Rachel Stern2020-11-24T20:14:35-05:00October 14th, 2020|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, On October 17 we celebrate Fritz Ascher’s birthday - this year with the launch of DigiFAS - diverse, innovative digital initiatives that provide new ways of engagement with the art and life of artists persecuted by an authoritarian regime. DigiFAS is generously sponsored by Allianz Partners. This launch includes the Society’s first-ever fully digital exhibition “Fritz Ascher: Themes and Variations.” You can explore the exhibition HERE. We have worked on this for months and can’t wait for your reactions! We also invite you to participate in the 2- week digital engagement project “Send in the Clowns,” which explores the clown as a figure between tragedy and comedy, between self- identification [...]
Rachel Stern2020-09-17T22:58:37-04:00September 17th, 2020|Newsletter|
Forum Jacob Pins in Höxter, Germany Dear Friends, The Jewish New Year is upon us, and it feels as if the New keeps coming. The exhibition “The Loner. Clowns in Fritz Ascher's Art (1893-1970)” at Forum Jacob Pins in Höxter, Germany was opened with an event following social distancing rules, my video greeting and a concert in the courtyard. The exhibition is on view until November 29, and I very much encourage you to see it (more information HERE). In the exhibition, Ascher’s depictions of clowns are contrasted with depictions of nature, which dominated his post-Holocaust work. Inspired by the nearby Grunewald, the artist created vivid landscapes and powerful close-ups of the sun, trees and flowers, which [...]
Rachel Stern2020-08-20T21:32:19-04:00August 20th, 2020|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, What a strange summer this is. But I have exciting news of some degree of normalcy: an exhibition in Germany! This is no small feast in these times, and I am thankful to my co-curator Julia Diekmann for her flexibility and creativity in co-organizing the exhibition. Who would have thought that the largest hurdle is getting the artwork out of the locked down campus of Richmond University? In the end it all worked - our shipper Cadogan Tate had just taken up operation again and flight schedules for art opened up, the drawings, which have never been shown before will be matted and framed practically overnight, the artwork will be hanged as fast as it probably never [...]
Rachel Stern2020-06-02T16:23:50-04:00May 30th, 2020|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, I hope you and your families are well despite the continuing challenges, both physical and psychological. “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art in Richmond, Virginia “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art in Richmond, Virginia These are the last impressions of “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at the Harnett Museum of Art in Richmond. The exhibition is now officially closed, even though the artwork will stay in solitary confinement until the art shippers are back in business. This past week, we celebrated Fritz Ascher, the exhibition in Richmond, and the winners of our competition, with a virtual event. [...]
Rachel Stern2020-06-23T15:18:55-04:00May 26th, 2020|Events, Past Events|
Watch the event video HERE. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Conversation featuring Dr. Sarah Eckhardt, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, VA and Shaina Larrivee, Director of The Hedda Sterne Foundation in New York Moderated by Rachel Stern, Director of the Fritz Ascher Society in New York Hedda Sterne (1910-2011) was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1910 and came of age as an artist in the midst of the Dada and Surrealist movements in Bucharest and Paris. In 1941 she narrowly escaped the Bucharest Pogrom and was one of the fortunate few who managed to leave Europe for the United States [...]
Rachel Stern2020-03-26T08:37:32-04:00March 26th, 2020|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, How much has our life changed over the past few days! “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art in Richmond, Virginia is closed. Until our online exhibition is up, you can see photos of the installation here. “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art in Richmond, Virginia We also invite you to be part of our free online conversations, which we will announce on our website, on Facebook, and on Twitter. “Housebound and Hiding. From Fritz Ascher in 1942 to Ourselves Today in 2020” is the first conversation on Thursday, on March 26th, at 8:00pm EDT, commemorating the 50th anniversary of [...]
Rachel Stern2020-05-27T06:35:07-04:00March 18th, 2020|Events, Past Events|
WATCH THE EVENT HERE Join us as we commemorate the 50th anniversary of Fritz Ascher's death by discussing the psychological repercussions of having to go into hiding for a long stretch of time--especially for someone who was almost stereotypically a "sensitive artist." This topic seems particularly relevant to conditions right now, when so many of us are in hiding. Dr. Eva Fogelman is a social psychologist, psychotherapist, author and filmmaker. She is in private practice in New York City and was co-founder and co-director of Psychotherapy with Generations of the Holocaust and Related Traumas at Training Institute for Mental Health, and Jewish Foundation for Christian Rescuers, ADL (Jewish Foundation for the Righteous), currently co-director Child Development Research (includes International Study of Organized Persecution of [...]
Rachel Stern2020-05-27T06:47:41-04:00March 3rd, 2020|Events, Past Events|
WATCH THE EVENT HERE The University of Richmond Museums and the Fritz Ascher Society present Otherness and Hiding: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany, celebrating the closing of the exhibition Fritz Ascher: Expressionist, on view at the Harnett Museum of Art. Keynote speaker is Professor Marion A. Kaplan, NYU. There is also a celebration of the student winners of the Fritz Ascher competition in prose, poetry, or images on paper based on the theme of “Otherness.” The event was opened by Rachel Stern, Executive Director of the Fritz Ascher Society of Persecuted, Ostracized and Banned Art, Inc., New York. In her keynote, Marion A. Kaplan, Skirball Professor of Modern Jewish History at New York University, New York spoke about Hiding: Jewish Life in [...]
Rachel Stern2020-02-06T08:01:15-05:00February 6th, 2020|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” is now on view at the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art in Richmond, Virginia, until May 24 (link). You can listen to my opening lecture here. “Fritz Ascher, Expressionist” at the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art in Richmond, Virginia In every venue, different hanging bring out new aspects of single artworks, and unexpected connections between artworks provide new insights. The Harnett Museum of Art is no exception. For the first time, “The Tortured” (“Der Gequälte”) takes up center stage. It is a monumental painting measuring 59 x 79.4 inches. Fritz Ascher created it in the 1920s, as social and racial tensions in [...]
Rachel Stern2020-03-03T08:46:09-05:00December 31st, 2019|Events, Past Events|
February 12, 2020 6:00-8:00pm Camp Concert Hall Modlin Center for the Arts 453 Westhampton Way Richmond, VA 23173 Information: 804-289-8276 Panel Discussion Expressionisms: Germany and the United States Among the diverse descriptive labels attached to the art of Fritz Ascher, perhaps none is more evocative and distinct than "expressionist." In the context of visual art, that term has, over the past century and a half, connoted the articulation of strong emotion--through color, brush work, and the aggressive representation of figures and the elements of nature. This discussion will consider ways in which these features, particularly in painting, can explore and have explored embodying emotion and provoking it in the viewer. Also discussed will be the relationships of political identity, the workings of [...]
Rachel Stern2020-03-03T09:15:11-05:00December 9th, 2019|Events, Past Events|
January 16, 2020 1:30-2:15pm Curator's Walk-Through Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art University of Richmond Museums 453 Westhampton Way Richmond, VA 23173 Information: 804-289-8276 Please join Rachel Stern, Director of the Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted, Ostracized, and Banned Art and curator of "Fritz Ascher, Expressionist" for a walk through the exhibition. The event is sponsored by the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, University of Richmond and The Fritz Ascher Society. It is co-sponsored by Allianz Partners.
Rachel Stern2020-03-03T09:28:34-05:00November 28th, 2019|Events, Past Events|
January 15, 2020 from 6:00 to 8:00pm 6:00-7:00pm Lecture Rachel Stern, Curator and Director Fritz Ascher Society "Forgotten but not Lost: The German Expressionist Fritz Ascher (1893-1970)" 7:00-8:00pm Opening Reception and Exhibition Preview Fritz Ascher: Expressionist Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art University of Richmond Museums 453 Westhampton Way Richmond, VA 23173 Information: 804-289-8276 Exhibition on view: January 16 - May 24, 2020 Watch the video of the lecture here. "Fritz Ascher: Expressionist" presents paintings and works on paper by a Jewish artist who belonged to Germany's Lost Generation - those whose careers were interrupted or destroyed by the Nazi terror regime. Coming to maturity during the Weimar Republic, Fritz Ascher (1893-1970) was taken under the [...]
