Grief and Art: An Uncomfortable Conversation – Jan. 11

      Deutsches Haus at NYU will present, on Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 6:30 p.m., a conversation between Marc Pachter and Heide Hatry on "Grief and Art: An Uncomfortable Conversation" in the context of Heide Hatry's current exhibition "Icons in Ash" at Ubu Gallery. Oriented around the general theme of death, this conversation will address a wide range of questions: personal, philosophical, aesthetic, and cultural that death and art inspire, including what for the artist Heide Hatry has been the most tortured, and at times even crippling, issue throughout the many years she has been moving toward this deeply personal body of work, namely, how can a German artist (presume to) make art from the actual ashes of human beings? The conversation will be followed by a question-and-answer session, and copies of Heide Hatry's new book "Icons in Ash: Cremation Portraits" will be available for signing.

       Events at Deutsches Haus (42 Washington Mews, New York, N.Y.) are free. If you would like to attend this event, please send an email to deutscheshaus.rsvp@nyu.edu or call 212.998.8660. Space at Deutsches Haus is limited; please arrive ten minutes prior to the event.

      Marc Pachter is a cultural historian who takes a particular interest in American/European cultural relations. He is Director Emeritus of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, and launched his interest in biography as a literary form as Editor of "Telling Lives: The Biographer’s Art" (New Republic Press). He was called the Smithsonian’s "Master Interviewer" when awarded the Institution’s Gold Medal (Ted Talk about The Art of the Interview here). Pachter lives in New York, Bangkok, and Berlin.

      Heide Hatry is a New York based German artist, often described as neo-conceptualist, whose work transforms, transcends, or transgresses the customary relationship of artist to both audience and art. Among her fundamental preoccupations are identity, gender roles, the nature of aesthetic experience and the meaning of beauty, the effects of knowledge upon perception, and the human exploitation of the natural world. She studied and taught art at various schools in Germany while simultaneously conducting an international business as an antiquarian bookseller. She has curated numerous exhibitions, has shown her own work at museums and galleries around the world, has created nearly two hundred artists' books, and edited more than two dozen printed books and art catalogs. "Skin" (2005), "Heads and Tales" (2009), and "Not a Rose" (2012) both document her own art and amount to collaborative conceptual artists' books involving some of the most interesting thinkers and authors in the world.