Hitler's Campaign Against 'Degenerate' Modern Art Was Only the Beginning.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Lance Esplund

The Nazis denounced Max Beckmann's 'Departure' (1932-35). The Museum of Modern Art/SCALA/Art Resource/ARS

NEW YORK---If the Führer wanted to purify German culture, he would need to make clear what was state-sanctioned and what wasn't. Visual art—a gateway target—was the perfect propagandistic tool. Once Hitler had established the "degenerate" in art and artists, he could attack all "degenerates." The most cohesive gallery, however, contrasts what Hitler deemed "Degenerate Art" with "Great German Art." The main event is an object lesson that pits [Max] Beckmann's Modernist triptych "Departure" (1932-35), a bold and enigmatic mix of regal ceremony and ritualistic torture, toe-to-toe with Adolf Ziegler's academic and allegorical triptych "The Four Elements" (1937), in which four blond female nudes display themselves in a neoclassical setting. [link]

Neue Galerie New York: "Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937" (Ends June 30); 1048 Fifth Avenue (at 86th Street); New York City, NY; (212) 994-9491; neuegalerie.org