Almost six minutes into the documentary The Rape of Europa: "In its basement archives, the Center for Military History in Washington D.C. stores many Nazi paintings too controversial for public exhibition. Among them are early watercolors by Adolf Hitler."
I find it fascinating in this era of anything goes that there are paintings too controversial to display. What if this is great art?
Precisely because these paintings are controversial, I am desperate to see them. And I normally don’t give a damn about art.
I’m using Google to find out everything I can about this.
From an Army Chaplaincy web site: "Housed in the archives of the Center for Military History in Washington, DC is a particularly arresting painting. Measuring probably 7 feet by 12 feet, this oil shows a small gathering of folks in a quaint restaurant, a scene usually indicative of relaxed conviviality and enjoyment. In this scene, all eyes are excitedly fixed on a speaker who occupies most of the right side of the canvas. Light comes from right to left to create the effect that the speaker, who is leaning out into the rapt crowd, is drawing everyone in with his words. This captured World War II painting idealistically portrays the early days of the Nazi movement. Its riveting wordsmith, none other than Adolph Hitler, addresses a beer hall crowd hungry for social meaning and perhaps, spiritual vitality. Yet what is particularly striking in this work, more so than even its notorious subject or its stylized setting, is its borrowed title: In the Beginning Was the Word."
I can’t find these pictures online. I need to see what I am not supposed to see. Where is this forbidden art?
There’s a new book out called Album of the Damned: Snapshots From The Third Reich:
