Ghitta Caiserman-Roth

In the early 2000s, she expressed concern for the domination of monetized private studios and their potential corruption of conventional methods of printing, especially with the introduction of photography into printmaking. Ultimately, she upheld printmaking as a combination of form and content and acknowledges that new techniques are necessary:

She also learned about technique, both conventional and unconventional, from working with Jennifer Dickson at Montreal's Saidye Bronfman Centre from the late 1960s to 70s. From Dickson, she gained an understanding of the unique medium of etching. Caiserman-Roth stated that the year and a half in Dickson's class was "exciting and developmental."

Her early childhood experiences play heavily into the relationships depicted in her paintings, especially between mother and child. Her mother, Sarah Caiserman, expressed her love of art by designing clothing for her children. Caiserman-Roth recalls sitting in piles of her mother's fabric enchanted by the colours, textures and patterns. This experience was heavily drawn upon when she painted First Steps (1956), depicting her own daughter.

Caiserman-Roth recalls that her first major sale was to A.Y. Jackson; her first major public gallery sale was of her painting entitled Backyard, which she sold to the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1949. She continued successfully as a practicing artist, receiving numerous awards and memberships, and having her work featured in solo and group exhibitions. She has been represented in over 100 collections, both public and private.

Caiserman-Roth returned to Montreal in 1947 and opened the Montreal Artists School with her first husband, Alfred Pinsky. They opened the school with artists Barbara Eckhart and Harold Goodwin. Many of the students were war veterans and Caiserman-Roth served as the principal. However, the school only ran until 1952 and was then sold. During a 1948 trip to Mexico, she encountered the socialist mural movement, after which she started to incorporate mural forms along with socialist themes into her work. Caiserman-Roth studied political murals as they explored Mexico bringing fresh ideas back to the McGill Ghetto where they lived until 1956.

Caiserman married painter Alfred Pinsky in 1945. The couple had one daughter, Kathe, in 1954 and divorced in 1959. Caiserman re-married Max Roth, a well-known Montreal-based architect, in 1962. Kathe legally changed her surname to Roth at the age of 18.

Caiserman-Roth attended the High School of Montreal, the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, and finally from 1940 to 1943 the Parsons School of Design in New York City. During that time in New York, she also studied at the American Artists School, at the Art Students League, and with realist painter Moses Soyer. She studied with Albert Dumouchel in graphics under a Canada Council Senior Fellowship at the École des Beaux-Arts in Montreal in 1961 to 1962. She had a special fondness for Dumouchel and praised his welcoming demeanor and his acknowledgment of individual expression.

Her first formal influence was her art teacher, Alexandre Bercovitch, who taught her through private lessons at her family home in Montreal in 1932. While painting under his tutelage, at the age of eleven, Caiserman-Roth received an Honourable Mention at the Art Association of the Montreal Spring Exhibition. Bercovitch was the epitome of bohemian and she recalls his "bulging blue eyes" with fondness. He heavily inspired her work with pastels and she was deeply moved by his dedication to the craft. Bercovitch also had an incredibly fondness for New York City, the city that Caiserman-Roth aspired to move to.

Ghitta Caiserman-Roth was part of Jewish Painters of Montreal. The group was an artist collective that depicted expressionistic images of social realism during the 1930s and 1940s. Modern Canadian painting was defined by this generation that drew its inspiration from rise of socialism, the great depression and the effects of war. The painters were heavily influenced by the social effects of fascism and the struggle of the working class. The style was later referred to as Social Realism; a term popularized in the 1980s by art historian Esther Trepanier.

Ghitta Caiserman-Roth (March 2, 1923 – November 25, 2005) was a Canadian painter and printmaker. She was a founder of the Montreal Artist School and her work is in the National Gallery of Canada. Caiserman-Roth was also an associate member of the Royal Canadian Academy and the first painter to receive the Governor General's Award for Visual Media and Art.

Ghitta Caiserman-Roth was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1923 to a Romanian-Jewish family. Her parents were Sarah Wittal, the founder of a children's wear company called Goosey Gander, and Hananiah Meir Caiserman, a civic leader in the Montreal Jewish community and a union organizer and activist. Both parents were heavily involved in socialist causes which had a significant impact on Ghitta's art.