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An exploration of the artistic life of non-conformists under the Third Reich. Between 1933 and 1945, artistic creativity within the German Reich was almost totally under the control of the National Socialist state. Many artists emigrated. But what about the ones who remained in Germany? Under what social and economic conditions did they focus on their art and what options for activity were open to them? For artists who did not conform to the system, the years of National Socialism were an era of standstill and isolation. This volume examines the different ways fourteen artists dealt with ostracism, the lack of audience, and the absence of exchange under National Socialism, as well as what possibilities they had for selling and exhibiting their works and to what extent they adapted to the requirements of the Nazi regime.

Zwischen 1933 und 1945 wurde das künstlerische Schaffen im Deutschen Reich nahezu vollständig durch den nationalsozialistischen Staat kontrolliert. Viele Künstlerinnen und Künstler emigrierten. Wie aber erging es denjenigen, die in Deutschland blieben? Unter welchen sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Bedingungen widmeten sie sich ihrer Kunst und welche Handlungsräume standen ihnen offen?Für nicht systemkonforme Kunstschaffende gelten die Jahre des Nationalsozialismus als eine Epoche des Stillstands und der Isolation. Dieses pauschale Urteil hinterfragt der Band anhand von 14 Künstlerpersönlichkeiten und zeigt, wie unterschiedlich diese mit Ausgrenzung, fehlendem Publikum und Mangel an Austausch umgingen, welche Möglichkeiten zum Verkauf und zum Ausstellen ihnen offenstanden und inwieweit sie sich an die Forderungen des NS-Regimes anpassten. Rund 140 Gemälde, Skulpturen, Zeichnungen und Fotografien spiegeln dabei eindrucksvoll die Widersprüchlichkeit dieser Zeit. Künstler*innen: Willi Baumeister, Otto Dix, Hans Grundig, Lea Grundig, Hannah Höch, Werner Heldt, Marta Hoepffner, Karl Hofer, Edmund Kesting, Jeanne Mammen, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Franz Radziwill, Hans Uhlmann, Fritz Winter

Explores themes of home, exile, and Jewish identity in Chagall’s mid-career works. Marc Chagall (1887–1985) remains famous for his dreamy images and luminous use of color, but in the 1930s his palette darkened as he began to address intensifying anti-Semitism in Europe. World in Turmoil draws attention to lesser-known works the artist created during this period and into the 1940s, a time in which he visited Israel, escaped Nazi-occupied France, and found refuge in the United States. Showcasing more than one hundred paintings, works on paper, and costumes, the volume traces Chagall’s search for a pictorial language in the face of displacement and persecution. The pieces presented here include numerous self-portraits, art with allegorical and Biblical subjects, designs from Chagall’s exile in New York City, images of his hometown in present-day Belarus, and landmark paintings like The Falling Angel . The catalog for the Schirn Kunsthalle Frank­furt’s exhibition of the same name, Chagall offers a topical perspective on the oeuvre of one of the most important artists of the twentieth century.

This is the first publication to illuminate Neue Sachlichkeit against the backdrop of the Weimar Republic and National Socialism. Dix's works--including the key Metropolis triptych (1928-29), the great psychological portraits, and, last but not least, the landscapes with their hidden symbolism, painted during the years he spent at Lake Constance--form the starting point for this exploration of his oeuvre. They are placed in a context with works of art by George Grosz, Rudolf Schlichter, and Christian Schad, creating a new perspective on this crucial chapter in German art history.