Page 87 - Studio International - July August 1970

recently, Joseph Masheck. Art journalism during the Third Reich is taken as a criterion
generally improved in the newspapers and of quality, and the more appreciated the
slumped disastrously in the weeklies, with the artist, the more works of his were removed
honourable exception of New Society. And, from public collections and auctioned off
of course, there were the individual shows, abroad. At the same time, I suppose German
some of them of great merit, such as John writers will eventually not feel obliged to
Hoyland's; the painting of the year was un- stress how convinced all modern German
doubtedly Richard Smith's Riverfall. There artists were in their anti-Fascism, and no
were no real surprises or revelations. longer play down the nationalist overtones
It would probably be unfair to say that paint- which much of the work produced in Ger-
ing faltered during the year, for who knows many from 1900 onwards has. Surely the
what was happening in individual studios—in ambitions of the Brücke to revitalize German
John McLean's, for instance ? — but exhibited art, Kirchner's dislike of everything 'Latin'
work did seem rather less purposeful than for and his belief that the Gothic was primarily a
some time. This was perhaps less so with Nordic style, formed by the Northern 'soul'.
sculpture, the creation of environments, and are quite clear in this respect, and it may be
allied activities. Anthony Caro's retrospective such nationalist implications which have
made him look old, and Charles Harrison's persuaded German writers since the war to
`When Attitudes become Form', an exhibi- devalue the contribution of the Dresden
tion which the authors frankly describe as group in favour of the more liberal and more
being of 'outstanding dreariness', solidified internationally biased Blaue Reiter painters.
new feelings about art as activity rather than Emil Nolde, for eighteen months an uneasy
product. Here is an emergent sense for a member of Die Brücke, is another case in
democratic rather than hieratic art which we point, and the last time I mentioned in the
can all applaud. Indeed, the most significant pages of this journal that this splendid painter
activities of the year may well turn out to be was actually a member of the Nazi party a
those of the Stockwell sculptors and the letter arrived advising me to retract the
SPACE artists in St Katharine Docks, their filthy libel and put the record straight. But
significance being not in what they do but the fact that Nolde was one of the first
how they do it. Sculpture in the open, or at members of the party in Schleswig-Holstein
any rate in its own space, had a goodish time, puts his artistic theories in proper perspective,
Timothy Drever and Peter Joseph pre- and to mention his political affiliations is to
dominating, and the Midland Group Gallery help explain some aspects of his work more
got outside itself to place sculpture all over the fully and if it condemns him at all, does so
centre of Nottingham, Tim Threlfall looking only for his political naiveté. And how many
particularly stately in Slab Square. of us are free of that?
However, all this talk about important events German critics still find it difficult to accept
is quite clearly a part of the art world's that Nolde was a card-carrying Nazi until he
publicity machine, and as such must be was expelled from the party, condemned as
regarded as the work of the devil; and I know degenerate and forbidden to paint, and prefer
of many artists who would spit in the beer of not to mention this side of his career. Martin
anyone who tried to pretend that this is what Urban, in his rather sketchy introduction to
really mattered. They would be right to do so, what is otherwise a beautiful book, is mealy-
and it's very encouraging to find that this mouthed when he comes to the sensitive spot.
book now has a sensible introduction which `Nolde', Dr Urban writes, 'in his political
deals with the problems of the status of the innocence, had at first welcomed the "national
artist who's just an artist, not a lion of Bond awakening" : he felt it his duty to take part, to
Street. The authors also discuss the art help by opening people's eyes to art, a
colleges, rightly insisting on their enormous "neglected sense which must be revived"'.
importance in the creation of a new British That is all, and Dr Urban goes on to point
life-style, and rightly lamenting the fact that out how shocked Nolde was to find that he
so many people who have studied in them find had been lumped together with all the other
it difficult to earn a living. q progressive talents by the Nazis and that the
TIM HILTON temples of art had been cleansed of his
dangerous and degenerate painting.
Blood-and-soil landscapes I ought to stress that I am not trying here to
undermine Nolde's reputation. I just want to
Emil Nolde—Landscapes, Watercolours and Draw-
put the record straight. As time goes on, this
ings by Martin Urban. 100 pp. approx. 20 fascinating man, self-taught painter, brilliant
colour & 29 black & white illus. The Pall
colourist and original thinker who contributed
Mall Press. £7 10s.
so much to the expressionist movement, gains
I suppose the time will eventually come when increasing recognition abroad, and even the
Germans writing about modern German Tate Gallery, not renowned for its recognition
artists will no longer feel obliged to mention of Germany's role in the development of
whether an artist was banned by the Nazis modernism, now has one of Nolde's seascapes.
and condemned as degenerate. At the This growing appreciation of a painter of
moment, to have been forbidden to exhibit genius is as justified as it is, at least in this
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