Daytimers with Elizabeth Prelinger

The Exhibition of Degenerate Art, Munich 1937: Lessons for Today

Temple member Elizabeth Prelinger will present a 45-minute slide and video lecture on the “Degenerate Art Exhibition,” which was first shown in Munich in 1937 before traveling around Germany. Organized by the propaganda wing of the Nazi party, the show looted the best works of modern art of the era from museums and private collections, labeling them as the creations of the mentally ill, Bolsheviks, and Jews. Liberal directors who had enriched Germany’s museums with these pieces were fired from their positions. The show marked an important stage in the Fascist claws on all means of cultural production in order to subjugate and manipulate the hearts and minds of the people. And this was just the beginning.

Sound familiar?

This is a hybrid program. Register to join in person or virtually.

Elizabeth Prelinger is Keyser Family Professor of Art History Emerita from Georgetown University. She has published and curated exhibitions on such artists as Edvard Munch, Käthe Kollwitz, and Paul Gauguin. Liz and her husband Steve Messner have been members of Temple Sinai for almost thirty years and their grandson has just started at the Nursery School.