Blog Post 1: Important Exhibitions

 I think of all the exhibitions mentioned in the slide deck, the one that struck me the most was Hitler’s Degenerate Art exhibition. I was actually able to go to an exhibit at The Neue Galerie in New York that was based on it a couple years ago. It was called Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany. It was set up pretty much the same as the original exhibition, even with a lot of the same pieces! In addition it had photos and film from the original exhibition. It was and interesting subversion of the original exhibition, at least for me, because instead of being shocked by what was being deemed “degenerate” I was more tickled at what the Nazi’s found ideal! There was even a picture or two that hung in Hitler’s own home. The Nazi-approved art was so non-compelling compared to everything they said was “bad”.  

In reflecting on some of the motivations for the exhibition, it occurred to me that some patterns of behavior today, specifically online, could be considered similar. I’ve observed from being on social media that people feel much more empowered to make blanket statements on what kinds of art are “acceptable” and “not acceptable”. Now obviously, Hitler's exhibition was incredibly racist, xenophobic, sexist etc, and that isn’t necessarily what’s motivating people today (at least, not in all cases.) I dunno, maybe it’s a stretch, since people have always made blanket statements about good and bad art. It could be that social media’s tendency to escalate disagreements very quickly, an opinion on art instantly becomes a political statement of some kind, even if it wasn’t intended to be. On the other hand you could argue that any blanket statement about art is political no matter what the intent, Hitler’s exhibition was pure propaganda after all.