Calls for Nazi art in Munich to be taken down
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Loading... - Kielo Toivonen
- 13 Oct 2022
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It's an eye-catching work, simply because of its size: The three-part painting "Four Elements" by Adolf Ziegler depicts four naked blonde women, who are said to embody the four elements of fire, water, desire and earth. It hangs in the newly curated permanent exhibition at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, one of Germany's major art museums.
Now, German artist Georg Baselitz has written a letter speaking out against hanging the painting and calling for it to be removed from public display. "The triptych is insulting to its surroundings!" said Baselitz, one of the world's most influential living artists. The letter was first reported qon by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.
"It is shocking that Nazi propaganda is possible in this grubby way in a Munich museum," Baselitz wrote to the general director of the Bavarian State Painting Collections, Bernhard Maaz, and to Bavaria's art minister, Markus Blume. The 84-year-old artist said it was "unbearable" that works by artists who were persecuted by the Nazis hang next to the work of an artist responsible for their persecution.
Who was Adolf Ziegler?
According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the triptych in the museum is identified as one of the "best-known works of National Socialist art production."
Adolf Ziegler was an important Nazi functionary. From 1936 to 1943, he served as president of the Reich Chamber of Culture. His task was to bring art in Germany into line: Jewish artists and those who created art that did not please the Nazis were banned from working. Their works were labeled "degenerate" and were confiscated or destroyed.
According to Jürgen Kaumkötter, director of the Center for Persecuted Arts in Solingen, it was Adolf Ziegler who organized the major Nazi exhibition "Degenerate Art." Kaumkötter describes the Nazi functionary as one of the main perpetrators in persecuting so-called "degenerate artists."
What was so-called 'degenerate art'?
Adolf Hitler declared art a top priority, having been a painter himself for several years. He liked works of Romanticism with their bucolic depictions of German landscapes. He detested Modern art, on the other hand, including works of surrealism, expressionism and even cubism by the likes of Pablo Picasso. Read More...
