GALLERY | The Degenerate Art of Nazi Germany – Part 1

GLOBAL. Entartete Kunst, or “Degenerate Art,” is a derogatory term coined in the 1920s in Nazi Germany to refer to modern art that went against National Socialism policies. In fact, an Entartete Kunst exhibition opened in Munich in 1937 as a way to publicly criticize works considered to be an insult to the country.

In artistic circles, Entartete Kunst has always been of interest to artists, curators and art historians. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London holds the only known copy of a document that lists more than 16,000 artworks that were confiscated from public institutions by the Nazi region between the years of 1937 and 1938.

This past month, the V&A released a two-volume copy of this inventory. In an Entartete Kunst series, ROOSTERGNN now showcases a selection of the actual artworks listed in the inventory as degenerate.

The Freie Universitat Berlin holds a database that contains more specific details about the fate of individual works.