This course investigates the art and architecture that the Nazis promoted, demeaned, and plundered. We will explore painting, sculpture, and architecture produced for the Third Reich, including Albert Speer's urban designs and architectural plans for Berlin. The Nazi denunciation of modern art as "insane" "Jewish," and "Negro" underlies the choices of works for the 1937, "Degenerate Art Exhibition," held in Munich, which included such artists as Chagall, Kirchner, Kandinsky, Klee, and Dix. We will study this exhibition and discuss Nazi art theory and its relation to the ideologies of racial purity. Another topic of interest will be the plundering of art and Hitler's plans for a museum in Linz and Prague. Ethical issues of art restitution will be another focus of this course. We will take 2 field trips to local museums to study German "degenerate" art.

Category for Concentration Distributions: D. Europe and the U.S., 4. Modern and Contemporary