Degenerate Art

Degenerate Art - Entartete Kunst

Degnerate art is the term that the Nazis applied to describe modern art, which as a style of painintng, they absolutely loathed. The National Socialist Party championed much more traditional, "heoric" art. Hitler himself had applied to study at the Vienna Schhol of Art, and was turned down three times.

The above works are by Hitler, and part of his submission to gain entry into the Vienna Academy of Art.

Once Hitler came to power, he was able to stamp his authority onto the artworld. Along with Joseph Goebbels and other main pkayers in the Nazi party, Hitler and his cohorts worked to suppress modernist artists. The Nazis, overly interested in pomp and ceremony, utterly rejected abstract art. They labelled it as degenerate art, and created an entire exhibition in Munich, in 1937, to basically show their contempt towards abstract painters of the day. Some of these included Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, Emil Nolde and Ernst Kichner.

The works were purposely displayed very poorly, hung asmiss and crooked, with blaring, critical labels hung alongside, including taunting, unbecoming text. This was their way of reeucationg the German people as to what was art and what was not. The Nazis openly made fun and scoffed at these works, but history has obviously proved such arrogance to be wrong.

After this exhibition, entitled, Kunst, many of the unsold works (some of which had been confiscated from musuems/galleries) were destroyed by the Nazis.

Paul Klee, one of the most infamous abstract painters from this time, was of Swiss birth. His father was a talenteld vionlisist and Klee himself showed a great love and apptitude for music..(in progress)