Opening Reception for Fritz Ascher: Expressionist, and Metamorphoses: Ovid According to Wally Reinhardt

Please join us at NYU’s Grey Art Gallery for the opening of two new exhibitions – Fritz Ascher: Expressionist and Metamorphoses: Ovid According to Wally Reinhardt.

Fritz Ascher: Expressionist is the first-ever retrospective of an overlooked but significant German artist. Characterized by the Nazis as “degenerate” (along with other artists who were banned and persecuted), Ascher (1893–1970) survived two world wars, and then remained in Berlin where he lived and worked. In addition to painting and drawing, he turned to writing poetry later in life. Organized by the Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted, Ostracized and Banned Art, the exhibition comprises some 75 paintings and works on paper, ranging from early academic studies and figural compositions to the artist’s late colorful, mystical landscapes devoid of human presence.

On view in the Grey’s Lower Level Gallery, Metamorphoses: Ovid According to Wally Reinhardt features some 50 watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil illustrations from a series that numbers nearly 200. Reinhardt, who began working on this project in 1984, has focused solely on interpreting Ovid’s most acclaimed work of Latin poetry, Metamorphoses. Spanning 15 books, this oft-cited magnum opus from 8 CE has provided rich source material for Reinhardt’s witty and whimsical series, titled Pages from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Installed roughly in the same order that Ovid recounted his myths, Reinhardt’s graphic interpretations provoke a reconsideration of art making itself as a form of metamorphosis. Metamorphoses will also coincide with the conference Ovid and Art on April 4, 2019, organized by NYU’s Center for Ancient Studies in collaboration with the Grey Art Gallery and the Department of Art History.

Both exhibitions will be on view from January 9 to April 6, 2019. Please visit greyartgallery.nyu.edu for more information.

Free of charge, no registration required