Entartete Kunst, the end of a controversy

Abstract

This article begins with a description of expressionist aesthetics by means of a comparison of its principles with the ones of academical art and the ones of the fauves. This description is a prelude to the examination and the reception of expressionist art by the national-socialist ideology. This reception process gets its highest point with the exhibition “Degenerate Art”.

As a result of this exhibition it might be thought that the expressionist art was always an anti-Nazi one, and therefore, an antimilitarist and anti-imperialist one. It could also be thought that the National-socialism was an enemy of expressionist art. Both of these statements can be considered the truth only in part. The group of expressionist avant-garde felt in many occasions as heirs of the Gothic tradition and wardens of the German essence. Meanwhile, National-socialist factions were supporters of expressionism as a national art. The exhibition designed the position of the regime about modern art and the end of an ideological polemic in national-socialism.