Ever had a “brilliant” plan backfire? Hitler once had a “brilliant” (aka horrible) plan to kill modern art… it failed spectacularly.
When Hitler took full control of Germany in 1933, one of his first actions was to purge all institutions of “degenerate art.” The Ministry of Propaganda ultimately seized more than 20,000 artworks this way.
Then, in 1937, the Nazis held two concurrent art shows in Munich—the “Great German Art Exhibition” and the “Degenerate Art Exhibition.” The whole point was to emphasize the contrast between good and bad art.
For Hitler, good art respected age-old traditions and rules—aka boring (above). Bad art was emotional, expressive, and transgressive—everything that modern art was.
In a speech, Hitler described modern art as that “which cannot be understood in themselves but need some pretentious instruction book to justify their existence.”
Nevertheless, the “degenerate” show ended up being one of the most successful art exhibitions of all time! (Not surprising since it comprised 650 pieces of the best of the best of early 20th-century modern art.)
The horrific consequences of the Nazi vilification of modern art for artists can’t be overstated—death camps, forced into hiding, priceless artworks destroyed or disappeared.
Yet, the Degenerate Art Exhibition galvanized international appreciation for modern art.
After the war, artists wore their “degenerate” status like a badge of honour.
And, as I’m sure you know, Beth-test, the postwar modern art scene seriously rocked!
My favourite postwar artist is abstract expressionist Joan Mitchell. That’s me (below) standing next to one of her paintings at the MoMA in 2018.
