SortI just ended in Paris, at the Musée Picasso, an exhibition that collects the works of an exhibition that took place in Munich in 1937 at the entrance of Hitler expressed and with an eloquent title: “The ‘Art Dégénéré“.
This “degenerated art” selected with zeal by the Nazis He included the works of German or foreign artists, alive or dead, with the infamous fault of being “criminals”, “mental patients”, subversives “or simply” Jews “accused of exercising a modern art contrary to the ideal professed by the regime that promoted a “healthy” art that exalted the image of the German breed in purity (!).
Through this becera propaganda, The Reich was convinced of conquering the much dreamed cultural hegemony that the Führer and his acolytes chased for the duration of their power.
Serena Dandini (photo by Gianmarco Chieregato).
Among the offending artists there were Pablo Picasso, George Grosz, Vincent Van Gogh, Vassily Kandisky, Marc Chagall and the most important exponents of modernity, from expressionism to Dadaism. The paintings were exhibited in the major German cities together with photos of disturbed people and insulting phrases to make the public reflect on the damage of that “aesthetic drift”.
The poster of the exhibition “Art Dégénéré” just ended in Paris
In this denigration campaign More than 1400 artists who did not respond to the fees imposed were persecutedremoved from their jobs, deported or forced to exile. While exponents of the high German hierarchies, hypocrisy champions, secretly kept many of the “prohibited” masterpieces.
Today the so -called degenerated paintings are exhibited in the most important museums in the world or are disputed to auctions As of millions while that art imposed by the regime little and nothing remains.
“My love does not die” by Roberto Saviano (Einaudi)
But despite the history of art has done justice, the exhibition is more interesting than ever because it forces us to reflect on the power of that vulgar and violent intimidation that was deluded to bend the expressive freedom of the artists Which by their very nature can only follow talent and inspiration by telling the world even in its darker, enigmatic and complex sides to help us understand it.
Fortunately, our democracy has deep roots and I don’t think the Nazis will return with the mustache and the fascists with the Fez, but also without showing off masked of the antic It is easy to fall into temptation and abuse one’s power in order to intimidate opponents and isolate critical voices.
Recommended book of the week: My love does not die by Roberto Saviano (Einaudi). A story of love and mafia, from a writer often under attack.
All articles by Serena Dandini.
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