The Degenerate Art Show

1
The Degenerate Art Show

• Callan Moody
• ART 428

2
The Time

• 1937 Munich, Germany
• World War Two 2 years away
• Adolf Hitler has been in power for 4 years
• Dachau concentration camp and boycott of Jewish
  owned shops and business in effect since 1933

3
Why?

• Propaganda for the SS Party
• Hitler loved classical Greek and Roman art
• Modern art was considered distasteful
• Cleanse the culture of degeneracy

4
Selection Process

• Commission established to take any works from
  museums through out Germany
• Anything thought to be degenerate, subversive, or
  modern
• Over 5,000 works taken

5
Entartete Kunst The Show

• July 19th, 1937 to November 30th in Munich
• Over 650 works by more than 100 artists from over
  30 museums
• Only 6 Jewish artists actually displayed

6
The Works
7
The Exhibit Space

• Displayed in Archaeological Institute Building of
  Munich
• Crowded, salon-style
• Misrepresentative quotes
• categorized

8
Success?

• Served the purpose it was made for
• Large number of attendants
• More than the Great German Art Show

9
Consequences

• Over 1,000 works physically destroyed
• Other works lost to private collections, or
  actually, physically lost
• Artists and movements forgotten due to lack of
  tangible record.

10
Works Cited