domscheit, Two Peasant Women, 1930s. Oil on canvas. Copyright National Lithuanian Art Museum. Trained at the Königsberg Art Academy by Ludwig Dettmann, among others, Domscheit then moved out into the world. Berlin, [...]

Feb 1, 2024

The Art of Marc Klionsky:
Shaping a Three-World Condition from Minsk to New York
Lecture by Ori Z Soltes and conversation with daughter Nadia Klionsky

2024-02-14T15:19:09-05:00February 1st, 2024|, , |Comments Off on The Art of Marc Klionsky:
Shaping a Three-World Condition from Minsk to New York
Lecture by Ori Z Soltes and conversation with daughter Nadia Klionsky

In this program Georgetown University professor and author, Ori Z Soltes, explores Marc Klionsky's life and work, in part through conversation with his daughter, the scholar and artist, Nadia Klionsky. Image above: Marc Klionsky, Dizzie Gillespie: The Man and his Trumpet, 1988. Oil on canvas, 52 x 66 inches. National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC. This exciting program features the paintings of Marc Klionsky (1927–2017). Born in the Soviet Union, Klionsky managed to navigate what has been called a “two-world condition”—creating the particularized Soviet Socialist Realist work that was acceptable to the Stalinist and post-Stalinist State while allowing his soul to reveal itself in work that only a very few trusted viewers might see. As [...]

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

2023-12-06T14:00:09-05:00October 27th, 2023|, , |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 [...]

Oct 23, 2023

Peter László Péri (1899-1967).
A Hungarian-born Artist in Berlin and London
Lecture by Arie Hartog, Bremen (Germany)

2023-11-15T13:37:29-05:00October 23rd, 2023|, , |Comments Off on Peter László Péri (1899-1967).
A Hungarian-born Artist in Berlin and London
Lecture by Arie Hartog, Bremen (Germany)

In this talk, Arie Hartog, director of the Gerhard-Marcks-Haus in Bremen, Germany, draws attention to a sculptor who contradicts the common narrative of modern art in the 20th century. Péri began as a constructivist and ended as a figurative artist. Yet he was not an academic traditional sculptor. Introductory remarks by Lilla Farkas, Cultural attaché at the Liszt Institute of the Consulate General of Hungary in New York. Image above: Peter László Péri, Sadness, 1938–1945, pigmented and painted concrete, 52 × 40 × 60 cm. Photo: Jake Wallters © Peter László Péri Estate, London Peter László Péri was born Ladislas Weisz in Budapest in 1889. Peri became the Hungarianized family name in 1918. In 1919, he [...]

Oct 9, 2023

Horst Eisfelder (1925-2023):
Diasporic Life in Shanghai’s State of Exception
Lecture by Dr Noit Banai, Hong Kong
and Dr Anna Hirsh, Melbourne

2023-11-08T20:46:18-05:00October 9th, 2023|, , |Comments Off on Horst Eisfelder (1925-2023):
Diasporic Life in Shanghai’s State of Exception
Lecture by Dr Noit Banai, Hong Kong
and Dr Anna Hirsh, Melbourne

Lecture by Dr Noit Banai and Dr Anna Hirsh, followed by Q&A with Rodney Eisfelder, son of Horst Eisfelder. Image above: Horst Eisfelder. Street scene in the Shanghai Ghetto, Shanghai, China, circa 1945. Black and white photograph. Copyright: Horst Eisfelder estate After fleeing Berlin a few weeks before Kristallnacht and arriving in Shanghai with his family in late November 1938, Horst Eisfelder (1925-2023) became one of the most prolific photographers of the ‘Shanghai Ghetto’ before emigrating to Australia in May 1947. Embedded within the history and theory of photography, this presentation considers his images of the city of Shanghai as well as the Designated Area for Stateless Refugees as vital representations through which to understand [...]

Sep 29, 2023

Eva Zeisel, Designer Extraordinaire
Lecture by daughter Jean Richards, New York

2023-10-25T13:56:11-04:00September 29th, 2023|, , |Comments Off on Eva Zeisel, Designer Extraordinaire
Lecture by daughter Jean Richards, New York

Eva Zeisel (born Éva Amália Striker, Budapest 1906 –2011 New City, New York) was one of the most important designers of the 20th century. She believed that beautiful things make people happy. Although she was known for her ceramic tableware, she also designed in glass, wood, plastic and metal. Her designs are in major museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum, the British Museum and MoMA, where she had the first one woman show in 1946. Lecture by Eva’s daughter Jean Richards. Image above: Eva Zeisel, Red Wing Pottery pieces from "Town and Country" collection. Glazed earthenware, ca. 1945. CC BY 4.0 Photograph of a young Eva Zeisel. © Eva [...]