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The Art of War - The Open College of the Arts

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The Art of War

hitler
In 1937, the Nazi party staged the Degenerate Art Exhibition in Munich. Designed to inflame public opinion against modernism, the exhibition was hugely popular attracting over a million visitors. Such art was banned on the grounds that it was un- German or Jewish Bolshevist in nature, and those identified as degenerate artists were subjected to sanctions. These included being dismissed from teaching positions, being forbidden to exhibit or to sell their art, and in some cases being forbidden to produce art entirely. The exhibition included works by some of the great international names – Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka and Wassily Kandinsky.
The Nazis and their art ‘collecting’ continue to make the headlines today. A hoard of 1,500 works of art acquired by Cornelius Gurlitt was uncovered last year.  It is an interesting read which begs questions of ownership.  There are those which were stolen, those bought legitimately and then those works of art which were accrued during the war.
It will be a difficult and slow process to track down the original owners of the looted art. Ethically it is of course the right thing to do but this will surely lead to many of the works disappearing into private collections, large amounts of money will exchange hands and the general public will have had just a fleeting glimpse of secret works uncovered and hidden again.
In response to this find London’s Victoria and Albert Museum has published two ledgers which reveal what the Nazi regime did with confiscated ‘degenerate art’ offering hope to those seeking restitution of lost art. More information can be found here.


Posted by author: Joanne

2 thoughts on “The Art of War

  • A fascinating story with lots of political and social repercussions quite apart from the art itself. It reminds me of the Carl Sandburg poem: Get off this estate:
    Just replace the title and first line with: Give me that artwork.
    Get off this estate
    Get off this estate!
    What for?
    Because it’s mine.
    Where did you get it?
    From my father.
    And where did he get it?
    He fought for it.
    Well, I’ll fight you for it.

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