2 PARIS, 1937: COLONIAL QUESTIONS AND PEACE 123(among them works by Kandinsky, Otto Dix, Paul Klee, George Grosz,
Kurt Schwitters, Paul Klee and Max Beckmann), at the Munich exhibition
were presented in a ‘disordered and chaotic’ manner.^136 She also notes
that the exhibition indicated the price at which each work was purchased,
‘forgetting to specify that these sums were paid at the time of the great
inflation.’^137 Uwe Fleckner points out that the works were ‘accompanied
by demeaning comments, including “Paid for by the taxes of the German
working people...[and]...selected quotes, such as “massive sham.”’^138
Entry to the exhibition was free and it was visited by two million peo-
ple over a period of four months, the German press having successfully
incited the public to see the art for themselves through its provocative
reporting of the exhibition.^139 Fewer people visited the Great German
art exhibition which was held at the neighbouring House of German Art
(Haus der Deutschen Kunst) which presented ‘official art’ and celebrated
‘the triumph...over the products of “cultural bolshevism”’.^140 Hitler,
who had inspected Degenerate art exhibition during its preparation on
July 16, officiated at the opening of the Great German art exhibition
two days later. In the course of the opening ceremony, he denounced
Cubist, Dadaist, Futurist and Impressionist art as unGerman and its cre-
ators as ‘art phonies’ and ‘art abusers’. As if the Third Reich’s arts policy
required any further clarification, he announced that it was his ‘unwa-
vering decision to clean up the phrases in German artistic life just like
ones in other areas of political confusion...From now on we will fight an
unrelenting war against the last elements of our cultural demise.’^141
(^136) Portevin, ‘Purification esthétique,’ 39. Jeanne-Marie Portevin records that ‘the organ-
isers decided to circulate the [Degenerate art] exhibition, as far as April 1941, in thirteen
German and Austrian cities’ (ibid.).
(^137) Ibid.
(^138) Fleckner, ‘In the Twilight of Power: The Contradictions of Art Politics in National
Socialist Germany,’ 255. Portevin records that ‘the organisers decided to circulate the
[Degenerate art] exhibition, as far as April 1941, in thirteen German and Austrian cities.’
Portevin, ‘Purification esthétique,’ 38–9.
(^139) Strecker, ‘“Degenerate” Art,’ 275. See also Portevin, ‘Purification esthétique,’ 39.
(^140) Portevin, ‘Purification esthétique,’ 38–9. For visitor numbers to the Great German
art exhibition, see Strecker, ‘“Degenerate” Art,’ 275. For the exhibition’s location, see
Fleckner, ‘In the Twilight of Power: The Contradictions of Art Politics in National Socialist
Germany,’ 256.
(^141) Fleckner, ‘In the Twilight of Power: The Contradictions of Art Politics in National
Socialist Germany,’ 256, 260–61.