London 1938 - Defending 'degenerate' Art

by Martin Faass Lucy Wasensteiner

264 pages, Hardcover

Published July 1, 2018

Reviews

[Mary Warnement · Rating 4 out of 5]

This bilingual collection of essays and primary sources about a 1938 exhibition in London of modern German art that had been declared "degenerate" by Hitler and his supporters caught my eye. I liked that different illustrations accompanied the same articles. It took extra time to select other images. I wonder if some readers wouldn't have noticed, though, and not taken the time to flip through the repeated article in the other language. Some of the paintings were exhibited at the Max Liebermann villa, organized by Lucy Wasensteiner. She has a follow up book on the topic appearing. I enjoyed the photos of the original 1938 show and learning about the photographer. The writers concede honestly that the original intent of supporting the banned artists with sales did not occur. I was so interested I ordered an edition of the Pelican paperback that came out with the show. The volume was extensive but it seemed to end abruptly with Calvocoressi's essay.