Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression
The difficult case of painter Emil Nolde (1867-1956)
Aya Soika, Berlin

View a recording of the event HERE.

Lecture featuring
Aya Soika, Professor of Art History at Bard College Berlin, Germany
Moderated by
Rachel Stern, Executive Director of the Fritz Ascher Society in New York

The German Expressionist Emil Nolde is arguably one of most prominent victims of the Nazis’ art politics: No other painter had so many works confiscated, or was presented as prominently in the show „Degenerate Art,“ which opened in Munich in July 1937. Yet, his position differs fundamentally from that of many other artists who will be presented in the Fritz Ascher Society’s lecture series “From Flight to Fight”: Nolde was not just a victim but also a loyal supporter of the regime whose world views were radicalized by antisemitic propaganda in the early 1940s. Despite of the fact that his pictorial oeuvre was attacked by many traditionalists he did not give up hope that the Nazi leadership would ultimately acknowledge his role as a pioneer of ‘pure’ German art (which did not happen). On the occasion of the Nolde exhibition in Berlin’s National Gallery in 2019 the curators Aya Soika, Bernhard Fulda and Christian Ring took a fresh look at the ‘legendary’ artistic persona of Nolde, focussing on the complex dynamics between Nolde’s biography and his own writings, his art and his reception up until today. The findings presented in our show triggered an international public debate on how to deal with one of the icons of early twentieth century German Expressionism.

Aya Soika is professor of art history at Bard College Berlin. She was born and raised in Berlin, and gained a PhD from King’s College, Cambridge. She has published widely in the field of German Expressionism and is author of the catalogue raisonné of Max Pechstein’s oil paintings (2 vols, 2011), the monograph Max Pechstein The Rise and Fall of Expressionism (with Bernhard Fulda, 2012), a book on the Brücke artists during the First World War (2014) and one on Max and Lotte Pechstein’s journey to the South Seas (2016). Together with Bernhard Fulda and Christian Ring she has curated the exhibition on Emil Nolde during the Nazi period at Berlin’s National Gallery at Hamburger Bahnhof last year; and in parallel together with Meike Hoffmann and Lisa Marei Schmidt the show Die Brücke artists during the Nazi period at the Brücke Museum Berlin. On the occasion of the two exhibitions her research (and that of the above mentioned colleagues) was published in the accompanying catalogues.

The event is part of our monthly series
Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression

Sponsored by Allianz Partners.

Der schwierige Fall des Malers Emil Nolde (1867-1956)

Der deutsche Expressionist Emil Nolde ist wohl eines der prominentesten Opfer der Kunstpolitik der Nazis: Von keinem anderen Maler wurden so viele Werke beschlagnahmt, kein anderer wurde in der im Juli 1937 in München eröffneten Ausstellung „Entartete Kunst“ so prominent präsentiert. Seine Position unterscheidet sich grundlegend von der vieler anderer Künstler, die in der Vortragsreihe “From Flight to Fight” der Fritz Ascher Society vorgestellt werden: Nolde war nicht nur ein Opfer, sondern auch ein treuer Anhänger des Regimes, dessen Weltanschauung durch antisemitische  Propaganda in den frühen 1940er Jahren radikalisiert wurde. Trotz der Tatsache, dass seine Kunst von vielen Traditionalisten angegriffen wurde, gab er die Hoffnung nicht auf, dass die nationalsozialistische Führungsriege letztendlich seine Rolle als Pionier der “reinen” deutschen Kunst anerkennen würde (was nicht geschah). Anlässlich der Nolde-Ausstellung in der Berliner Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof im Jahr 2019 wurde ein neuer Blick auf Emil Nolde geworfen und die komplexe Dynamik zwischen Noldes Biografie und seinen eigenen Schriften, seiner Kunst und seiner Rezeption bis heute untersucht. Die in unserer Ausstellung präsentierten Ergebnisse lösten eine internationale öffentliche Debatte über den Umgang mit einer der Ikonen des deutschen Expressionismus des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts aus.