Ashley C. Post 4

Ashley Cannaday

1) Authoritarian regimes try to control every aspect of their citizens’ lives, so that the government has all of the power. These rulers are threatened by art because all art has an underlying message that it is trying to convey to the viewer. As Hitler stated in his speech inaugurating the Great Exhibition of German Art, “The artist does not create for the artist, but… creates for the people.” This message can be very powerful and persuasive. Plato very much believed that art had the power to both destroy the state and promote the state (Republic Book X), and most authoritative thinkers would agree. Different forms of art present the viewer with different points of view, and different opinions. This is the last thing that leaders like Hitler want. Authoritarian regimes don’t want artists to fill the heads of the people with ideas that go against the regime, and possibly lead to rebellion.

2) The artistic movement I chose to explore was Expressionism, which spread across Europe around 1905. This movement was characterized by bright symbolic colors and art that aroused some kind of emotion and feelings. The aim of expressionist art was not to depict reality, but the artist’s thoughts and emotions. One of the major branches of the Expressionist movement, The Bridge, saw expressionist art as “a bridge to the future.” The Expressionist artist I chose to explore was Gustav Klimt. Most of Klimt’s paintings depict scenes that evoke love and passion. In many of his paintings, the human body tends to blend into the background, as is the case with one of his most famous paintings, The Kiss. The clothing of the person is usually the same shade or pattern of the surroundings. What is most noticeable usually are the faces of the people. Even in the few paintings where the whole human body is prominent, the faces are still given much more detail, and much more perfection. Klimt’s portrayal of the body is imperfect, showing no muscle definition, large back-sides, and flabby stomachs. By showing the body as imperfect, or by hiding it altogether, and emphasizing the human face, Klimt may be saying that beauty does not come from a god-like figure, but from an attractive and radiant face.

The Kiss by Gustav Klimt (Left) Mada Primavesi by Gustav Klimt (Right)

The Beethoven Frieze by Klimt

Mosse describes degeneracy as “the condition of those who had departed from the ‘normal’.” He further explains that it was used to describe “those who refused to conform to the moral dictates of society.” (Beauty without Sensuality Pg. 26) Degeneracy was used by Hitler to describe anything that went against what he considered normal, or any form of art that was different from the classical style of German art. Modern artists in Germany were seen as degenerate, showing lies that distorted reality and deceived the viewer ( Hitler Speech). To degenerate literally means to decay and become worse. In Nazi Germany, degenerates were seen as rotting the minds of the citizens with images and ideas that went against the Regime. The term degenerate was used to describe anyone or thing that went against National Socialism, or that simply didn’t match their definition of acceptable and normal to the last detail.

Hitler saw degeneracy in Gustav Klimt’s art because it didn’t depict the way the real world looks. He saw art like Klimt’s as lies and deceit, going so far as to say that “God denied the grace of truly artistic talent, and in its place has awarded them the gift of jabbering or deception.” ( Hitler Speech) Hitler thought that ideal “German Art” depicted reality as it truly was, as it was seen by the human eye. He did not approve of “meadows blue, skies green, clouds sulphur yellow,” as he states in his speech. He thought that possibly these artists saw things differently, and suffered from an eye disease. Also, the human bodies in Klimt’s paintings are not perfect and god-like, which deviates from Hitler’s ideal Aryan society. The main theme of Klimt’s paintings was often love, passion, and sensuality. Hitler disproved of this message in art because “of what it symbolized, namely, a revolt against respectability as a principle of unity and order- thus, the destruction of the immutable values upon which society supposedly rested.” (Beauty Pg. 25) He found these images threatening because the artists “try vehemently to foist these products of their misinterpretation upon the age we live in,” corrupting the German people, and causing them to stray from the Nazi, and therefore “German” way of life.

The body in art was the main source of degeneracy because Hitler was obsessed with creating the perfect Aryan race. Blemishes of any kind were simply not tolerated. Humans in art had to have the body of a Greek god. Hitler saw this degenerate are as “misrepresentations” of the body, and he didn’t want his perfect race to be depicted that way. He wanted the world to see Germans as superior in every way. In Hitler’s view, these Modern Artists showed “the present population of our nation only as rotten cretins,” devaluing the German race. To enforce his Nazi ideals to the public, he had to convince them that Germans must be flawless, and Modernist representation of the body threatened this.

George Mosse argued that beauty with sensuality is a threat to the social order and represents deviation from accepted norms. He states that it symbolizes “a revolt against respectability as a principle of unity and order.” (Beauty Pg. 25) Beauty with sensuality invokes passion and lust. It was thought that these feelings brought out the primitive animal instinct in the people, causing them to act uncontrollably (Beauty Pg. 25). Beauty without sensuality controlled passion, and allowed the German people to be viewed as civilized and superior.

3)

The image above depicts an Iraqi child who was mutilated as a result of a bombing during the ongoing war in Iraq. Many photos just like this can be seen on the websites of war protesters, alongside the latest Iraq body count statistics. There are so many emotions that this image arouses: disgust, sadness, anger, sympathy. This image can lead the viewer into believing that the war in Iraq should end, and that the ends do not, in this case, justify the means. There have been continuous debates in Washington regarding the war, and it is probably true that George W. Bush’s presidency has been viewed so negatively because of the destruction that his war has lead to.