Art Criticism - The State University of New York

These passages were meant to help guide the visitor through the exhibition.
Along with these quotes, some pieces were accompanied by short descrip­
, tions, for example:
This horror hung as a war memorial in the cathedral of Lubeck.
An insult to German womanhood.
The Ideal-cretin and whore.
Deliberate sabotage of national defense.
An insult to the German heroes of the Great War.
Nature as seen by a sick Mind.
Decadence exploited for literary and commercial 'purposes. 24
Arid over one doorway it was written "They had four years." Thi~ short statement
refers to the grace period given by Hitler for those in the cultural community
to adjust to the Nazi way of thinking while Hitler put ~ogether his cultural
machine. From this point on, that which had not been proven as healthy would
be eliminated. With the demonstration of the Degenerate Art exhibition and the
Great German Art Exhibition, there was no room for an alternative view. Already,
Goebbels had forbade art criticism:
I granted German critics four years after our assumption of power
to adapt themselves to National Socialist principles ... Since the
year 1936 has passed without any satisfactory improvement in art
criticism, I am herewith forbidding, from this day on, the conduct
of art criticism as it has been practiced to aate ... The art critic will
be replaced by the art editor .. .In the future only those art editors
will be allowed to report on art who approach the task with an
undefiled heart and National socialist convictions.25
To practice art criticism was to be critical of the art which was presented. And
as only healthy art was to be presented, there would be no place for the art
critic. What is more, to criticize the art that was presented was to be critical of
the work that presented the ideals Hitler had set for·the nation; therefore, to be
critical of art was, by extension, to be critical of Hitler. Goebbels would continue
to justify his ban on criticism through 1944, declaring that the ancients
had disregarded art critics and had judged works for themselves. 26 However,
the ban on criticism can also be seen as an attempt to mask the shallowness of
a heavily censored art meant for mass consumption.
The Great German Art Exhibition was meant to underscore the official
art's triumph over degenerate works as well as to demonstrate what the Haus
der Deutschen Kunst would house. The building was to be the first of a new
German artistic tradition, housing contemporary works to help further shape
.18
Art Criticism