Adolf Hitler was a genuine
patron of the arts, with a love for painting and architecture, but only
a patron of those arts of which he approved. Having been a painter in
his youth, Hitler considered himself the supreme critic of what was,
and was not, proper art.
Modern "degenerate" art was definitely out so
to promote "proper" art Hitler had the Haus der Deutschen Kunst built
in Munich, to be the scene of special yearly
exhibits. Hitler placed his photographer Heinrich Hoffmann, along with
director Karl Kolb, in charge of choosing the art works for these
annual exhibitions.
The annual exhibitions featured military scenes, portraits of the
Führer and other Nazi leaders, German landscapes and places associated
with Hitler's youth, nudes, and scenes promoting German traditions,
particularly "folk-art" agricultural views. The first exhibit was in
1937, at the opening of the
building, and the annual shows continued through 1944. In many cases,
images on museum catalogs and postcards are all that
survive of the artwork produced during the Third Reich, many of the
works themselves having been lost or destroyed.
The American military authorities confiscated much of this
art at the end of World War II. Many works were returned to Germany in
the 1980s, where they remain in storage, not accessible to the general
public. The U.S. Army War Art collection in Washington retains several
of the confiscated works, principally those showing portraits of Hitler
and other Nazi leaders, and Nazi party subjects. A very few former HDK
works are in private hands today.
Source:
www.thirdreichruins.com
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