Olaf Peters

The term "degenerate" was adopted by the Nazis as part of its campaign against modern art. Many works branded as such were seized from museums and private collections,and a three-year traveling exhibition crisscrossed Germany and Austria to put this art on display. Afterward most works were sold, lost, or presumed destroyed. Curator Olaf Peters talks about the exhibition “Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937” exhibition at the Neue Galerie. The show includes works by Max Beckmann, George Grosz, Ernst Luwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka, and Emil Nolde, among others. It includes approximately 50 paintings and sculptures, 30 works on paper, and several posters, as well as photographs and other memorabilia. One room will contrast so-called "Degenerate Art" with officially sanctioned art of the period, including works shown at the 1937 "Great German Art Exhibition" in Munich. The exhibition is on view at the Neue Galerie March 13–June 30, 2014.