(Radio Iowa) – The Art Center of Burlington will host a one-day exhibit this week that will feature reproductions of artwork that was considered degenerate and banned by the Nazi Party in Germany in the 1930s. Art center executive director Elizabeth Pappas says the Nazis called these artists subversive or mentally ill, and they staged shame exhibits to publicly humiliate the artists and denounce their work.
“Hopefully this is a lesson in the dangers of censorship,” Pappas says, “and how essential freedom of expression is, and how important it is to protect that.” The movement culminated in 1937 with what the Nazis called a degenerate art exhibit in Munich. Pappas says they slapped the art onto the walls, sometimes without frames, and mocked it. Then, the Great House of German Art was opened across the street to show what was considered to be perfect German art.
“But ironically,” Pappas says, “the degenerate art exhibition was the most popular exhibition that had ever happened in Europe at the time.” The Burlington exhibit will also include music from the era, featuring a band playing the gypsy jazz of Belgian guitarist and composer Django Reinhardt. Ed Mansheim will play Reinhardt’s guitar parts. Mansheim says Reinhardt is one of the all-time greats and deserves to be as well-known as other jazz legends of that era. He says he looks forward to seeing people become immersed in the artwork and music.
“You’ll feel like you’re there at the time,” Mansheim says. “It might take you back to actually sense those feelings that maybe these artists had, maybe these musicians had.” The art exhibit in southeast Iowa will include a list of the approximately 16-thousand artworks that were banned by the Nazis. Elizabeth Pappas’ husband and band leader Daniel Pappas says the events of nearly a century ago remain relevant today. He points to book bans and the dismantling of the humanities in education, and hopes this exhibit provokes thought.
“I think it’s pretty easy to draw parallels if you would like to,” Pappas says, “but we don’t want to draw those parallels for people. We would like for people to come and draw them themselves, and come up with whatever conclusions they come up with.” Elizabeth Pappas says the event will emphasize that art matters, and she says the artists who were labeled as degenerate back then are now considered to be on the right side of history.
The exhibit will be open from 10 A-M to 4 P-M on Friday, while the music starts at 8 P-M. Admission is free to the art and music.
