Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Arts and Humanities Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology

Senior Theses and Projects

2017

Art

Articles 1 - 1 of 1

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

'Degenerate Art': The Avant-Garde In The Face Of Nazism, Margaret L. Alisberg Apr 2017

'Degenerate Art': The Avant-Garde In The Face Of Nazism, Margaret L. Alisberg

Senior Theses and Projects

In 1937, the Nazis curated the Entartete Kunst, which was a propagandistic exhibition created by Joseph Goebbels to discredit avant-garde art in Germany. The exhibition took place alongside another show, the pro-National Socialist Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellung (Great German Art Exhibition). This paper is an depth look into why the Nazis hated the avant-garde and the threat that they felt it posed to their Aryan Society, the vital role it played in their overall agenda, their activities to discredit the art in the eyes of the German public, and how their plan against modernism eventually backfired.