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Nazi Art describes the officially approved art produced in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. Upon becoming dictator in 1933, Adolf Hitler gave his personal artistic preference the force of law to a degree rarely known before. Only in Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union, where Socialist Realism had become the mandatory style, had a state shown such concern with regulation of the arts.〔Barron 1991, p.10〕 In the case of Germany, the model was to be classical Greek and Roman art, seen by Hitler as an art whose exterior form embodied an inner racial ideal.〔Grosshans 1983, p. 87〕 It was, furthermore, to be comprehensible to the average man.〔Richard Overy, ''The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia'', p. 335. ISBN 0-393-02030-4〕 This art was to be both heroic and romantic.〔 The Nazis viewed the culture of the Weimar period with disgust. Their response stemmed partly from conservative aesthetics and partly from their determination to use culture as propaganda.〔 The reason for this, as historian Henry Grosshans indicates, is that Hitler "saw Greek and Roman art as uncontaminated by Jewish influences. Modern art was (as ) an act of aesthetic violence by the Jews against the German spirit. Such was true to Hitler even though only Liebermann, Meidner, Freundlich, and Marc Chagall, among those who made significant contributions to the German modernist movement, were Jewish. But Hitler ... took upon himself the responsibility of deciding who, in matters of culture, thought and acted like a Jew."〔Grosshans 1983, p. 86〕 The supposedly "Jewish" nature of art that was indecipherable, distorted, or that represented "depraved" subject matter was explained through the concept of degeneracy, which held that distorted and corrupted art was a symptom of an inferior race. By propagating the theory of degenerate art, the Nazis combined their anti-Semitism with their drive to control the culture, thus consolidating public support for both campaigns.〔Barron 1991, p. 83〕 Their efforts in this regard were unquestionably aided by a popular hostility to Modernism that predated their movement.〔Frederic Spotts, ''Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics'', p. 161. ISBN 1-58567-345-5〕 The view that such art had reflected Germany's condition and moral bankruptcy was widespread, and many artists acted in a manner to overtly undermine or challenge popular values and morality.〔Richard Overy, ''The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia'', p. 358. ISBN 0-393-02030-4〕 In July 1937, two officially sponsored exhibitions opened in Munich: ''Entartete Kunst'', (the Degenerate Art Exhibition), displayed modern art in a deliberately chaotic installation accompanied by defamatory labels that encouraged the public to jeer; in contrast, the ''Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung'' (Great German art exhibition) made its premiere amid much pageantry. This exhibition, held at the palatial ''Haus der deutschen Kunst'' (House of German Art), displayed the work of officially approved artists such as Arno Breker and Adolf Wissel. "The audience entered the portals of the new museum, already dubbed "Palazzo Kitschi" and "Munich Art Terminal," to a stultifying display carefully limited to idealized German peasant families, commercial art nudes, and heroic war scenes, including not just a few works by jurist Ziegler himself." 〔Nicholas.(1995).p.20〕 "...The show was essentially a flop and attendance was low. Sales were even worse and Hitler ended up buying most of the works for the government."〔 At the end of four months ''Entartete Kunst'' had attracted over two million visitors, nearly three and a half times the number that visited the nearby ''Grosse deutsche Kunstausstellung''.〔Adam 1992, pp. 124-125〕 ==Historical background== The early twentieth century was characterized by startling changes in artistic styles. In the visual arts, such innovations as cubism, Dada and surrealism, following hot on the heels of Symbolism, post-Impressionism and Fauvism, were not universally appreciated. The majority of people in Germany, as elsewhere, did not care for the new art which many resented as elitist, morally suspect and too often incomprehensible.〔Adam 1992, p. 29〕 During recent years, Germany had become a major center of ''avant-garde'' art. It was the birthplace of Expressionism in painting and sculpture, the atonal musical compositions of Arnold Schoenberg, and the jazz-influenced work of Paul Hindemith and Kurt Weill. Robert Wiene's'' The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' and Fritz Lang's ''Metropolis'' brought expressionism to cinema. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nazi Art」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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