Ghitta Caiserman-Roth was a well-known Canadian Jewish painter in the second half of the 20th century, also noted for her lithography and drawing.
Caiserman-Roth’s parents, Sarah (Wittal) Caiserman (1893-1967) and H.M. Caiserman (1881-1950), were of Romanian Jewish heritage. Sarah was a pioneering businesswoman who was the founder of Goosey Gander, a children’s wear company, and was also active in the Labour Zionist Farband [union]. H.M. helped found the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society and the Canadian Jewish Congress, two organizations central to Jewish communal life in Montreal. As with many Eastern European Jews of the time, H.M. was a socialist and part of the Labour Zionist movement, as well as a local leader of the United Garment Workers of America union.
Ghitta inherited her parents’ socialist values and also became involved in leftist organizations. Although she took a very personal approach to representation, her social values permeated her artwork in her choice of subjects. Moreover, H.M. also had an interest in culture; he published a book on Yiddish poets and reviewed numerous art exhibitions in the Keneder Adler. He even helped his daughter gain exposure by positively reviewing her works under a pen name.
Ghitta began her artistic career at a young age under the instruction of Alexander Bercovitch. When she was just 13, she was included in an exhibition of young artists organized by the Art Association of Montreal (today the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts). She studied art at the Parsons School of Design in New York, at the Art Students’ League of New York, and at the Montreal School of Fine Arts. Throughout her studies she met various well-known artists such as Harry Sternberg, a social realist, and Albert Dumouchel, an important painter during the modern period in Quebec.
She married Alfred Pinsky in 1945, with whom she founded the Montreal Artists School. In 1954, she gave birth to her daughter, Kathe, who inspired several paintings, such as Beach Still Life (1955) and First Steps (1956). Ghitta and Pinsky divorced in 1959, and she remarried Max Roth, a Montreal-based architect, in 1962. In addition to her artistic career, Ghitta taught at the Sir George William College (Concordia University) and at the Saidye Bronfman Centre. She gave summer classes in various universities outside of Montreal including Queen’s University, Mount Allison Universtity and Mount St. Vincent University.
Special thanks to the Museum of Jewish Montreal.
Learn more:
http://imjm.ca/location/2452
http://mimj.ca/location/2445
http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artist.php?iartistid=714
http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/exhibitions/jewish-painters-of-montreal/
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0004_0_03834.html
http://art-history.concordia.ca/eea/artists/caiserman-roth.html
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/eppp-archive/100/205/301/ic/cdc/waic/ghcais/ghcais_f.htm
http://cwahi.concordia.ca/sources/artists/displayArtist.php?ID_artist=198
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/caiserman-roth-ghitta
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ghitta-caiserman-roth/