In 2024 and 2025 we will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. In the Netherlands, we regained our freedom then, but in many places around the world war is still being waged today.
In a thematic presentation of the Fundatie Collection, we show the impact of World War II on art through two aspects: the freedom of art and the freedom of people. The exhibition focuses on the art politics of the Nazis on the one hand and on the life of Paul Citroen in hiding during the Second World War on the other.
Entartete Kunst
In Nazi Germany, the term Entartete Kunst was used to designate art that did not conform to Hitler's conceptions of art. This included almost all art that deviated from a naturalistic representation, in other words the entire avant-garde of the time, such as abstract art and expressionism. In 1937, a large travelling exhibition began in Munich with 650 works that were seen as examples of Entartete Kunst. All the works were placed interchangeably and the purchase price was listed with each work, along with the museum that had acquired the work and the year of purchase. In the exhibition rooms, slogans were written on the walls mocking the art on display. All with the aim of arousing public disgust for these works and the large sums spent on them. At the same time, in Munich in 1937, the Große deutsche Kunstausstellung showed art that did appeal to the Nazis.
After Munich, the Entartete Kunst exhibition travelled around Germany and Austria for four years in various formations. Eventually, about three million people saw the exhibition. After this, the works were sold, exchanged or destroyed. Artists labelled as 'entartet', whose works were shown at the 1937 exhibition, included Käthe Kollwitz, Max Pechstein and Otto Dix, whose works are in Museum de Fundatie's collection. We will introduce our audience to the works of these creators, each of whom actually caused major and important changes in art.
Paul Citroen
Paul Citroen is one of the most important makers in the Overijssel collection, which is on long-term loan at Museum de Fundatie. In addition to the works Citroen collected from other makers, this also includes a large number of his own works, from his estate. For Paul Citroen, who was of Jewish descent, the Second World War was a very difficult period in his life. In 1943, he went into hiding in Wassenaar. In early 1944, he moved to another hiding address in Laren. He did continue to work. As he was alone a lot, these mainly became self-portraits. After D-Day in June 1944, he joined his wife Lien and daughter Paulien, who were in hiding at Henri Methorst's publishing house De Driehoek in 's Graveland.
The Overijssel Province collection contains several works, portraits, self-portraits and landscapes, which Paul Citroen made while in hiding.
Art bunker
During World War II, an art bunker was built on the initiative of a number of museum to protect national art from the violence of war. This bunker is now used by Museum de Fundatie as a depot. Head of collections Kristian Garssen leads us around the bunker in this video.
