Degenerate Art

During the 1920's, Berlin was the capitol of the international art world; a decade later, the city, and the country itself, would become monstrously intolerant in many areas, one of which happened to be art. Narrated by David McCullough, this examination of the infamous "Entartete Kunst" (or "degenerate art") exhibit of 1937 touches briefly on Hitler's rise to power and his fanatic devotion to representational (or, in the case of classic nudes, idealized) art. German expressionists, many of whom had gone through the transforming fire of WWI, did not fit within Hitler's narrow parameters of what constituted art, and therefore were consigned to the trash heap or, in the case of the degenerate art exhibit, to public ridicule. Cultural historian Sandford Gilman, art critic Robert Hughes, family members of the derided artists (which included such notables as German artists Kirchner, Beckmann, and Kokoschka, and European masters van Gogh, Matisse, and Picasso), and eyewitnesses to the exhibit all share their views and memories. Ironically, the "Entartete Kunst" exhibit was seen by some 3 million people, making it the most popular art exhibit ever. Although not nearly as probing or intriguing a portrait as Architecture of Doom (VL-11/95), Degenerate Art still delivers a warning that is especially timely in our current anti-arts, pro-censorship political atmosphere: one of the quickest and surest paths to a fascist state is through the muzzling of artists. Definitely recommended for larger art and history collections. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)