Degenerate Artists Against Fascism

“From the moment they came to power, the Nazis launched a vicious campaign against art they designated ‘degenerate,’ a category that included all modernist art, especially abstract, Cubist, Expressionist, and Surrealist art. Thus Picasso, Matisse, Klee, Kandinsky, Kirchner, and even nineteenth-century Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists including Renoir, Degas, Cézanne and Van Gogh, were reviled as exponents of avant-garde art movements that were considered intellectual, elitist, foreign, and socialist-influenced. Jewish artists such as Marc Chagall were, of course, singled out for special condemnation. The Nazi government promoted a ‘true’ German art, continuing in the tradition of German nineteenth-century realistic genre painting, that upheld ‘respectable’ moral values and was easy to understand. Hitler’s inner circle also treasured certain Old Masters whom they regarded as expressing the true Aryan spirit, in particular Rembrandt, Cranach, and Vermeer. Museum directors and curators who refused to cooperate with the new anti-modernist collecting policies were dismissed.

3 protests

November 4, 2017, 1:00 pm

Chicago, IL

Nov 4 Trump/Pence Must Go! Chicago

We will gather in the streets and public squares of cities and towns across this country, at first many thousands declaring that this whole regime is illegitimate and that we will not stop until our single demand is met: This Nightmare Must End...

August 19, 2017, 9:00 am

Chicago, IL

Midwest Regional Conference

Whether you’ve marched in the streets with us, come to meetings, or you’re just getting involved, come to this one-day conference to dig into the mission of Refuse Fascism and make concrete plans to mobilize to drive out this fascist regime! We...

August 19, 2017, 10:00 am

Chicago, IL

Midwest Regional Conference

Whether you’ve marched in the streets with us, come to meetings, or you’re just getting involved, come to this one-day conference to grapple with the crossroads we find ourselves at and make plans for November 4, the launch of major protests...