Strange Bedfellows: The Modernists and the Nazi’s

Jan Braesler | Los Angeles Review of Books | 8th February 2015

Utilizing newly available information, this book describes 10 case studies of artists who wanted to find an accommodation with the Nazi’s. Many Modernists were optimistic of doing this early in the Nazi reign, but by 1937 they were deemed to be ‘Degenerates’. Others faced worse. Besides adding to the cultural history of that era, these (mostly non-judgmental) stories illustrate the sometimes unhealthy alliance between artists and power. This is a story that, at a general level, still has relevance today.