Lecture: Gerd Kaminski “Der zu Unrecht vergessene China-Maler Friedrich Schiff”

Museum Dorotheergasse
© Österreichisches Institut für China
Friedrich Schiff (born in 1908) caused a furor in Vienna at the age of seventeen with portraits of celebrities such as Aslan, Thimig, Lorre and Grünbaum. At the age of 22 he went to Shanghai, where he also started out doing portraits. During his stay, which lasted until 1947, he showed the full scope of his art, ranging from landscape paintings to Shanghai genre scenes to cartoons. Especially with his simply sketched caricatures of the country and its people, he gained prominence in Shanghai and became the city’s most famous foreign painter. At the same time, Schiff was a contemporary witness in his work who, with a sharp pen, skewered the “maskee” (a Portuguese phrase comparable to “macht nix” [“never mind”] in Viennese dialect) of the happy-go-luck big city, emigration, political turncoats, Japanese occupiers and American relief workers.

Gerd Kaminski, Director of the Austrian Institute for Chinese and Southeast Asian Research, Professor at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Professor at the New York State University, Lecturer at the University of Vienna. Author and editor of 83 books on Chinese topics. Research focus: Chinese foreign policy, history, folklore and law. Received the Special Book Award of China, an Austrian State Prize and other scholarly honors.

An event in the scope of the “Little Vienna in Shanghai” exhibition, which can be seen at the Jewish Museum Vienna until June 27, 2021.

Free admission as of 6:00 p.m.

Advance booking is essential: Tel.: +43 1 535 04 31-1510 or e-mail: events@jmw.at.
Please provide the full names of all participants, as well as a contact possibility!

A current negative COVID-19 test (PCR test taken not earlier than 72 hours or antigen test not earlier than 48 hours), a vaccination confirmation (the first vaccination date must be at least 22 days ago) or proof of a past COVID-19 infection (within the last 6 months) is required to take part in the event.