Rachel Stern2025-01-27T07:31:46-05:00January 20th, 2025|Events, Past Events|
Please join us for the opening event! Survival and Intimations of Immortality: The Art of Alice Lok Cahana, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana, and Kitra Cahana is a unique and powerful exhibition that explores the role of art and creativity, bringing the past into the present by focusing on three generations of artists from the same family. Alice Lok Cahana (1929-2017) was a Holocaust survivor who pledged she would become an artist if she survived the war. Rabbi Ronnie Cahana, Alice’s oldest son, is a poet and survivor of a major stroke. Kitra Cahana, Ronnie’s daughter, is a filmmaker and photographer. This exhibition reveals how the tragedy of the Holocaust impacted multiple generations of a family and how each member transformed [...]
Rachel Stern2025-01-09T14:06:25-05:00January 2nd, 2025|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, Happy 2025! An eventful month lies ahead. First of all, I am very excited to announce that you now can experience our website in multiple languages - try it out: https://fritzaschersociety.org/. Here at the Fritz Ascher Society, we are starting the year with two virtual talks that are connected to exhibitions - one in London and one here in New York: WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 12:00PM EST FRED KORMIS (1894-1986)– SCULPTING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY PRESENTATION BY BARBARA WARNOCK, LONDON (ENGLAND) REGISTER HERE Fred Kormis, Two Heads, c. 1930s © Wiener Holocaust Library Collections Sculptor and printmaker Fred Kormis (1894-1986) was born into an Austrian and German-Jewish family in Frankfurt, Germany, was wounded fighting [...]
Rachel Stern2025-01-09T13:35:50-05:00December 24th, 2024|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, We wish you Happy Holidays with Mayer Kirshenblatt's painting Hanukkah, in which he remembers celebrating the holiday with his family in Opatów (Apt) in the 1920s. "This is Hanukkah at home with my father, mother, and brothers. We lit the candles and sang Maoz tsur (Rock of Ages). I painted a few notes to indicate that we were singing. It was a special day for us because we were let out of school early. Father gave me Hanukkah gelt, a few pennies for a present, in honor of the holiday. Mother cooked latkes, potato pancakes, which are very delicious. She grated raw potatoes, added eggs, and flour and fried the pancakes in shmalts, [...]
Rachel Stern2024-12-18T05:55:27-05:00December 4th, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
Jutta Götzmann, exhibition curator of "Love and Betrayal," presents the artist Fritz Ascher (1893-1970) during a tour. In addition to early charcoal, graphite and ink drawings, colorful gouaches are fascinating. Poems that are considered his "unpainted pictures" and were created in secret during the National Socialist era complement the exhibition. BUY TICKETS HERE The Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. YOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. DONATE HERE
Rachel Stern2024-12-12T19:30:39-05:00November 26th, 2024|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, What a whirlwind of a month this was, with the opening of the important new Fritz Ascher exhibition, "Love and Betrayal - The Expressionist Fritz Ascher from New York Private Collections" at the House of the Graphic Collection, Augustinermuseum in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany). This is the first exhibition that focusses on works on paper created by Fritz Ascher before 1933. In this most immediate and intimate medium, we discover the cheerful and thoughtful artist who was part of the avant-garde in what was then the most exciting cultural city in the world and who spontaneously recorded his thoughts, ideas and experiences on paper, or worked on pictorial themes or compositions. The exhibition is on view [...]
Rachel Stern2025-02-04T06:47:41-05:00November 22nd, 2024|Exhibitions|
Survival and Intimations of Immortality: The Art of Alice Lok Cahana, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana, and Kitra Cahana is a unique and powerful exhibition that explores the role of art and creativity, bringing the past into the present by focusing on three generations of artists from the same family. Alice Lok Cahana (1929-2017) was a Holocaust survivor who pledged she would become an artist if she survived the war. Rabbi Ronnie Cahana, Alice’s oldest son, is a poet and survivor of a major stroke. Kitra Cahana, Ronnie’s daughter, is a filmmaker and photographer. This exhibition reveals how the tragedy of the Holocaust impacted multiple generations of a family and how each member transformed the destructive trauma of the Shoah into [...]
Rachel Stern2024-12-12T19:00:08-05:00October 29th, 2024|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, Breathtaking foliage, crisp weather and the change of clocks are the messengers of fall - a fall that brings an important election in the United States - please vote, everyone! - and the opening of the Fritz Ascher exhibition in Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany. If you can, please join me there! And don't miss the online presentation of this very little known woman artist: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20 ONLINE FELKA PLATEK - ARTIST AND COMPANION OF THE PAINTER FELIX NUSSBAUM Presentation by Anne Sibylle Schwetter REGISTRATION FOR ONLINE EVENT Felka Platek, Self-portrait in front of an open window, around 1940. Gouache on drawing paper, 65 x 49.7 cm. Felix-Nussbaum-Haus [...]
Rachel Stern2024-12-12T18:26:36-05:00October 1st, 2024|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, As we prepare to welcome the Jewish New Year on Wednesday night, we reflect on the past while looking ahead with hope and purpose. Thank you for being part of our community, and for supporting our work. In the coming year, we reaffirm our commitment to educate, engage and inspire with engaging and meaningful virtual and in-person events and exhibitions about artists, who were suppressed and persecuted by the German Nazi regime. Looking back 100 years, allows us to learn and think about highly relevant topics. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9 ONLINE OTTO ANTOINE (1865-1951): "THE PAINTER OF BERLIN" BETWEEN COMPLIANCE AND DEFIANCE Presentation by KATHLEEN LANGONE REGISTRATION FOR ONLINE EVENT [...]
Rachel Stern2024-12-12T18:10:34-05:00September 4th, 2024|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, Thank you for your generous donations over the summer, which help ensure our virtual programming this fall. Happy September! This month we feature memory painter Mayer Kirshenblatt, who recreated the Polish town of his youth in paintings and words. We also honor the Dutch painter and sculptor Jaqueline de Jong, who died only recently. Her flight to Switzerland in infancy determined her outlook on life and her art. And Ori Z Soltes and I will sit down for an in-person book talk about "Welcoming the Stranger" at George Washington University in Washington, DC: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 ONLINE PAINTED MEMORIES OF A JEWISH CHILDHOOD IN POLAND BEFORE THE HOLOCAUST Presentation by [...]
Rachel Stern2024-12-18T05:51:57-05:00August 12th, 2024|Exhibitions|
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, [...]
Rachel Stern2024-09-20T07:15:28-04:00August 9th, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
Welcoming the Stranger, a collection of essays, explores hospitality and inclusion in Abrahamic traditions from historical, theoretical, theological, and practical perspectives. It offers an enlightening and compelling discussion of what the Abrahamic traditions teach us regarding welcoming people we don't know. Join the Center for Jewish Civilization and Mortara Center for International Studies for a conversation with editors Ori Soltes and Rachel Stern, refreshments, and a book signing. Image above: David Stern, Snow Crash (Lost Agency), 2018-19. Acrylics and pigments on paper, 27 x 35 inches. © David Stern / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York This timely book offers theoretical and practical reflections on 'welcoming the stranger.' From the theological analysis of Abraham to the [...]
Rachel Stern2024-08-13T08:58:22-04:00July 31st, 2024|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, With the Olympic Games going on, I can't resist to share with you Fritz Ascher's drawing of two muscular male nudes wrestling. The drawing will be on view for the first time in the exhibition "Love and Betrayal. The Expressionist Fritz Ascher in New York Private Collections," which will open on November 8th at Haus der Graphischen Sammlung in Freiburg (Germany). Fritz Ascher, Two Male Nudes Wrestling, ca. 1916. Graphite and charcoal on paper, 29 x 22,8 cm. Private Collection This sheet is one of several works in which the artist depicts fighters around 1916. As a sport, wrestling experienced its Golden Age in Germany and Europe at the beginning of the 20th century. This [...]