ATHENS, GA.- The Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia presents The Life and Work of Alice Fischer, Cultural Pioneer Jan. 10 to March 8, 2015. The exhibition features selections of ceramic jewelry and works on paper by the former University of Georgia professor.
Born in Vienna to a Jewish family, Alice Fischer (19072004) was an artist and designer who immigrated to the United States by way of France and Morocco to escape the Nazi regime. Fischer arrived in New York in 1941 and found work in a French silk house, but she soon left her job and began experimenting with ceramics. Her experiments led to the design and handmade production of unique ceramic buttons and jewelry, which she sold throughout the United States. Fischers jewelry production diminished when she enrolled in Columbia Universitys doctoral program in art history and ceased completely in 1963 when she began teaching.
This exhibition serves as an introduction to Fischers jewelry and other works of art (etchings, watercolors and drawings), and includes Fischers History of Fashion necklace, a particularly intricate work that highlights her skills as a jewelry maker and painter. Other works on view include Fischers early watercolors of southern France alongside some of her later drawings and etchings. The exhibition addresses potential influences on Fischers workincluding the works of Jewish modernist Marc Chagall and Fischers interest in early Christian artas well as issues of identity.
Expulsion (from Germany and Austria, and finally from France) and the trials of immigration marked her life. When her ship was stopped at Casablanca during her flight from the Nazi regime, Fischer was interned at camp Oued Zem for nearly three months. Uncertain of her fate, it was here that Fischer expressed her willingness to be a cultural pioneer in northern Africa if she was unable to leave. After arriving in the United States, she continued to journeyfrom Manhattan to Woodstock, from Virginia to Athens, Ga., where Lamar Dodd hired her to teach art history at the University of Georgia, and finally to North Carolina, where she worked in collage, printmaking and drawing until her death. According to Mary Koon, independent curator, Fischers work deserves a larger audience, and the Georgia Museum of Art is honored to have the opportunity to display this tribute to her life and career, especially given the decade she spent teaching here at the Lamar Dodd School of Art.
Associated events include a Tour at Two on Jan. 28 at 2 p.m., a Make It an Evening gallery tour on Feb. 5 at 6 p.m., and a gallery talk on March 5 at 5:30 p.m., all with curator Mary Koon. The museum will also host an Alice Fischer inspired family day on Jan. 17 from 10 a.m. until noon.
The exhibition is on view in the Boone and George-Ann Knox Gallery II and is sponsored by the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art.