Ghitta Caiserman-Roth facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ghitta Caiserman-Roth
Born	(1923-03-02)March 2, 1923 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died	November 25, 2005(2005-11-25) (aged 82)
Education	Parsons School of Design, American Artists School, Art Students League of New York, École des Beaux Arts
Known for	Painting, Printmaking
Spouse(s)	Alfred Pinsky ​ (m. 1945)​ ending in divorce; Max Roth (1962)

Ghitta Caiserman-Roth (born March 2, 1923 – died November 25, 2005) was a talented Canadian painter and printmaker. A printmaker is an artist who creates images by printing them from a block or plate. She helped start the Montreal Artist School. Her amazing artwork is even displayed in the National Gallery of Canada. Ghitta Caiserman-Roth was also a member of the Royal Canadian Academy. She was the very first painter to win the Governor General's Award for Visual Media and Art.

Early Life and Education

Ghitta Caiserman-Roth was born in Montreal, Quebec, in 1923. Her family was Romanian-Jewish. Her mom, Sarah Wittal, started a children's clothing company. Her dad, Hananiah Meir Caiserman, was a community leader and worked to help union organizers. Both of her parents were very involved in helping people and making society better. This had a big impact on Ghitta's art.

Ghitta went to the High School of Montreal and the École des beaux-arts de Montréal. From 1940 to 1943, she studied at the Parsons School of Design in New York City. While in New York, she also learned at the American Artists School and the Art Students League of New York. She even studied with a famous painter named Moses Soyer. Later, in 1961 and 1962, she studied graphics with Albert Dumouchel in Montreal. She really liked Dumouchel because he was welcoming and encouraged artists to express themselves.

Her Art Career

Ghitta Caiserman-Roth moved back to Montreal in 1947. She and her first husband, Alfred Pinsky, opened the Montreal Artists School. Other artists like Barbara Eckhart and Harold Goodwin also helped. Many students at the school were war veterans, and Ghitta was the principal. The school closed in 1952.

In 1948, Ghitta visited Mexico. There, she saw the mural movement, which was about painting large pictures on walls. These murals often showed ideas about society and people working together. After this trip, she started to include mural styles and themes about society in her own art. She studied these political murals in Mexico and brought new ideas back to Montreal.

Ghitta remembered that her first big art sale was to a famous artist named A.Y. Jackson. Her first painting sold to a public gallery was called Backyard. The Vancouver Art Gallery bought it in 1949. She continued to be a successful artist, winning many awards. Her work was shown in over 100 art collections, both public and private.

Even after the Montreal Artists School closed, Ghitta loved teaching. She taught at Sir George Williams College and Concordia University. She also taught at the Saidye Bronfman Centre, Queen's University, and Mount Allison University. She even taught at the Nova Scotia College of Art and the Ottawa School of Art. Ghitta also worked as an art critic for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She gave advice to artists and lectured in Canada and the United States. Many people saw her as an important mentor for artists across Canada.

Who Influenced Her Art?

Ghitta Caiserman-Roth's father, Hananiah, had a special gathering place at their Montreal home. Artists and writers would meet there to talk about social and political changes. Her father also reviewed art shows, so Ghitta met many Montreal artists and writers. One person she remembered was "Yud-Yud" Segal, who introduced her to famous writers like Marcel Proust.

Ghitta was also greatly influenced by the painter Louis Muhlstock. After he returned from studying art in France, they would often walk together. From him, she learned the difference between just "looking at" something and truly "seeing" it. Muhlstock was very aware of his surroundings, and this inspired Ghitta. She later said that her creative imagination and different styles of abstract art came from Muhlstock. Abstract art uses shapes, colors, and forms instead of realistic images.

Her childhood experiences also played a big part in her paintings, especially those showing mothers and children. Her mother, Sarah Caiserman, showed her love for art by designing clothes for her children. Ghitta remembered sitting in piles of her mother's fabric, fascinated by the colors and textures. This memory inspired her painting First Steps (1956), which showed her own daughter.

Her first art teacher was Alexandre Bercovitch. He gave her private lessons at her home in Montreal starting in 1932. When she was just eleven years old, Ghitta received an Honourable Mention at the Art Association of the Montreal Spring Exhibition. Bercovitch was a free-spirited artist, and she remembered his "bulging blue eyes" fondly. He inspired her to work with pastels, and she admired his dedication to art. Bercovitch also loved New York City, a place Ghitta dreamed of moving to.

While studying at the Art Students League of New York, Ghitta learned printmaking from Harry Sternberg. Sternberg wanted to share important social messages through art, especially through printmaking. He showed his students works by artists like Goya, Daumier, Posada, and the revolution-focused works of Rivera, Siqueiros, and Orozco. Ghitta said that seeing their art, which focused on social issues, was "eye-opening" for her.

She also learned new art techniques from Jennifer Dickson at Montreal's Saidye Bronfman Centre in the late 1960s and 1970s. From Dickson, she learned about etching, a special way of printmaking. Ghitta said her time in Dickson's class was "exciting and developmental."

Her experiences working in war factories in Montreal and Halifax also influenced her. As a young adult, her art showed the lives of working-class people and explored themes about society.

What Inspired Her Art?

Ghitta Caiserman-Roth was a figurative artist. This means she painted things that looked like real people or objects. She was interested in the human experience and used different art forms like painting, lithography (a type of printmaking), etching, and drawing. She loved using symbols in her art and mixing traditional and new techniques.

Ghitta often said that her art came from many places: her thoughts, what she saw, her memories, dreams, imagination, and her desire to try new things. Her art was also inspired by politics, family, her techniques, reading, music, and especially nature. She would take these ideas and transform them into art, using symbols and combining different forms and themes.

She famously said, "My art comes from the 'vocabulary of art.' My personal motto is: 'With shape and a line and some colour I can go far.' I love to play with vocabulary and meaning."

Artistic Movement

Ghitta Caiserman-Roth was part of a group called the Jewish Painters of Montreal. This group of artists created expressive paintings about social issues during the 1930s and 1940s. This generation of artists helped define modern Canadian painting. They were inspired by the rise of socialism, the Great Depression, and the effects of war. Their art often showed the struggles of working-class people. This style was later called Social Realism.

Ghitta Caiserman-Roth was also part of the Young Women's Hebrew Association (YWHA), along with other female artists like Rita Briansky. The Jewish Painters of Montreal group actually started from the yearly art shows of the YWHA and Young Men's Hebrew Association.

Solo Art Shows

Ghitta Caiserman-Roth had many solo art shows, where only her work was displayed:

• Gallery Linda Verge, Quebec City, Quebec (2001)
• Retrospective, Ottawa, Ontario (2001)
• Maison Louis H. Lafontaine, Montreal, Quebec (2001)
• Linda Lando Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia (2000)
• Maison des Arts de Laval, Laval, Quebec (2000)
• Gallery Eclectica, Kingston, Ontario (1998)
• Galerie Jean-Claude Bergeron, Montreal, Quebec, (2000, 1997)
• Herzl Family Practice Centre (1994)
• Galerie quartier des arts, Pointe Claire, Québec (1993-92)
• Galerie 007, Bochum, Germany (1992-91)
• Ottawa School of Art, Ottawa, Ontario (1990)
• Altinian Laing, Montréal, Québec (1989)
• L'Art français, Montréal, Québec; École d'hautes études commerciales, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec (1988)
• Restaurant Al Caretta, Montréal, Québec (1983)
• Dresden Galleries, Halifax, Nova Scotia (1982)
• Ghitta Caiserman-Roth: A Retrospective, 1947-1980. Concordia University Gallery, Montréal, Québec (1981-82)

Art Collections

Ghitta Caiserman-Roth's art is part of over 100 private and public collections, including:

• Air Canada
• Alcan Aluminum Ltd.
• The Art Bank, Ottawa
• Bank Leumi, Israel, Montreal
• Canada Council for the Arts
• Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown
• Department of External Affairs, Ottawa
• O.J. Firestone Collection, Ontario Heritage Foundation
• Jewish Public Library (Montreal)
• Lethbridge Community College, Alberta
• Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
• Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
• National Gallery of Canada
• Ontario Department of Education
• Ottawa City Hall
• Pratt & Whitney, Montreal
• Rare Book Department, McGill University
• University of British Columbia
• University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario

Awards and Memberships

Ghitta Caiserman-Roth won many awards for her art:

• Canada Council Senior Fellowship (1961)
• Several Hadassah Art Auction Awards
• The Canadian Centennial Medal (1967)
• Canada Council Purchase Awards
• Purchase Prize and Best Graphic Image Award at the Ontario Society of Artists (1975)
• Ninth Annual Award for the Arts, I.J. Segal Fund
• Living Nature 86 Prize
• Canada Council Explorations Grant (1987)
• The Governor General's Award (2000)

She was also a member of several important art groups and councils:

• Associate, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
• Conseil des artistes peintres du Québec
• Conseil Québecois de l'estampe
• Atelier Circulaire
• Conseil d'Administration des Amis du Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal

Personal Life

Ghitta Caiserman married painter Alfred Pinsky in 1945. They had a daughter named Kathe in 1954. They later divorced in 1959. Ghitta married Max Roth, a well-known architect from Montreal, in 1962. When Kathe was 18, she legally changed her last name to Roth.