{"id":6362,"date":"2008-10-15T18:33:33","date_gmt":"2008-10-16T02:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=6362"},"modified":"2008-10-15T18:38:09","modified_gmt":"2008-10-16T02:38:09","slug":"paintings-too-controversial-for-public-exhibition-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=6362","title":{"rendered":"Paintings Too Controversial For Public Exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Almost six minutes into the documentary The Rape of Europa: &quot;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.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>I find it fascinating in this era of anything goes that there are paintings too controversial to display. What if this is great art?<\/p>\n<p>Precisely because these paintings are controversial, I am desperate to see them. And I normally don&rsquo;t give a damn about art.<\/p>\n<p>I&rsquo;m using Google to find out everything I can about this.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usachcs.army.mil\/TACarchive\/ACwinspr02\/Mallard.htm\">From an Army Chaplaincy web site<\/a>: &quot;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.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>I can&rsquo;t find these pictures online. I need to see what I am not supposed to see. Where is this forbidden art?<\/p>\n<p>There&rsquo;s a new book out called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/ALBUM-DAMNED-SNAPSHOTS-THIRD-REICH\/dp\/0897335767\">Album of the Damned: Snapshots From The Third Reich<\/a>:<\/p>\n<div id=\"gallery-slideshow-image\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"410\" width=\"407\" class=\"gallery-slideshow-photo\" alt=\"Garson, who is working on two more books of World War II photos, says his close work with the images in &quot;Album of the Damned&quot; left him emotionally shaken.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br \/&gt;\n&lt;br&gt;&lt;br \/&gt;\n&quot;It's more horrifying,&quot; he says, &quot;to see the juxtaposition of their ordinariness and the horrors we know were committed.&quot;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/media\/photo\/2008-09\/42545099.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"gallery-slideshow-image\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"316\" width=\"500\" class=\"gallery-slideshow-photo\" alt=\"A very tall German spreads his arms in a light moment with his fellow Nazis.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br \/&gt;\n&lt;br&gt;&lt;br \/&gt;\nThese photographs are among 400 taken by German soldiers and other amateurs before and during the war in the new book &quot;Album of the Damned: Snapshots From the Third Reich.&quot; Author Paul Garson says, &quot;I wanted to put a face on the enemy.&quot;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/media\/photo\/2008-09\/42544829.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"list-right-new\" id=\"photo-next-right\"><a onclick=\"updatePhotoAjax('\/features\/lifestyle\/chi-naziphotos-080924-pg,0,4378558,photo-update.photogallery', 5, 3, 1,false); return false;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/features\/lifestyle\/chi-naziphotos-080924-pg,0,323286.photogallery\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"next\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/images\/components\/8x11_rightarrow.gif\" class=\"next\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- **************************************************END PHOTOGALLERY NAVIGATION ***************************************** --><\/p>\n<div id=\"photo-index\">Image 2 of 5<\/div>\n<div id=\"gallery-slideshow-image\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"410\" width=\"405\" class=\"gallery-slideshow-photo\" alt=\"A German officer holds a baby in his arms.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br \/&gt;\n&lt;br&gt;&lt;br \/&gt;\nGarson spent five years gathering these images that show the German soldiers and SS as family men, jolly comrades and prayerful churchgoers.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/media\/photo\/2008-09\/42544899.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"gallery-slideshow-image\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"327\" width=\"500\" class=\"gallery-slideshow-photo\" alt=\"Although none of the photos depict violence, Garson's commentary throughout the book provides a contrast to the images.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br \/&gt;\n&lt;br&gt;&lt;br \/&gt;\nAfter a number of photographs of German soldiers at mass and participating in religious activities, Garson notes, &quot;In 1939, of some 10,000 clergy in Poland, almost 20 percent died during the war at the hands of the Germans.&quot;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/media\/photo\/2008-09\/42545036.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"gallery-slideshow-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"410\" width=\"346\" class=\"gallery-slideshow-photo\" alt=\"After the war, the Holocaust and other massacres were blamed on Nazi anti-Semitism.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br \/&gt;\n&lt;br&gt;&lt;br \/&gt;\nBut, later, scholars have examined the extensive role that average Germans played in permitting and, in many cases, carrying out the killings.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br \/&gt;\n&lt;br&gt;&lt;br \/&gt;\n&quot;Beneath these pictures of the smiling faces lurked an evil, a nightmare,&quot; says Garson.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/media\/photo\/2008-09\/42545086.jpg\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Almost six minutes into the documentary The Rape of Europa: &quot;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.&quot; I &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=6362\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[194],"tags":[13581,13587,13585,12054,13580,13584,13586],"class_list":["post-6362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","tag-adolf-hitler","tag-adolph-hitler","tag-army-chaplaincy","tag-paintings","tag-public-exhibition","tag-rapt-crowd","tag-spiritual-vitality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6362"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6366,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6362\/revisions\/6366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}