I went to the Alte Nationalgalerie last week, thinking I would see more of Katharina Grosse’s work as a part of The Scharf Collection, but that exhibit, come to find out, doesn’t start until October 24. As an alternative, I went down the hall and saw “In Sight! Lovis Corinth, the Nationalgalerie and the ‘Degenerate Art’ Campaign,” a small exhibit of Lovis Corinth’s work, deemed as “degenerate” by the Nazi party. The exhibit was an example how the National Socialist’s campaign to “correct” aesthetics in Germany impacted artists, galleries, collectors and museums. The government tried to define what should be considered “art” by confiscating thousands of art pieces, in order to erase modern art from public view. Interestingly, if the government determined that the “degenerate” art had any monetary value within the international art market, the “degenerate” pieces were sold, and the proceeds funneled into the war effort.

Even though Lovis Corinth died in 1925, eight years before the Nazis took power, the party deemed Corinth’s work as degenerate, and removed 359 of his pieces from public collections. Seven of his paintings were included in the infamous 1937 “Degenerate Art Exhibition” in Munich, attracting over 2 million visitors. Top artists, including Georg Grosz, Paul Klee, Franz Marc, Emil Nolde, and Otto Dix were included in the exhibit, whose purpose was to denigrate modern artists.

The “tentantive” quality of Corinth’s brushwork is not due to a lack of confidence, but is an indication of an exploring eye and hand. The paintings feel open with plenty of oxygen to allow the viewer to move through the compositions without being nailed down visually. If Corinth’s painting style had been tighter, then the pieces would fall in line with thousands of other 19 century works. But, his paintings end up landing somewhere between Impressionism and Expressionism.

The exhibit runs through November 2, 2025.