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Artist: Emil Nolde
(1867-1956)
Style: German Expressionist
Emil Nolde
was a German Expressionist painted born in
Schleswig (a village near Nolde), Germany. His birth name was Emil Hassen
but he later changed it to Emil Nolde after the name of the town near
where he grew up in. Nolde was one of the first Expressionists and a
member of famed "Die Brücke" group. He is perhaps best singled out for his
heavy brushwork and dramatic use of color. Nolde was a supporter of the
Nazi party from the early 1920s. He had considered Expressionism to be a
distinctively Germanic style and shared viewpoints with high level Nazi
officials such as Joseph Goebbels. Ironically Adolph Hitler rejected all
forms of modern art as "degenerate art", and Nolde's work was officially
condemned by the Nazi party. Prior to that point in time Nolde had been a
highly regarded and famous artist in Germany. More then one thousand of
Nolde's works were removed from German museums and some of them were
included in the Degenerate Art exhibition of 1937. By law he was not even
permitted to paint. In personal protest he considered to do so and created
hundreds of watercolors which he titled the "Unpainted Pictures".
After World War II, Nolde was reaffirmed as a great German artist and even
received the German Order of Merit, Germany's highest civilian award.
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