Fritz Ascher


Fritz Ascher was a German artist, whose work is characterized by Expressionist and Symbolist sensitivity. In paintings, works on paper and poetry he explored existential questions and themes of contemporary social and cultural relevance, of spirituality and mythology. Ascher's expressive strokes and intense colors create emotionally intense and authentic work.

Early life and work

Fritz Ascher was born in Berlin, on 17 October 1893, the son of the dental surgeon and businessman Dr. Hugo Ascher and Minna Luise Ascher. His sisters Charlotte Hedwig and Margarete Lilly were born 8 October 1894 and 11 June 1897. Hugo Ascher converted his three children to Protestantism in 1901, his wife remained Jewish. Hugo Ascher's business was successful, and in 1909 the family moved into a villa in Niklasstraße 21-23 in Berlin-Zehlendorf, built by the prominent architect Professor Paul Schultze-Naumburg.
At the age of 16 he studied with Max Liebermann, who gave him the "Künstlereinjährige," an art diploma, and recommended him to the art academy Königsberg. There, dean Ludwig Dettmann, co-founder of the Berlin Secession, had hired dynamic teachers who emphasized the value of a solid, practical education. Among others, the artist befriended Eduard Bischoff, who painted a portrait of him in 1912.
Back in Berlin around 1913, Ascher studied in the painting schools of Lovis Corinth, Adolf Meyer and Curt Agthe. He was active in the networks of the Berlin avant-garde, and knew many artists personally. Influenced by Expressionist artists such as the older Edvard Munch, Emil Nolde and Wassily Kandinsky, and his contemporaries Max Beckmann, Georges Rouault and Ludwig Meidner, Ascher found his very own artistic language. He traveled extensively and started exhibiting his work. In 1914, Ascher and his friend and fellow painter Franz Domscheit presumably traveled to Norway and met Edvard Munch in Oslo. During a longer stay in Bavaria and Munich in 1919 Domscheit drew into Aschers sketchbook and Ascher drew a portrait of his friend. Ascher met the artists of the Blue Rider and befriended the artists of the satirical German weekly magazine Simplicissimus, among them Gustav Meyrink, Alfred Kubin, George Grosz and Käthe Kollwitz.
Ascher's expressive strokes and intense colors with descriptive outlines and areal color combine elements of Expressionism with those of Symbolism. His early work is very multifaceted in themes, the techniques used and the style of painting. The result is a fascinating field of tension between small intimate graphite drawings and large-format polychrome figural compositions, between portraits and biblical scenes, character and milieu studies or between representations of literary and allegorical figures. At the same time, he responded to contemporary themes, such as the street fights of the November Revolution of 1918.
The artist now created some of his most important work, among them "Lone Man" from c. 1914, his very new interpretation of the crucifixion, "Golgotha", the Jewish myth "Golem", his "Bajazzo and Artists" from 1916/1945, and his powerful portrait of the composer Ludwig van Beethoven.

1933–1945

On 30 January 1933 Hitler assumed power. As Modern painter and Jewish-born, Ascher could no longer produce, exhibit, or sell his art. He hid among friends in Berlin and Potsdam, constantly changing his residence. During the Pogroms on 9–10 November 1938, Ascher was arrested and interned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and the Potsdam Gestapo prison. Released six months later, he survived the Nazi terror regime hiding in a cellar of a partially bombed-out building in the wealthy Grunewald neighborhood in Berlin. During this time he wrote poems about love and the divine, and tributes to his artistic role models. In other poems, he turned to a new theme: they evoke nature as a place of refuge and a spiritual home. These poems give a glimpse into the artist's innermost feelings and can be understood as "unpainted paintings."
The war was almost over when on 25 April 1945 bombs destroyed most of the artwork that Ascher had left with friends.

Late work

After Hitler's defeat, Ascher continued to live in Berlin Grunewald, with Martha Graßmann, who hid him 1942-1945, at Bismarckallee 26. Withdrawn from society, he threw himself into his work. Karl Ellwanger remembered, "When he worked, he seemed to be in a trance, he was almost not there. My presence did not disturb his work. He would walk the length of the room, adding a brushstroke and then walking back, a constant back and forth - it was impossible to follow him."
His studio was a large semi-circle room with adjoining winter garden. During the winter, when the studio could not be heated, Ascher created works on paper: ink drawings, watercolors and gouaches. 1952/53 he had a phase of most intense work. Again and again phases of tremendous creative productivity were interrupted by times of depression.
Initially he painted over some of his early work, but soon he focused mainly on landscapes, only sometimes drawing people from memory. Living close to the Grunewald, Berlin's expansive city forest, the artist observed and painted nature in different light, at different day-times and seasons, which he re-created in his studio. He painted powerful images of trees and meadows, sunrises and sunsets, all devoid of human presence, in which sun and light are a dominant force. With these paintings, Ascher continued the intense contact with nature begun in his poems.
Ascher worked with renewed immediacy and urgency, dramatically simplifying forms and medium. His thick, bright pigments suggest both vibrant, life-affirming joy and, in the rough-hewn nature of his brushstrokes, a dark, inner anguish transformed into light. The emotional narratives of his early work were replaced by economical landscape images and stylized flowers and trees, single-mindedly repeated at an intimate scale. Near-obsession combined with close observation and an appreciation of nuance. Especially the trees, singly or in rows, in groups of two or three, became standing figures that confront us, each as unmistakable as each individual.
Fritz Ascher died on 26 March 1970.

Legacy

During his lifetime, Ascher enjoyed only one large retrospective exhibition, which opened at Berlin's Rudolf Springer Gallery in 1969, a few months before his death. Since 2016, exhibitions and publications are introducing the artist to the public. On 21 February 2018 a Stolperstein for Fritz Ascher was placed at Niklasstrasse 21-23 in Berlin-Zehlendorf.

Exhibitions

Fritz Ascher was a member of the Berufsverband Bildender Künstler Berlins.