DEGENERATE! Hitler’s War on Modern Art
October 30, 2024 to April 20, 2025.
About the exhibition
DEGENERATE! Hitler’s War on Modern Art is a traveling exhibition that explores how modern art was used as a tool to sway public opinion by the Nazi party. Part history, part art show, the exhibition features famous works labeled as “degenerate” by the regime. This world-renowned exhibition will be at the Maltz Museum from October 30, 2024 through April 20, 2025.
What You’ll Experience at this Exhibition
This exhibition includes six sections, which explore the time between the end of World War I and the Nazi’s rise to power. It explores a time when Germany’s Weimar Republic experienced a complex period marked by social, economic, and political disorder—and thriving cultural and artistic exploration. The Nazis rejected the modern, expressionist artwork surfacing during this period, confiscated the work (which he labeled “degenerate”), and manipulated the works to indoctrinate public opinion.
Visitors to this exhibition will interact with these famous works of modern art and be encouraged to consider the relationship between art, culture, and society.
Section #1: Styles and Techniques
Works feature multiple perspectives, non-realistic use of color, abstract compositions, nuanced meaning, technological innovations, and unidealized figurative depictions.
Section #2: Class Divisions, Weakness, and Protest of Military Authority
This section features diverse figurative depictions of workers and individuals experiencing social, emotional, and/or economic challenges or differences. It also includes depictions of WWI veterans with physical injuries and those affected by trauma.
Section #3: Urban and Rural Landscapes
Cityscapes, busy streets, and lively bars packed with mixed-class crowds are depicted in this section alongside compositions with transparent layers and sketched or unfinished elements. These are presented with works of abstractly rendered structures, unnatural elements, and unconventional uses of color.
Section #4: Offensive Depictions of Women
This part of the exhibition includes images of older women, showcasing signs of aging, worn facial expressions or body language, and non-Aryan features. Other works show images of sex workers, dancers, or depictions of women in various stages of undress.
Section #5: In Hitler’s Crosshairs
Pieces by Ludwig Meidner and Marc Chagall are in this section—two of the six Jewish artists shamed in the Entartete Kunst exhibition. Works vary in technique from woodcuts to watercolors and explore themes like primitivism, psychological trauma, and boredom.
Section #6: Responses
This section is unique to the Maltz Museum’s installation of DEGENERATE!, and showcases works by Hungarian artist, Jolan Gross-Bettelheim, who lived in Cleveland from 1925 to 1956. She had a successful career in the U.S. as a printmaker, producing works rich in social and political commentary.
Related Programs
Artistic Modernism in the Weimar Republic
Wednesday, November 20 , 2024
Professor Kenneth Ledford explores the revolutionary artistic movements that divided Germany before World War II.
Learn More
James Rorimer’s Mission to Save European Art from the Nazis
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Louis Rorimer discusses the book written by his father: Monuments Man: The Mission to Save Vermeers, Rembrandts, Da Vincis and More from the Nazis’ Grasp.
Learn More
Art, Modernism, Degeneration, and Jews
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Professor Kenneth Ledford explores the history behind the 1938 “Degenerate Art” (Entartete Kunst) exhibition in Munich and its echoes in the 21st century.
Learn More
The exhibition is locally supported by:
Expressionist Enthusiasts
Irving and Gloria Fine Foundation and Family, Harley and Rochelle Gross, Meisel & Pesses Family Foundation, Albert and Audrey Ratner, The Schwebel Family Foundation
Fauvism Fanatics
Michael Frank and Pat Snyder z”l, Rina Frankel – in memory of Sam Frankel z”l, Noreen Koppelman-Goldstein and Barry Goloboff, Julia and Larry Pollock, Susan and James Ratner, Wolfort Family Foundation, The Bennett and Donna Yanowitz Philanthropic Fund, Dan and Ellen Zelman Family Foundation
Impressionist Inamoratos
Mary Ann Corrigan-Davis, Carolyn Dauby Cole, Psy.D, Sharon Friedman , Donald and Lynn-Ann Gries, Charlotte and Armin Guggenheim, Erica Hartman-Horvitz and Richard Horvitz, Ethyl & Allyn Kendis Family Charitable Trust – Susan and James Kendis and Robert Kendis, Terri and Stuart Kline, Kol Israel Foundation, Rita and Bruce Mandel, The Shafran Family, Moira and Dr. Wulf Utian
Additional support from:
Friends of the Maltz Museum, Marilyn and Kenneth Oif, Nancy and Allan Pearl
This project is funded in part by the Ohio Holocaust and Genocide Memorial and Education Commission
DEGENERATE! Hitler’s War on Modern Art, an original exhibition created by and on loan from the Jewish Museum Milwaukee.
Image courtesy of Jewish Museum Milwaukee: No Title (Yellow, Red, Black, White Abstract), 1915, Wassily Kandinsky. Monograph. From the collection of Kevin and Meg Kinney.
