NOLDE IN THE NEWS

Ironic that the most recent restitution cases surround this painter so famous for style, albeit infamous for his connection to Nazi ideals.
Emil Nolde was a Nazi.
Nolde was a supporter of the Nazi party from the early 1920s, having become a member of its Danish section. He expressed negative opinions about Jewish artists, and considered Expressionism to be a distinctively Germanic style.

Confoundingly, Emil Nolde’s avant garde modern work was coveted by many Jewish art collectors during the early twentieth century in Europe. Dr. Fred Julius of Hamburg was one. His two British- based heirs have lodged a claim against the city of Linz which holds 1915 painting (above) called "May Meadow" 

Linz, Austria is where Adolph Hitler planned to open a mega cultural museum.  Maybe it is fitting that the nice, new civic modern art museum would get tarnished by the afterglow of Hitler's art policy.   The Lentos Art Museum knowingly bought it in 1953 from another collector known to trade in artworks seized by the Nazis.
 

Comments

[Hels]

Many thanks for the link. I knew a great deal about Emil Nolde's life and times, but history is constantly being rewritten, especially immediately after the defeat of Nazism.

Hels
Art and Architecture, mainly