Entartete Kunst

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Entartete Kunst
Term used by the Nazis in Germany from the 1920s to refer to art that did not fall into line with the arts policies of National Socialism, chiefly avant-garde work. The term ‘degenerate art’ has been used generally to describe art perceived as signifying decay, and usually forms of art production in chronological proximity. It has been used in a polemical context to enhance the value of a specific aesthetic viewpoint. The first known example is the assessment made by the Italian bourgeoisie of the 14th century of medieval art as a barbaric relapse when compared with antiquity. The Italian writer and statesman Niccolò Machiavelli employed the term ‘degeneration’ (corruzione) in his Discorso of 1581. It was used by Giovanni Pietro Bellori in his polemic against Giorgio Vasari and Michelangelo. It is also used generally to mean irregular or against the rules, in contrast with the dominant aesthetic trend, which is set up as the rule. In this sense the term ‘Baroque’ was also initially intended to be disparaging. At the end of the 19th century the term was used in association with Nietzsche’s concept of decadence. It was later used in this sense by Thomas Mann, who regarded the artist as ‘a social outsider prone to be tired of life’ (1987–8 exh. cat.) and considered this predisposition to be the basis of the need for artistic creativity. Familiarity with crises and melancholy was viewed as the cause and driving force of artistic genius, which found its expression in a new artistic subjectivity. In contrast, in his book Entartung (1892–3), Max Nordau viewed Naturalism, Symbolism and Realism as decadent art movements that had originated in the ‘degeneracy’ of their founders, and he proposed that they be combated in the interest of health. This perception was essentially in line with Emperor William II’s ideas on art and with the imperial criticism of art, which, on occasion, even stigmatized Impressionism as ‘gutter painting’ (Gossenmalerei). William II had attempted to regulate art, claiming, in his speech at the inauguration of Siegesallee in Berlin in 1901: ‘Art that goes beyond the laws and limits imposed on it by me ceases to be art.’ In 1913 a resolution ‘Against degeneracy in art’ was passed in the Prussian house of representatives. In Germany these defamations were always closely linked to nationalistic tendencies. (hide)

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