German art and degenerate "art" - An anti-Semitic catalog from the exhibition "Entartete Kunst". Munich, 1938

German art and degenerate "art" - An anti-Semitic catalog from the exhibition "Entartete Kunst". Munich, 1938

Deutsche Kunst und entartete "Kunst". Kunstwerk und Zerrbild als Spiegel der Weltanschauung, herausgegeben - German art and degenerate "art". Distorted works of art and images as a mirror of the worldview, edited by Dr. Adolf Dressler. Munich, 1938. An anti-Semitic catalog from the exhibition entartete "Kunst" - "Degenerate Art". 

A rare publication that came out as part of the anti-Semitic propaganda that was constantly active at the time of the exhibition, with exhibits that were shown in the anti-Semitic exhibition "Degenerate Art" that opened in Munich in July 1937, accompanied by hateful sections that denigrate Jewish art and artists and glorify German artists and German art.

In the catalog, photographs from the exhibition of paintings and Exhibits made by artists such as Otto Dix, George Gross, Ferdinand Spiegel, Walter Hawk, Herman Taubert, Adolf Ziegler, Schmidt-Rotloff, Paul Roloff, Oscar Kokushka, Thomas Baumgartner, Max Beckman, and many more. When the works are displayed opposite each other on the corresponding page - a German work versus a 'degenerate Jewish work' accompanied by antisemitic sentences in form of "against each other", such as: "Plastic of the liberal age. Degenerate as the painting was the sculpture. Only distorted idiots were presented to the people as "works of art at the front" or "At all times, the praise of the homeland was one of the most beautiful tasks of the creative artist. But what is the meaning of the German landscape to the Jewish desert people and its distorted followers? This is how landscape painting turned into a disgusting, distorted image." Etc.

In the preface, Dressler expresses more than anything the following antisemitic worldview expressed in the exhibition: "At the same time as the resurrection of the German people, we are experiencing the revival of German art. The two cannot be separated, as art is the living part of the people and the true reflection of its inner life, in the pre-war period German art began to detach from the people. Art can not live without a living connection with the people... only when the Fuhrer, in parallel with the takeover of political power, began to reshape the entire basis of life of the German people through the National Socialist worldview, a tremendous change in German art also began. Adolf Hitler loaded the eternal appreciation of real art... Thus began a new era for German artistic creativity, paving the way for artists to act out of an inner conviction, which is no longer subject to criticism by a Jewish-Bolshevik literary clique... ".

The antisemitic exhibition "Entartete Kunst" ["Degenerate Art"], initiated and run by the German Reich Propaganda Office, opened in Munich in July 1937 and featured some 650 works by about 100 famous artists confiscated from museums and galleries throughout Germany [including Chagall, Monk, Matisse, and Kandinsky] in order to put them to ridicule in the eyes of the public. At the same time about 20,000 works of art found in public museums in Germany were sold or destroyed. The works were hung in the exhibition rooms in a chaotic crowded manner, and were accompanied by text labels that ridicule the art.

The purpose of the exhibition was to show the public the 'decay of civilization' through original works of the human race, in the face of the great turning point in German works striving for a clean and progressive future. The Nazis called this art an "insult to German feelings." Degenerate art was defined as non-German, Jewish, or communist art in its character. The exhibition was designed to present everything that the Nazis perceived as corrupt, degenerate and perverted in modern art.

The exhibition traveled to several cities in Germany until 1941. It was accompanied by propaganda materials such as pamphlets, postcards and posters which created the antisemitic atmosphere within the framework of Nazi propaganda. Culturally, the exhibition was the culmination of the presentation of the Nazi 'enlightenment' and 'progress' in the face of the Jewish 'decay' that threatens to destroy the world in the field of art as well. The entry to the exhibition was free and was visited by over two million people during the years of its presentation. During the exhibition avant-garde German artists were now classified as enemies of the state and a threat to German culture. Many went into exile, others continued to live in Germany, but were banned from teaching at universities and the Gestapo would make surprise visits to them to make sure they were not engaged in art. Jewish artists who did not flee were sent to the extermination camps.

80 pages [32 text pages of and 47 image pages], 21 cm. Hardcover with the original Dust jacket. Slight tears at the edges of the Dust jacket. Very good condition.