Ghitta Caiserman-Roth

Ghitta Caiserman-Roth (March 2, 1923 – November 25, 2005) was a Canadian artist. She was a founder of the Montreal Artist School and has work in the National Gallery of Canada. Caiserman Roth was also a member of the Royal Canadian Academy (RCA) and the first artist to receive the Governor General Award.

Ghitta Caiserman-Roth was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1923. Her parents were Sarah Wittal, an owner of a children's wear company and Hannaniah Meir Caiserman, a civic leader in the Montreal Jewish community and union activist. Both parents were heavily involved in socialist causes which had a significant impact on Ghitta's art; she was also influenced by her experiences working in war factories in Montréal and Halifax. By young adulthood much of her art was influenced by her experiences working in war factories in Montréal and Halifax, her work embraced the working class life and explored socialist themes.

Caiserman-Roth attended the Parsons School of Design in New York from 1939 to 1943. She studied at the École des Beaux Arts in Montreal in 1961 to 1962. She returned to Montréal in 1947, with Alfred Pinsky she opened the Montréal Artists School.They opened the school with artists Barbara Eckhart and Harold Goodwin. Many of the students were war veterans and Caiserman-Roth served as principal. The school however only lasted until 1952 and was sold. A trip to Mexico in 1948 exposed her to the socialist mural movement, and she began incorporating mural forms into her work, once again exploring socialist themes. She studied with Moses Soyer at the American Artists School of the Art Student League of New York. Caiserman-Roth studied political murals as they explored Mexico bringing fresh idea’s back to the McGill Ghetto where they lived until 1956.

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