© Munch Museum/Munch-EllingsendGroup/DACS 2002

The artists in this display were condemned by the Nazis as morally and socially subversive. Most of them were included in the infamous 1937 exhibition of ‘Degenerate Art’.

Within months of assuming power in 1933, the Nazis began their assault on modern art. Avant-garde movements such as Expressionism, Cubism and Dada were accused of being ‘degenerate’. Artistic experimentation was seen as elitist and immoral, sapping the wholesome spirit of the German people. The word ‘degenerate’ echoed anti-Semitic racial theories, and Nazi propaganda linked the excesses of modern art to the Jewish people, although very few of the artists concerned were indeed Jewish.

As leader of the Reich Chamber of Culture, Joseph Goebbels supervised the plundering of museums and public collections across Germany. Officials seized almost 16,000 works deemed to be ‘degenerate’. Most of these were eventually burned or sent to auction in Switzerland. However, more than 650 of them were included in the ‘Degenerate Art’ exhibition that opened in Munich, in July 1937. Put together in less than two weeks, the exhibition presented modernist works alongside sarcastic commentaries, quotations from Hitler and art by the mentally ill. The price of the work was mockingly highlighted, with the slogan ‘paid for by the taxes of the German working people’.

‘Degenerate Art’ was originally intended to accompany the ‘Great German Art’ exhibition, which showcased work approved of by the Nazis. Ironically, it proved to be far more popular. Over two million visitors flocked to ‘Degenerate Art’, making it the best-attended exhibition of the century.

This display was prepared by students from the Royal College of Art MA curating course in collaboration with Matthew Gale, Tate.