Art in the Third Reich

so classical

how fanatical

must one stand still?

expression made them ill.

soul whispers under the soil,

buried and fired,

reminiscence, as jazz music dilutes towards the background,

snap snap,

enters professor Thorax

carve away, says a command with out a face,

a uniform,

demanding the grandiose,

what is grand anyway.

A picture perfect,

perfect they say,

perfect

make it PERFECT.

Heroic only

the erect?

Still souls wonder,

aiming not to squander.

Realism,

what sort of reality were they after?

What sort of a reality had they created?

Hands to the side,

the body wants to give in and join the dance of life,

instead around this corner,

like the image on the poster,

one foot at the time

they marched ahead towards a journey, not their own.

leather boots on the feet of soldiers,

creating a tune,

static as stone.

 

– Nicole Matta Santos

 

Pricings and Art in the Degenerate Auction

Pricing of some of the work involved in the Auction:

M. Beckmann Southern Coast $20 to Buchholz
M. Beckmann Portrait SFr 1 to Gurlitt
W. Gilles 5 Watercolors $.20 each to Boehmer
W.
Kandinsky Ruhe $100 to Möller [now Guggenheim Museum, New
York]
E. Kirchner Strassenzene $160 to Buchholz [now MoMA, New York]
P. Klee
Das Vokaltuch der
Sängerin Rosa
Silber
$300 to Buchholz
Lehmbruck Kneeling Woman $10 to Buchholz49

After the Auction, this is what happened to the remaining work:

“In the fall of 1938 Exploitation Commission member and dealer Karl Haberstock suggested to Hitler and Goebbels that a public auction would increase these minimal revenues. He brought a Swiss crony and fellow Cassirer alumnus, Theodore Fischer, to look over the depositories. Together they chose the 126 works which would be sold in Lucerne on that sunny day the following June. It was none too soon. Despite all the trading activity, the Copernicusstrasse warehouse remained distressingly full. Franz Hofmann, fanatically desirous of carrying out Hitler’s purification policies to the letter, pushed to get rid of the remaining works, which he declared “unexploitable.” He suggested that they be “burned in a bonfire as a symbolic propaganda action” and offered to “deliver a suitably caustic funeral oration.” Shocked at the idea of such destruction, Hetsch and the dealers took away as much as they could. But Goebbels agreed to Hofmann’s plan, and on destruction, Hetsch and the dealers took away as much as they could. But Goebbels agreed to Hofmann’s plan, and on March 20, 1939, 1,004 paintings and sculptures and 3,825 drawings, watercolors, and graphics were burned as a practice exercise in the courtyard of the Berlin Fire Department’s headquarters just down the street. The works in Schloss Niederschonhausen were reprieved and gradually sold or traded away. The whole process of “purifying” the German art world, and its “final solution” in flames, eerily foreshadows the terrible events to come in the next six years.”

People who were put into the Degenerate Art Show/Auction:

Jankel Adler Ernst Barlach Rudolf Bauer Philipp Bauknecht Otto Baum Willi Baumeister Herbert Bayer Max Beckmann Rudolf Belling Paul Bindel Theo Brün Max Burchartz Fritz Burger-Mühlfeld Paul Camenisch Heinrich Campendonk Karl Caspar Maria Caspar-Filser Pol Cassel Marc Chagall Lovis Corinth Heinrich Maria Davringhausen Walter Dexel Johannes Diesner Otto Dix Pranas Domšaitis Hans Christoph Drexel Johannes Driesch Heinrich Eberhard

Max Ernst Hans Feibusch Lyonel Feininger Conrad Felixmüller Otto Freundlich Xaver Fuhr Ludwig Gies Werner Gilles Otto Gleichmann Rudolph Grossmann George Grosz Hans Grundig Rudolf Haizmann Raoul Hausmann Guido Hebert Erich Heckel Wilhelm Heckrott Jacoba van Heemskerck Hans Siebert von Heister Oswald Herzog Werner Heuser Heinrich Hoerle Karl Hofer Eugen Hoffmann Johannes Itten Alexej von Jawlensky Eric Johansson Hans Jürgen Kallmann

Wassily Kandinsky Hanns Katz Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Paul Klee Cesar Klein Paul Kleinschmidt Oskar Kokoschka Otto Lange Wilhelm Lehmbruck Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler El Lissitzky Oskar Lüthy Franz Marc Gerhard Marcks Ewald Mataré Ludwig Meidner Jean Metzinger Constantin von Mitschke-Collande László Moholy-Nagy Marg Moll Oskar Moll Johannes Molzahn Piet Mondrian Georg Muche Otto Mueller Erich(?) Nagel Heinrich Nauen Ernst Wilhelm Nay Karel Niestrath

Emil Nolde Otto Pankok Max Pechstein Max Peiffer-Watenphul Hans Purrmann Max Rauh Hans Richter Emy Roeder Christian Rohlfs Edwin Scharff Oskar Schlemmer Rudolf Schlichter Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Werner Scholz Lothar Schreyer Otto Schubert Kurt Schwitters Lasar Segall Friedrich Skade Friedrich (Fritz) Stuckenberg Paul Thalheimer Johannes Tietz Arnold Topp Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart Karl Völker Christoph Voll William Wauer

L. Engle

Emil Nolde: Degenerate Artist

Name: Emil Nolde, originally Emil Hansen

Born: August 7, 1867 in Schleswig

Was he still in the “Fatherland”?

From what I have found on the exhibition involving Nolde it appears he was not in the country when the show was going on.

Has this so-called “artist” written or said anything that would implicate him as an Enemy Combatant of the Third Reich?

Actually, Emil was a sympathizer of the Nazi Party. He was opposed to many Jewish artist’s and paintings and had even become a part of the Dutch sector of the Nazi Party. He even expressed that he felt Expressionism was solely German and others were going off a German form of painting.

How many of his works of “art” were included in theEntartete “Kunst” (Degenerate “Art”) show in Munich in 1937?

It doesn’t state an exact number of how many of his pieces were in the actual show, but it is known of the 1052 pieces taken from museums he did have some shown in the Degenerate Art show. Out of everyone in the show, he did have the most confiscated from museums/galleries.

Below, are 5 examples of his artwork:

 

Emil Nolde, Blumengarten (ohne Figur), oil on canvas, 1908

Emil Nolde The Prophet, woodcut, 1912

 

Head with Pipe (Self Portrait) (1907) Lithograph

 

Emil Nolde, Wheat Field, Oil on canvas

Emil Nolde, Marschlandschaft, oil on canvas

 

L. Engle

 

 

 

 

 

PAUL KLEE, From Avant garde to Degenerade

These series of images below, are from a presentation about Paul Klee, whom among other artist of his generation where  appointed by the Nazis as degenerate. Despite of their works being taken away from them, dismissed from art positions, artist such as Paul Klee proceeded in exile to create.

-Nicole Matta Santos

ENTARTETE KUNST (group presentation)

 

 

The presentation below discusses matters listed:

• Entartete Kunst:” The 1937 Degenerate Art Exhibition and Auction
  • In what cities were the exhibition and auction held?
  • Which artists were represented in the exhibition?
  • Which paintings were auctioned? How many sold?
  • Who purchased them and how much did they pay?
  • Who profited from the auction?
  • What happened to the art that was not sold?

To see this presentation follow this link: KUNST

NMS

Degenerate Artist: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

S.Cook