During World War II, the relations between art and war can be articulated around two main issues. First, art (and, more generally, culture) found itself at the centre of an ideological war. Second, during World War II, many artists found themselves in the most difficult conditions (in an occupied country, in internment camps, in death camps) and their works are a testimony to a powerful "urge to create." Such creative impulse can be interpreted as the expression of self-preservation, a survival instinct in critical times.
Historical context
Throughout history, most representations of war depict military achievements and often show significant battle scenes. However, in the 19th century a “turn” in the visual representation of war became noticeable. Artists started to show the disastrous aspects of war, instead of its glorified events and protagonists.Laurence Bertrand-Dorléac (ed.), Les désastres de la guerre, 1800-2014, exh. cat., Lens, Musée du Louvre-Lens, Somogy, 2014; Laura Brandon, Art and War, London: IB Tauris, 2007, p. 26-35 Such a perspective is best exemplified by Francisco Goya's series, The Disasters of War (1810-1820, first published in 1863), and Otto Dix's portfolio, Der Krieg (published in 1924).During World War II, both traditions are present. For instance, Paul Nash's Battle of Britain (1941) represents a scene of aerial combat between British and German fighters over the English channel. On the other hand, André Fougeron's Street of Paris (1943) focuses on the impact of war and occupation by armed forces on civilians.
Art in Nazi Germany
WWII art
In totalitarian regimes (especially in Hitler’s Germany), the control of art and other cultural expressions was an integral part of the establishment of power. It reflects totalitarianism's aim to control every single aspect of society and the individuals’ lives. However, art and culture had a special importance because they have the power to influence people, and they embody the identity of a nation, a community, a group of people.
In Nazi Germany, Hitler's cultural politic was twofold. The first step was a “cultural cleansing”. German culture and society were said to be in decline because forces of decadence had taken over and corrupted it (it is the idea of the “enemy within”). The cultural cleansing was to be accompanied by a “rebirth” of German culture and society (Hitler had grand plans for several museums), which involved an exaltation of the “true spirit” of the German people in art. This officially sanctioned art was conservative and figurative, heavily inspired by Greco-Roman art. It was often grandiose and sentimental. In terms of contents, this art should represent and convey the regime's ideals.
In 1937 in Munich, two simultaneous events demonstrated the Nazis’ views about art. One exhibition displayed art that should be eliminated (“The Degenerate Art Exhibition”), while the other promoted, by contrast, the official aesthetic (“The Great German Art Exhibition”).
In Europe, other totalitarian regimes adopted a similar stance on art and encouraged or imposed an official aesthetic, which was a form of Realism. Here Realism refers to a representational, mimetic style, and not to an art deprived of idealization. Such style was anchored in a prestigious tradition – popular, easy to understand, and thus practical for propaganda aims.
It was clear in Stalin’s Soviet Union, where diversity in the arts was proscribed and “Socialist Realism” was instituted as the official style. Modern art was banned as being decadent, bourgeois and elitist. The comparison of sculptures placed by national pavilions during the 1937 International Exhibition in Paris is revealing. The exhibition was dominated by the confrontation between Germany and the Soviet Union, with their imposing pavilions facing each other.Dawn Adès (et al.), Art and Power: Europe under the Dictators, 1930-1945, London: The South Bank Centre, 1995 On one side, Josef Thorak's sculptures were displayed by the German pavilion's entrance. And on the other, Vera Mukhina’s sculpture, Worker and Kolkhoz Woman, was placed on top of the Soviet pavilion.
Degenerate art
The term “degenerate” was used in connection with the idea that modern artists and their art were compromising the purity of the German race. They were presented as elements of “racial impurity,” “parasites,” causing a deterioration of German society. These decadent and “degenerate” forces had to be eradicated. Cultural actors who were labelled “un-German” by the regime were persecuted: they were fired from their teaching positions, artworks were removed from museums, books were burnt. All artists who did not fall in line with the party's ideology (above all Jewish and Communist artists) were “un-German.”
The Degenerate Art Exhibition (Munich, 19 July-30 Nov. 1937) was made out of works confiscated in German museums. The works were placed in unflattering ways, with derogatory comments and slogans painted around them (“Nature as seen by sick minds”, “Deliberate sabotage of national defense”...). The aim was to convince visitors that modern art was an attack on the German people. Mostly, these works of art were Expressionist, abstract or made by Jewish and Leftist artists. The exhibition was displayed in several German and Austrian cities. Subsequently, most of the artworks were either destroyed or sold.
Modern art could not fall in line with the Nazi values and taste for several reasons: its constant innovation and change its independency and freedom its cosmopolitanism and reticence to profess any type of nationalist allegiance its ambiguity and its lack of easily understandable and definitive meaning its rejection and deconstruction of the mimetic tradition of representation
France was occupied by Nazi Germany from 22 June 1940 until early May 1945. An occupying power endeavours to normalise life as far as is possible since this optimises the maintenance of order and minimises the costs of occupation. The Germans decreed that life, including artistic life should resume as before (the war). There were exceptions. Jews were targeted, and their art collections confiscated. Some of this consisted of modern, degenerate art which was partly destroyed, although some was sold on the international art market. Masterpieces of European art were taken from these collectors and French museums and were sent to Germany.Lionel Richard, L’art et la guerre: Les artistes confrontés à la Seconde guerre mondiale, Paris, Flammarion, 1995, chapter 5, « Butins de guerre »; Laurence Bertand-Dorléac, Art of the Defeat. France 1940-1944, transl. from French by Jane Mary Todd, Getty Research Institute, 2008, p. 12 and following Known political opponents were also excluded and overtly political art was forbidden.
Persecuted artists
During the rise of Nazism, some artists had expressed their opposition. After the Nazis seized power, modern artists and those of Jewish ancestry were classed as degenerate. Any Jewish artists, or artists who were known opponents to the regime, were liable to imprisonment unless they conformed with the authorities’ view of what was "acceptable" in art. These artists were all in danger. Among those who chose to stay in Germany, some retreated into an “inner exile”, or “inner emigration"Lionel Richard, Le nazisme et la culture, éditions Complexe, 2006, p. 133 (“Innere Emigration”).
Artists had the choice of collaborating or resisting. But most people in such a predicament will normally find a middle way. Resistance was dangerous and unlikely to escape fierce punishment and while collaboration offered an easier path principled objection to it was a strong deterrent to many if not most. The other options were withdrawal, finding refuge abroad or, for many, to take the pragmatic course by simply continuing to work within the new restrictions. Hence artistic life and expression appeared light, carefree and frivolous, but was also lively.Cf. Alan Riding, And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris, Alfred A. Knopf, 2010; Laurence Bertand-Dorléac, Art of the Defeat. France 1940-1944, transl. from French by Jane Mary Todd, Getty Research Institute, 2008
Exiled artists The German artist John Heartfield (who had been part of Dada Berlin) is an example of an artist who expressed opposition. While Hitler's popularity was growing in Germany, he consistently produced photomontages that denounced the future dictator and his party. Most of them were published in Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung [AIZ, Workers' Illustrated Newspaper], and a lot of them appeared on the cover. His artworks were like visual weapons against Nazism, a counter-power. In them, he subverted Hitler's figure and Nazi symbols. Through powerful visual juxtapositions, he revealed Nazism manipulations and contradictions, and showed the truth about them. As soon as Hitler came to power in 1933, Heartfield had to flee, finding refuge first in Prague and then in the UK.
Otto Dix had been labelled as a “degenerate” artist. His works were removed from museums, he was fired from his teaching position, and he was forbidden to create anything political as well as to exhibit. He moved to the countryside and painted landscapes for the duration of the war.
Many artists chose to leave Germany. But their exile did not secure their position in the art world abroad. Their personal and artistic security depended on the laws and attitude of the country of exile. Some sought collaboration with others in exile, forming groups to exhibit, such as the Free German League of Culture founded in 1938 in London.“Arts in Exile”, virtual exhibition, the German Exile Archive 1933-1945 of the German National Library, 2012: http://kuenste-im-exil.de/KIE/Content/EN/Topics/freier-deutscher-kulturbund-gro%C3%9Fbritannien-en.html (last retrieved: 04-04-2015) One of their goals was to show that German culture and art were not to be equated with the cultural expressions sanctioned and produced by the Nazi regime.
Other artists went their own way, independently, often choosing apolitical subjects and sometimes refusing to participate in political events.Stéphanie Barron (ed.), Exiles + Emigrés, The Flight of European Artists from Hitler, exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1997 They considered art as a completely autonomous activity that should not be submitted to a political cause. On the contrary, someone like Oskar Kokoschka, who had until then rejected the idea that art should be useful and serve a cause, got involved in these groups when he emigrated to London in 1938. He created a series of political allegories, i.e. paintings in which he made comments on war politics.Cf. Stéphanie Barron (ed.), Exiles + Emigrés, The Flight of European Artists from Hitler, exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1997; Melody A. Maxted, “Envisioning Kokoschka: Considering the Artist's Political Allegories, 1939-1954”, in Montage, 2 (2008): 87-97
Artists in internment camps Once the war had commenced, everyone of Austro-German extraction was considered to be a security risk in Britain and became an enemy alien. They were interned in 1940, in camps on the Isle of Man. In Britain, however, there was considerable concern that many who had opposed the Nazi regime and escaped with their lives were now in detention in poor conditions. This led to a form of re-classification that led to many early releases in 1940, and by 1942 most of the internees had been released.
Inside the camps, some of the inmates were artists, musicians, and other intelligentsia, and they rebuilt as much cultural life as they could within the constraints of their imprisonment: the giving of lectures and concerts and the creation of artworks from materials like charcoal from burnt twigs, dyes from plants and the use of lino and newspaper. They also received materials from the artistic community in Britain.