Neue Galerie’s (1048 Fifth Ave.) illuminating exhibition features work included in the “Degenerate Art” spectacles, as well as that by others who were ridiculed, forbidden to work, and, in some cases, murdered by the regime. It also features major examples of approved Nazi art and such chilling artifacts as an official ledger from the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda listing “degenerate” art confiscated from public institutions — neatly ruled columns representing destroyed careers and shattered lives.
Keep reading R. C. Baker’s “The Work Hitler Despised and the One from Above His Fireplace.” “Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937” will be on view at the Neue Galerie through June 30.
Approved: Poster praising Hitler: "One People, One Reich, One Führer!"
Hitler judges.
Ledger of shattered lives.
Degenerate: Cover of Degenerate Art catalog.
Degenerate: Max Beckman's self-portrait.
Approved: The painting triptych hung over Hitler's fireplace.
The Nazis enjoy viewing what they couldn't stand.
Degenerate: Kirchner's "Group of Artists," 1926-27.
Installation view at the Neue Galerie.
Degenerate: Felix Nussbaum painted "The Damned" in 1943. A year later he was murdered in Auschwitz at the age of 39.
Degenerate: Max Beckmann's "Departure" begun in Frankfurt in 1932 after the Nazis had fired him from his professorship at the Frankfurt Art Academy. Finished in Berlin 1933-35.
Approved: Hitler hung "The Four Elements," painted by Adolf Ziegler in 1937, over his fireplace.
Degenerate: Lasar Segall's "The Eternal Wanderers," 1919.
Installation view at the Neue Galerie.
Degenerate: Paul Klee's "The Angler," from 1921.
Degenerate: Ernst Barlach's bronze sculpture from 1910, "The Berserker."
Degenerate: Oskar Kokoschka, "Poster with self portrait for Der Sturm Magazine," 1910.