Processed Art
Processed ArtThe Nazi and Soviet political movements were undoubtedly among the vilest developments of the 20th century. More than three million works of art were plundered by the Nazi regime during its reign. Their ambitions as art collectors were motivated by show of power as they confiscated all of the art in the Reich that conflicted with the Party's ideology and concept of art. They inspired works of art, which have the ability to expose some of the best and worst that art can achieve. Because they involved such stark contrasts of good and evil, they offer excellent opportunities to discuss what aspects of art are good and bad, what art can achieve at its best and what it can destroy at its worst. My goal in this paper is not so much to present all of the best or worst of the art from these movements, but to provide concrete material for discussions regarding the nature and purpose of art.
Arno Breker, Nazi, was, in a certain sense, both the best and the worst of the Nazi artists. His technique was excellent, and his choice of subjects, poses and theme were outstanding. On the other hand, he was much more directly and effectively a supporter of the Nazi cause. Had his sculpture been ugly, ambiguous in meaning, poorly executed or less directly associated with Nazi militarism, the negative effects on the world of his sculpture would have been considerably lessened. In a certain sense, Breker uses his numerous "naked men with swords" to unite the notions of health, strength, competition, collective action and willingness to sacrifice the self for the common good seen in many other Nazi works with explicit glorification of militarism. The pair of statures The Party and The Army stood outside the entrance of Hitler's Reich Chancellery. Like Breker's other sculptures, they are both strongly and clearly expressive, and are also an idealization of some of the most aggressive and totalitarian themes in Nazi art.
Another Nazi, Adolf Wissel, painted in a certain class of folk art. The themes running through such works of art as Farm Family from Kahlenberg are the virtues of the simple, natural life, living close to the land, and using muscular power to turn the land into a healthy living. This theme is often portrayed in the more recent primitivist art of the environmentalist movement except that it tends to promote a more ethereal or surreal notion of what the "simple life" might entail. More likely than not because rural Germans had some experience with that lifestyle, they are able to idealize it a bit more.
The artists of this time were in essence coming down to the level of the peasants, and telling them that they were better than the fancy intellectuals with their idealistic theories and sky-high ideals. Their goal was to associate the ideals of health, family, motherhood and so on...
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