DEGENERATE ART

German Entartete Kunst, propagandistically designed Nazi exhibition of modern art held in Munich in 1937 and advertised as culture documents of the decadent work of Bolsheviks and Jews. The works on exhibit included only a small segment of the almost 20,000 works of modern art confiscated from German museums on the orders of Joseph Goebbels, the minister of propaganda. So-called degenerate works by Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Emile Nolde, and other major artists of the 20th century were juxtaposed with paintings by psychotic patients and were subjected to vicious ridicule by the press and the German people. This exhibit was designed to contrast with a simultaneous exhibition of art approved by the leading Nazis, made up of works executed in an academic style and dealing with typical Nazi themes of heroism and duty.