Entartete “Kunst”
Introduction:
The Entartete Kunst was an exhibition which took place in 1937 in Berlin, Germany and which exhibited several Jewish works which were deemed as degenerate by the Nazis. The exhibition was intended to portray depravity and lack of intellect as well as the perversity with which Jewish art was viewed by the German government and artistic establishment. The exhibition was actually the culmination of a complete purge of the art owned by several Jewish businessmen and art lovers whilst also including the Jewish art which was on display in public German museums and galleries. The exhibition was primarily a vehicle to ridicule art seen by current German National Socialists as highly depraved and without any direction from an artistic standpoint. The Jewish owners of these paintings were thus completely denuded of their collections which had been painstakingly built up over the years and which demonstrated the will of the Nazis to completely eradicate Jewish culture off the face of the earth. The Entartete Kunst exhibition contained more than 600 exhibits which included paintings, prints and sculptures such as the one demonstrated here. The exhibition was a great success if viewing numbers are to be taken into account since these exceeded the two million mark when it was put up in Munich. It eventually toured other towns and cities in Germany and Austria when another million people visited the exhibition. In a way, this exhibit together with such anti-Jewish pogroms as Kristallnacht paved the way for the Final Solution which was to result in such a terrible tragedy and the murdering of six million Jewish souls.
Cornelius Gurlitt was the owner of a small apartment in Munich where over one thousand works of art hoarded by his father were found. The hoard which had lain hidden in his apartment included several celebrated works by prominent Jewish artists such as Marc Chagall and Max Liebermann which were thought to have been lost. Gurlitt seems to be a quiet and reserved man but he paid the price for which his father, who did business with the Nazis carried out such a sensational looting from Jewish artists. Gurlitt’s father died in 1956 and was an established art collector and museum director who undoubtedly had a vast knowledge of what the works purged by the Nazis were worth, so much so that he kept them for himself. It is perhaps unfair to blame Gurlitt the younger for his father’s misdemeanours but that is how life goes. It is rather desultory to claim innocence on his part however when works by Picasso and Matisse lay undiscovered for centuries. These works of art are undoubtedly worth millions and although they now cannot be returned to their rightful owners, they can at least be put up in exhibitions were the public can admire them for their sheer genius and brilliance.
The German government was absolutely right in going to seize the works of art held at Cornelius Gurlitt’s apartment by force. They belong to the general public since they are works of the utmost international importance and are also priceless in their value. Although nothing can really atone for the crimes carried out by the Nazis, the discovery of these magnificent and priceless artworks is surely a cause for rejoicing and a feather in the current government’s cap.
References:
Entartete Kunst; review by Julien Bryan, 1937. Retrieved from: http://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-features/collections-highlights/julien-bryan/nazi-germany-1937/1937-munich-exhibition-of-degenerate-art
