The Worst Exhibition in the World: Degenerate Art 1937 : Lecture and Book Signing by Dr John-Paul Stonard

This talk tells the remarkable story of one of the most astonishing exhibitions of art ever mounted, Entartete Kunst, ('Degenerate Art'), held in the Hofgarten arcade in Munich in the summer of 1937. Just a few weeks earlier, the paintings and sculptures by modern German artists hung in the Hofgarten had been on view in some of the most prestigious museums in Germany. Now, as part of an extensive propaganda campaign of confiscation and defamation by the National Socialists, they were pilloried as the works of Jews and Bolsheviks, the enemies of the German Reich. Entartete Kunst remains one of the most visited exhibitions of all time, and shaped views of modern art well into the second half of the twentieth century. What can we learn by looking closely at the exhibition, comparing it with the exhibition of Nazi-approved art held simultaneously in Munich? Could Entartete Kunst happen again?

Biography 

John-Paul Stonard is a writer, art historian and curator. Originally trained as a painter, he studied art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art. His books include Creation: Art Since the Beginning, Germany Divided: Baselitz and his Generation and Fault Lines: Art in Germany 1945-55. He is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement and The Art Newspaper. 

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