User:Alisonsage/Degenerate Art
Degenerate art (from the German: entartete Kunst) was the official platform adopted by the Nazi regime for banning modern art in favor of Heroic Art, or the racially pure art, which was meant to exemplify the German race in order to project a moral statement to the German people in a simple, more conventional style.
Ironically, this theory was originally conceived by the critic and author Max Nordau in 1892, who was an Austrian Jew, in his book, Degeneration. Nordau's theory was based upon the assumption that the victims of modern life suffered from decayed brain centers and therefore lacked discipline, and failed to make coherent connections. For Nordau, all modern art, whether music, poetry, or Impressionism were the symptoms of mental dissolution and corruption. Therefore, modernists suffered from fatigue with nervous excitement.
Nordau died in 1923, and his obituary, written by the English poet, Israel Zangwill, included this chilling forecast: "Whenever art goes crazy and letters lose their touch with life, men will remember the prophet of Degeneration.
Nordau's theory was quickly seized upon by National Socialists for a scientific basis for racial purity in Nazi art. Romantic realism represented the expression of racially pure art, while modern was a deviant from the accepted norm of classical beauty. and therefore, the product of an artist . Racially pure artists produced racially pure art, and modern artists of an inferior racial strain produced works which were contorted. Nordau's theory, then, was uses to defend the cultural decline of modernity with racism.
By 1937, this concept was firmly entrenched in the official party doctrine, and Nazi authorities purged German museums of art they considered "degenerate." Many of the most famous works were displayed in an exhibit entitled, entartete Kunst, which premiered in Munich. The show was intended as an official condemnation of modern art, and included over 650 paintings, sculptures, prints, and books from the collections of thirty two German museums. The tour began in Munich and travelled to eleven other cities in Germany and Austria. It was the largest and best attended touring art exhibit ever mounted at the time. The show was so popular, that its attendance was not matched by any other exhibit of modern art throughout the twentieth century. During its four months in Munich alone, over two million people attended.
The entarte Kunst exhibit was displayed on the second floor of a building formerly occupied by the Institute of Archaology. Viewers reached the exhibit by a narrow staircase, at the head of which was a theatrical sculpture of Jesus, which exuded a menacing countenance when placed so near to the viewer. Inside, the rooms were made of temporary partitions, and organized in a purposely chaotic an crowded fashion. The first three rooms were grouped thematically, by religion, Jewish artists, and the depravity of women. The rest of the exhibit had no particular theme.
Derogatory slogans were painted on the walls and alongside, contrasting speeches of Nazi party leaders to contrast with bits of artist [[manifesto|manifestos} from the Weimar years. Next to each painting were hand-lettered labels indicating how much money each museum had spent on each artwork. Since many were acquired during the radical post-war inflationary years during the 1920s, the prices created a scandal among viewers.
The fate of the degenerate artists was varied, but harsh. They were considered enemies and a threat to the German nation. Some artists went into exile; those who remained in Germany were forbidden to work. Most artists of Jewish descent were sent to camps, and perished in the Holocaust.
Many of the paintings from the entarte Kunst exhibit were sorted out for sale and sold in Switzerland at auction. Some pieces were acquired by museums, others by private collectors. Before the auction, some party leaders appropriated some paintings for their own collections or for their own private profit: for example, Herman Goering took fourteen pieces. In March, 1939, the German Fire Brigade burned the lesser-known paintings and books as a symbolic act of propaganda. After the Russia invaded, many hidden pieces were found and reappeared in the Hermitage Museum, where they remain to this day, listed as provenance unknown.
Some artists represented in the exhibit included:
- Ernst Barlach
- Max Beckmann
- Paul Cezanne
- Marc Chagall
- Otto Dix
- Max Ernst
- Otto Griebel
- George Grosz
- Wassily Kandinsky
- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
- Paul Klee
- Gerhard Marcks
- Emil Nolde
- Franz Marc
- Edvard Munch
- Max Pechstein
- Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
- Vincent van Gogh
- Ernst-Wilhelm Nay
Artistic movements condemned as degenerate:
See also Degeneracy.
Literary Refererances[edit]
- Adam, Peter. Art of the Third Reich (1992). New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 0810919125
- Barron, Stephanie, ed. 'Degenerate Art:' The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany (1991). New York: Harry N. Abrams.
- Grosshans, Henry. Hitler and the Artists (1993). New York: Holmes & Meyer. ISBN 0810936534
- Nordau, Max. Degeneration, introduction by George L. Mosse (1968). New York: Howard Fertig. ISBN
0803283679
- Suslav, Vitaly. The State Hermitage: Masterpieces from the Museum's Collections vol. 2 Western European Art (1994). New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 1873968035