Klimt and The Nazi Aesthetic || Great Art Cities: Vienna

In 1937, the Nazis held an exhibition of 650 modern artworks that they had stolen from museums and private collectors. It was part of the Nazi’s culture wars, designed to inflame the public and it was called “The Degenerate Art Exhibition.”

Artists considered degenerate by the Nazis included Paul Klee, Otto Dix, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, and Piet Mondrian, and Egon Schiele.

But surprisingly one artist was missing…Gustav Klimt, who at one time or another had been described as morally questionable, obscene or even pornographic, and was friends with Jewish patrons, intellectuals and artists.

So why did the Nazis leave him out of their modern art purge?