Nazi art juxtaposed with Nazi-banned works in German exhibition
During Hitler's rule, art was often used as propaganda. A Bochum museum is showing some of these Nazi works - face-to-face with art that was banned by the Nazis.
Bodybuilding ideal versus reality
Arno Breker was Adolf Hitler's favorite artist. In the exhibition "Artige Kunst" in Bochum, his sculpture "Decathlete" is juxtaposed with "Ruhr District" by Conrad Felixmüller, who was defamed by the Nazis as "degenerate" in 1937. Art historian Max Imdahl described Breker's work as a "bodybuilding ideal." Felixmüller's, on the other hand, depicts haggard workers in the industrial Ruhr region.
Contradictory realities
A small boy walks past corpses that have been carelessly left on the side of the road. The picture was taken in 1945, just after the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated by the Americans. Next to the picture is a Nazi poster reading "Healthy Parents - Healthy Children" and a portrait of the "perfect" family by Hans Schmidt-Wiedenbrück.
Fake ideal
Paintings like "Working Maidens, Returning from the Field" by Leopold Schmutzler, "Plowing" by Paul Junghanns and "Farmer's Meal" by Herman Otto Hoyer show the deceptive, unrealistic imagery used by the Nazis. The simple life in rural settings was one of their favorite motifs in works that idealized pre-industrial agrarian society.
Heroes at sea
"Combat Zone on the High Seas" is what Claus Bergen named this painting. The waves are dangerously high as the military ship fights its way through the spray toward the bright sky. The clouds exaggerate the drama and romance of the scene. The message is clear: The ocean is not a combat zone, but a playground for heroes.
Crisis-free art
Stylistically speaking, Nazi art represented decades of artistic regression. While modern artists were using painting to question the depiction of reality, artists like Hermann Otto Hoyer were returning to rosy, distorted images of life. In "Farmer's Meal" from 1935, Hoyer painted one of the Nazis' favorite motifs: the German family.
Sugarcoated childhood
The photo "Captured Boy Soldier" by John Florea (left) and the painting "The Vacationers (on Vacation at Home)" by Paul-Mathias Padua hang side-by-side in the exhibition. Depicting soldiers as vacationers is pure mockery. The children listen intently as their father - in uniform - is probably telling war tales. Reality looked much different, as the photo of the young captured soldier shows.