Entartete “Kunst”– Degenerate “art”
“One can see monstrous figments of madness, impudence, ineptitude and absolute perversity all around. What this exhibition presents arouses both consternation and disgust in all of us!” With these words, Adolf Ziegler, the chairman of the Reich’s cabinet for fine arts, opened the Entartete “Kunst” or the Degenerate “art” travelling exhibition on 19 June 1937 in Munich.
112 artists displayed 650 works of art which had been confiscated from 32 German museums. This seemingly decadent or degenerate art was defined as anything that “offends German feelings, destroys or ridicules natural forms, or simply reveals the absence of any relevant manual and artistic skills”.
The presented works included major examples of hitherto modern art (expressionism, Dadaism, surrealism ...). Singled out artists included Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein, Oskar Kokoschka, Piet Mondrian, Max Ernst, Paul Klee, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Marc Chagall, Vasilij Kandinski and others.
Their works were hung chaotically around the rooms and accompanied by pejorative labels. The artists’ names were given only sporadically. However, not all visitors shared the organizers’ consternation and actually welcomed the exhibition as a display of German modernism. Lest the people should be in any doubt, an ensuing exhibition in Berlin presented works from Prinzhorn's collection. Carl Schneider, the director of a clinic in Heidelberg, based in the town’s university, willingly lent the works of Clemens von Oertzen, Oskar Herzberg, Else Blankenhorn, Aldof Schudel, Paul Goesch, Oskar Voll and others to be displayed at the Entartete “Kunst” exhibition. The similarity between the works of the mentally ill and the modernists was supposed to conclusively demonstrate the morbidity of avant-garde art.
“In the name of the German people, it is my duty to prevent these regrettable and unfortunate people, who simply suffer from sight defects, from trying to persuade others that these defects are in fact a true form of reality and that what they produce is somehow art. There are only two options. These ‘artists’ either really see things in this way and believe in what they paint – in this case, we must ask how this seeing defect arises and, if it is hereditary, let us leave it up to the Ministry of the Interior to prevent the continued inheritance of this defect. Or, if these people do not believe in the reality of their perceptions, instead trying to misuse these perceptions for dishonest ends, then that becomes a matter for the criminal courts.”
Adolf Hitler
art brut from the legendary
collection of German psychiatrist
6. 2. - 3. 5. 2009
City Gallery Prague,
Stone Bell House
Old town square
Prague 1
Open:
Tue – Sun.
10 a.m. – 8 p.m.
