“Modern art on trial under the Nazis”

Degenerate Art Exhibition, Musée Picasso, Part 1

Bienvenue and welcome back to Musée Musings, your idiosyncratic guide to Paris and art. And welcome back, to week two of this very difficult and alas, very timely subject, the degenerate art exhibition organized by the Nazis that toured Germany and Austria from 1937 - 1941. It’s important because it’s not so much the what but the why and how and what for. It’s the playbook for what is happening now. If silence is complicity, can any of us risk remaining silent?

With last week’s background, we have a context within which to better understand the significance of this exhibition. I didn’t tell you everything last week, so there are still a few shocking revelations to make, among them, the intellectual underpinning of the idea of degenerate art. For the exhibitions I described last week, we relied upon curators and critics. This time, we will walk through the exhibition ourselves.

I mentioned last week that the Musée Picasso mounted this exhibition because the Nazis labeled Picasso’s art degenerate. First a word about Picasso, who hasn’t fared well since the #MeToo movement and in fact, well before that. He is roundly condemned by feminists like me for being an abusive womanizer. As he left one woman for the next, he was brutal. Although he mostly did leave the women he left most bereft with something, like a house. It is also true that he was at his worst with his daughter Maya, once she had a life of her own and the one woman who left him, Francoise Gilot.

When Ginevra and I were discussing Picasso, she compared being mistreated by him to being mistreated by an employer. When her untalented boss yelled at her, she quit. She figured that if she was going to be the victim of verbal abuse from an architect, then it had better be someone of Frank Gehry’s caliber. So, if you’re in an abusive relationship (hopefully brief), better with a genius than some guy living in his mom’s basement.

Picasso’s women problem is not going away. But there are other things he did, admirable things that aren’t discussed enough. I wrote about an exhibition a few years ago, ‘Picasso the Foreigner.’ According to the exhibition’s curator, Annie Cohen-Solal, the police began compiling a dossier on Picasso as early as 1901. For more than 40 years, French authorities treated Picasso as an intruder, a foreigner, an anarchist. In 1940, his application for French naturalization was refused. He could have been deported at any time, sent back to Spain and certain death at the hands of Franco. (#1, Fig 1)

Figure 1.  Picasso l’Étranger, Musée de l’histoire de l’immigration

And yet, despite the risk, he, along with other artists, whose legal status was not precarious, wrote letters in support of his friend Max Jacob, who was being held at Drancy internment camp. And I remind you, while Picasso was trying to help authors and artists escape the Nazis, his former friend Gertrude Stein avoided a one way trip to a death camp, despite being Jewish, because she was being useful to her Nazi friend, busily translating German propaganda into English. (#2, Fig 2)

Figure 2. Gertrude Stein & Pablo Picasso L’invention du Langage

One more thing about Picasso. He never threw anything away, nothing, ever. Among the museum’s treasures are press clippings, among which are some that spew hatred against Picasso and the so-called “Judeo-Bolshevik” peril of which he was called a part. The archive is filled with personal correspondences, too, including between Picasso and his friend Max Freundlich, which ends in heartbreak, about which, more later.

Like many museums in Paris, the Musée Picasso was a mansion before it was a museum. The rooms dedicated to temporary exhibitions require that you pay attention to room numbering because backtracking is required to follow the proper sequence. Despite the numbers, I have watched people walk through exhibitions out of sequence and in a daze. But not us. We know what we’re doing, we’ve been here before.

Room 1 introduces the exhibition. The wallpaper is names of artists who the Nazis labelled degenerate. (Fig 3) There is a case with a copy of the "Degenerate Art" (D.A,) exhibition guide. The cover is a photo of Otto Freundlich’s plaster sculpture, 'Large Head.’ (Fig 4) The word Kunst (art), in red capital letters, set in quotation marks, is just below the head. It’s not a very friendly gesture and neither is the sculpture’s ironic renaming, ‘The New Man.’ It’s definitely not a good sign when your work is the archetype of ‘degeneracy,’ The work was destroyed somewhere along the "Degenerate Art" exhibition tour.

Figure 3. Wallpaper in Room 1 of exhibition is the name of all the ‘degenerate artists’ Picasso Museum

Figure 4. Degenerative Art exhibition guidebook with Otto Freudlich’s sculpture as cover, 1937

Four (of 16) sculpture fragments discovered in 2010 during archaeological excavations for a metro extension in Berlin are here. All of them were made by “degenerate" artists. All of them had been stored in an apartment building after the “D.A.” exhibitions were over. All of them were buried in rubble when the city was bombed in 1944. And all of them were assumed to have been lost or destroyed. (Figs 5, 6)

Figure 5. Three of the 16 sculpture fragments salvaged from the rubble in 2010, Berlin

Figure 6. “Pregnant Woman”,  head fragment, Emy Roeder,  1918.

In this room, too, a painting by Emil Nolde, who btw was a Nazi who couldn’t understand why his work was being targeting. Like other artists of his generation, Nolde was interested in artifacts from non-European cultures which he included in his paintings. The male statuette probably came from present-day Congo. A collector of modern art and African and Oceanian art bought it in 1912. It was confiscated in 1937 and included in the “D.A.” exhibition that same year. (Fig 7)

Figure 7. Still life with sculpture, Emil Nolde, 1912

Franz Marc is here, too, a founding member of the Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), he was drafted into the German army and died on the battlefield at Verdun in 1916. Five of his paintings were in the “D. A.” exhibition. How could that be, the public asked, this artist was a war hero. A letter of protest from a group of German officers, didn’t help much, only one of the five paintings was removed. (Fig 8)

Figure 8. Wild Boar, Franz Marc, 1913

Fourteen of Wassily Kandinsky’s paintings were in the “D. A.” exhibition (Fig 9) Kandinsky taught at the Bauhaus until the Nazis closed it down, calling it “the ultimate expression of degenerate art.”. Russian born, he became a German citizen in 1928 but left for France five years later.

Figure 9. Form of the Cross, Wassily Kandinsky, 1923

The wall text in this room explains that the term "degenerate art" was a public campaign to destroy modern artists and modern art that began when Hitler came to power in 1933 and ended when his reign of terror did, in 1945. During that 12 year period, over 1,400 artists were labeled degenerate. The repercussion on the lives and the livelihoods of artists living in Germany was enormous. They lost teaching jobs, could not exhibit their work or sell it. Publicly humiliated and threatened, the lucky ones escaped, the unfortunate ones went to concentration camps. Any art in any public collection that was labeled degenerate, no matter if it was by a German artist or a foreign one, by a living artist or a dead one, was confiscated.

The second room, ‘ENTARTETE „KUNST” MUNICH, 1937, is a juggling act where the curators show/tell us about 3 things. 1. Blown up photographs of the 1937 exhibition show us what the original Degenerate Art exhibition looked like. Hate-filled slogans were crudely written next to the paintings. (Figs 10, 11) Some visitors “probably supported this defamatory campaign, for others the exhibition was an opportunity to admire some of the most important works of the first half of the 20th century - in some cases for the last time before they were destroyed.” 2. Three newsreels on constant replay. One is the DA exhibition. One is the ‘Good Art’ exhibition. A third is a parade celebrating Nazi strength. (Figs 12, 13) 3. Texts in this room tell us what happened to the artists.

Figure 10. Degenerate Art Exhibition, 1937-41

Figure 11.  Degenerate Art Exhibition, 1937-41 (newsreel)

Figure 12. Portrait of Hitler, Good Nazi Art exhibition (newsreel)

Figure 13. Nazi Parade (newsreel)

The painting “Freundinnen,” (Friends) was painted by Karl Hofer. (Fig 14) In 1934, he was suspended, then dismissed from his post as professor at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts. Ten of his works were displayed in the “D.A.” exhibition. In 1938, Hofer was expelled from the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts (RCFA). Why? His wife was Jewish. Unable to exhibit or sell his works, he divorced his wife in 1939. His membership in the RCFA was reinstated and she was murdered at Auschwitz. So much for in sickness and in health.

Figure 14. Freundinnen (Friends) Karl Hofer, 1923

George Grosz’s Metropolis is an allegory of great, sprawling, chaotic cities. (Fig 15) It was shown in a 1933 defamatory exhibition called, "Cultural Bolshevist Images.” After the Nazis ransacked his studio, Grosz left Germany for New York. This painting, which was sold after the 1937 D. A. exhibition, ended up in NYC. The artist bought it.

Figure 15. Metropolis, George Grosz, 1916-17

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner painted cities as places of excitement and danger. His painting of two richly-dressed prostitutes strolling down a street (Fig 16) was purchased in 1920 by Berlin's Nationalgalerie. It was confiscated in 1937, along with 750 other works by the artist. Traumatized, Kirchner committed suicide in 1938.

Figure 16. Berlin Street, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1913

In the third room, called, “DEGENERATION” - ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE CONCEPT, we learn that the term degenerate emerged in the late 18th century in the fields of natural history, medicine and anthropology. I remember reading about a dinner party to which Thomas Jefferson was invited. In Paris, in 1786, at the home of the celebrated naturalist, Count Buffon. Naturally the conversation turned to Buffon’s contention that any species born in America was smaller, weaker, less advanced, in short a degenerate version of its counterpart in Europe. Naturally, Jefferson argued the contrary and only had to stand up to prove his point. Born in America, he towered over his French host. To further prove his point, Jefferson sent a very large, very dead, very stuffed American moose to Buffon from America. Then there was the mastodon, an entire skeleton of which the Philadelphia artist and naturalist Charles Willson Peale found outside of Newburgh, New York. (Figs 17, 18) But that will take us to the subject of extinction which happens in the natural world and would have happened to the Jews if the Nazis had gotten their way.

Figure 17. Thomas Jefferson and the Giant Moose, yes you can read a book about it.

Figure 18. Exhumation of the Mastodon, Newburgh, New York, Charles Willson Peale, 1897

Evolution posits the possibility of a Superman. Degeneration posits the “nightmare scenario in which humans are constantly threatened with regression towards bestiality, physical deformity and psychological disorder. “ Max Nordau was the first to associate degeneration with art and literature in his 1892 book, ‘Degeneration.’ Nordau saw modern art as “visible symptoms and disease carriers that threatened to contaminate society.” And who was Nordau? An assimilated Jewish doctor who lived in Paris, whose goal was “to somehow ‘strengthen’ the Jews, whom he considered too ‘intellectual.’" The Dreyfus affair changed his thinking and with Theodor Hetzl, he founded the Zionist movement.

Vincent Van Gogh’s work is displayed in this room, as the embodiment of a mad artist. Five of his paintings, 3 of which are now lost, were removed from German museums in 1937. This painting is one of the two that survived. L’Arlésienne (Fig 19) was in the private collection of Marie-Anne von Goldschmidt-Rothschild in Berlin. She fled Germany in 1938, initially to Paris and then to the USA. Her properties in Berlin were ‘sold’ to the Nazi architect Albert Speer. She got some of her works back, among them L'Arlésienne which she donated to France on the day in 1944 that Paris was liberated.

Figure 19. L’Arlésienne, Vincent Van Gogh, 1888

Lovis Corinth was a German artist who worked during the transition from Impressionism to Expressionism. In 1911 he suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. He continued to paint. Seven of his paintings were shown in the “D. A.” exhibition as symptoms of physical decline, including his portrait of the Norwegian painter Bernt Grönvold (Fig 20) which was confiscated and sold at auction in 1939.

Figure 20. Portrait of Bernt Grönvold, Lovis Corinth, 1923

The saddest of all was Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler who trained at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. In 1929 she was involuntarily committed to the Hamburg psychiatric hospital for nervous depression. During her two months stay, she drew dozens of portraits of her fellow patients.(Figs 21, 22) Once released, her subjects were laborers and sex workers near the port of Hamburg. In 1932, her father had her hospitalized again. With her divorce in 1935, she was sterilized and hospitalized, again. “In 1940, she was murdered by the Nazi regime in the context of the so-called "Aktion T4" operation to exterminate adults with physical and mental disabilities.” Lives not fit to be lived. The Nazis used the same reasoning to justify both Aryan superiority and the Holocaust.

Figure 21. Portraits of patients in psychiatric hospital, Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler, 1929

Figure 22. Portrait, Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler, 1929

The pseudo-science that the Nazis used, eugenics, “tries to increase the frequency of so-called “good” or “favorable” genes and decrease the frequency of so-called “bad” or “unfavorable” genes,” as Ben Samuels explains in an article in which he identifies Elon Musk as a eugenicist. Maybe that explains Musk’s Nazi salute. We know that Musk manipulates the IVF treatments the women who bear his children have, to favor male births because Musk and all patriarchal cultures believe males are superior. One of his sons is now a trans-woman, Musk disowned her. As Samuels notes, there is no objective definition of good genes. The people who get to decide are the people in power. For Musk, and for all eugenicists, anyone who isn’t like them is inferior. The irony of Musk’s eugenics is that his autism would be reason enough to label him inferior by other people’s definitions. If eugenicists who weren’t autistic were in charge, Musk would be the one sterilized, maybe euthanized, not the one deciding who should be eliminated.

The next room is about anti-semitism. People have asked repeatedly over the years how the Jews could have so willingly been led to slaughter. But what the first half of this exhibition shows me is how easily people let it happen. It’s not the book burners and the brownshirts I wonder about, it’s the so-called normal people. How did they let these things happen? Well, now I know, I read about it in newspapers and I hear about it on French newscasts. A country that was supposed to be ruled by laws is now ruled by a few lawless people who put personal greed and the pursuit of power above all else. We’ll tackle the second half of this exhibition next week.

Thanks to everyone who sent comments on last week’s post, both private and public. Gros bisous, Dr. B.

Picasso L’Étranger, https://www.museemusings.com/blog/the-usual-suspects?rq=picasso

2. Gertrude Stein & Pablo Picasso https://www.museemusings.com/blog/not-really-smelling-like-a-rose?rq=picasso

Dear Dr. B. You have hit the nail on the head with this review! It should be printed all over the world as a a testimony to what is happening in the US. There are the subtle and the dramatic results of Trump and his cronies/henchmen that are devastating this country. The effects will be felt for years beyond the current administration. here and abroad. I am sickened by it. It is right out of the Nazi playbook and yet the bobbleheads who are in a bit of power or who think they are are complicit. Thank you for this post and your extensive research. Dianne

Tried to leave an opinion on the article website but unable to edit. So: Magnificent insight into the current exhibit of ‘degenerate art’ and previous exhibition with similar theme. Especially the list of art confiscated by the Nazis at the Albert/Victoria Museum of 16,000 items. Most distressing is the pattern of so many European countries hindering the delay of recovered objects stolen by the Nazis during WW2 to rightful owners. Your article’s insights deserve wider distribution.Bill

VERY POWERFUL lead up to the Picasso exhibit.
Many know where the administration is headed, but are turning a blind eye to the possible outcome in America. Will the exhibit travel?? Would the Smithsonian be bold enough to show it?? Would Trump allow it?? Deedee

Loved reading about your Hitler/art and Trump/no taste comparison, anonymous

Interesting parallels to modern times, anonymous