Art imitates life, as someone once said. So, what does the art created, acquired, and seized under the Nazi regime, then, tell us about life 1930s and 40s Germany? This is the question at the forefront of The Black Years. Histories of a Collection. 1933-1945 at the Hamburger Bahnhof Contemporary Art Museum in Berlin. Inaugurating the museum’s new exhibition space, Neue Galerie, the show features works from the three above mentioned categories, including paintings and sculptures by Otto Dix, Karl Hofer, Hans Uhlmann, Pablo Picasso, Lyonel Feininger, and more.
The exhibit itself has been designed to mimic the sharp angles, shadows, and open doorways of Karl Hofer’s 1943 painting Die schwarzen Zimmer—“The Black Room.” In this haunting space, the pieces seem to exude the anxieties of the time, providing, in their own way, a window into how art functioned and was perceived during Hitler’s regime. The curators have prefaced this period of pieces with 15 Italian artworks to demonstrate the cultural exchange between Germany and Fascist Italy in 1932 and 1933—here are works by prominent painters such as Giorgio de Chico and Carlo Carrá.
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Otto Dix (1891–1969): Flandern, 1934–1936. Öl und Tempera auf Leinwand, 200 x 250 cm. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie / Jörg P. Anders. © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015
While these pieces are representative of a specific transnational cultural taste of the regime, the principal works demonstrate something closer to the core of the exhibition’s objective. As the press release explains, “Some works enjoyed the regime’s approval and were held up as examples of ‘national’ art, whereas others met with derision and were considered ‘degenerate.’ Many artists were persecuted by the regime and forced into exile, some were denied the right to exhibit their works, while others could count on state commissions to further their careers.” This line between approval and denial is later described as “fluid,” a seemlying arbitrary tolerance of some and censorship of others that nonetheless is an excellent, if not perverse, historical manifestation of the role of taste in the qualification of “good art.”
And yet, considering these questions of cultural censorship and control as strictly historical phenomena is problematic. Art influenced, acquired, and banned by harsh regimes is a contemporary issue as much as it is a historical one. What does it mean, for instance, for Vladmir Putin to suddenly be in possession of a 2 billion dollar art collection of da Vincis and Michelangelos? What does it tell us that Kim Jung Il penned manifestos on cinematic arts? The educational character of this show, however, seems to ask more than just recognizing and reporting on these cultural/political clashes. Examples of productive reactions to these issues in Iran and under Ayatollah Khamenei, both featured on our site in the past, seem to get closer to the broader objective of The Black Years.
Given the timing of the show—a show which hypothetically could have been produced any time within the past few decades— these connections are inevitable, if not explicit. In this way, the work of The Black Years extends beyond 1945, beyond Hitler, and represent an everpresent necessity to recognize and reflect on contemporary manifestations of much the same cultural “phenomena.”
Below, more selected pieces from the show.
Karl Kunz (1905–1971): Deutschland erwache!, 1942. Öl auf Sperrholz, 120 x 142 cm. Schenkung 2015 von Wolfgang Kunz, Berlin. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie. © Wolfgang Kunz
Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956): Teltow II, 1918. Öl auf Leinwand, 101 x 126 cm. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie / bpk / Klaus Göken. © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015
Erwin Hahs (1887–1970): Großes Requiem, 1944/1945. Öl auf Leinwand, 191 x 143 cm. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie / bpk / Jörg P. Anders. © Erbengemeinschaft Erwin Hahs
Hans Uhlmann (1900–1975): Kopf, 1935. Eisendraht, 37 x 12 x 23 cm. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie / bpk / Roman März. © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015
Röntgenbild von Erwin Hahs Großem Requiem, 1944/1945. © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie / Christoph Schmidt
The Black Years. Histories of a Collection. 1933-1945 runs until July 2016 at the Hamburger Bahnhof Contemporary Art Museum in Berlin. Learn more on the show’s page.
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