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PEOPLE & ARTS Friday 12 april 2019

Berlin show explores Nolde's complex relationship with Nazis

By GEIR MOULSON mler's guest of honor at an
BERLIN (AP) — A Berlin mu- event in 1933, months af-
seum is opening an exhi- ter Adolf Hitler took power,
bition based on years of and positioned himself as
research into expression- a pioneer of pure "Ger-
ist painter Emil Nolde that man" art in a 1934 memoir.
chips away at the rem- In 1935, Essen's Museum
nants of his image as a vic- Folkwang acquired more
tim of the Nazi regime. than 450 graphic works by
Nolde, who died in 1956, Nolde.
was among the prominent In 1937, however, 48 Nolde
artists whose work was con- works were taken from Ger-
demned as "degenerate man museum collections to
art" under Nazi rule. But he become part of the Nazis'
was also a Nazi party mem- traveling "degenerate art"
ber and, as the exhibition exhibition. Nolde wrote to
presented Thursday at the propaganda minister Jo-
Hamburger Bahnhof mu- seph Goebbels asking him
seum shows, an anti-Semite to end the "defamation" of
and believer in Nazi ideol- his work and trumpeting his
ogy who held out hopes of "fight against the foreign
winning the regime's rec- infiltration of German art."
ognition even after he was People gather around the paintings ' Paradise Lost', right, and ' The Sinner', left, of Emil Nolde, dur- He did succeed in getting
banned in 1941 from exhib- ing the press preview of an exhibition about the artist at the Hamburger Bahnhof museum in Berlin, some works returned, and
iting, selling and publishing. Germany, Thursday, April 11, 2019. meanwhile produced a
The show also explores Nol- Associated Press series of "Viking Paintings"
de's elevation as an artistic more in tune with the tastes
pioneer and Nazi victim will have to be a different and curators Aya Soika Nolde's career, including of the time.
after World War II. It closes one," museum director Udo and Bernhard Fulda were anti-Semitic letters from the Nolde, whose Nazi party
with "Breakers," which hung Kittelmann told reporters. granted unrestricted ac- artist dating back to before membership has long been
for years in Chancellor An- "It is only now obvious how cess to archives containing World War I. It explores his known, was exonerated in
gela Merkel's office until systematically he ingrati- more than 25,000 docu- conviction that he was a the post-war denazification
Merkel recently returned it ated himself with Nazism ments at the Nolde Foun- misunderstood artistic ge- process, largely because of
to Berlin's museum author- and particularly its anti- dation in Seebuell, near the nius and his claim that he his ban from exhibiting. His
ity for the exhibition. Semitism." Danish border, where the was boycotted by a sup- work later found a place
"Our view of Nolde will have The exhibition is the result artist lived. posedly Jewish-dominated in the offices of Chancellor
to change, and our think- of a research project that The exhibition includes doc- art scene. Helmut Schmidt and, more
ing about this artistic figure started in 2013. Historians uments from throughout Nolde was Heinrich Him- recently, Merkel.q

Shovels & Rope keep folk tradition alive

By RAGAN CLARK tween one another with all around." respecting the convention "They shut my water off/ I've
Associated Press Trent's gravelly voice and "Hammer" is a stomping, of country to honor hard got a nasty cough/ But I'm
Shovels & Rope, "By Blood" Heart's coarse, yet salient fiddle-infused labor song, work and perseverance. out here every day with my
(Dualtone) vocals. hammer." With harmonica
The traditions of folk and On the bluegrass and folk solos, thundering drums and
bluegrass style may seem songwriting side, there's energetic riffs, "By Blood"
all but dead — gone are "Pretty Polly," ''Hammer," is an upbeat record that
the days of murder ballads, ''Mississippi Nuthin'" and still makes time for somber
tunes written on horseback "C'mon Utah!" All adhere to moments. The songwriting
and songs yearning for life the story-telling style of the on "Good Old Days" and
out west. Gone are those genre. "Carry Me Home" is honest
days, unless you are folk- "C'mon Utah!" is a battle cry and raw, from the former's
rock duo Shovels & Rope. on horseback during a jour- self-loathing ("I hate myself
"By Blood" is a 10-track al- ney out west. "Pretty Polly" a little more each day")
bum that stays true to the tells the tale of a woman he to the latter's admission of
heritage of folk and blue- couldn't let go and couldn't desperation ("I'm no good
grass music in theme and let stay, so he "buried pret- when I'm alone/ I'm burned
style, while adding Shovels ty Polly in a poor pathetic down to the bone").
& Rope's own spin and a grave." While not everyone can re-
rockabilly edge. "Mississippi Nuthin'" is a clev- late to riding horseback to
The duo of Cary Ann Hearst erly honest ballad about Colorado, there are themes
and Michael Trent display a a narrator down on luck, of struggle, desperation
tightness on the album that reminding a friend of what and determination on the
transcends typical band- they've been through to- album that are universal.
mate cohesion. Married gether. "Maybe I'm just the Times may be changing,
for a decade, the two are blue-collar version of you," This cover image released by Dualtone Music shows "By Blood," but Shovels & Rope prove
perfectly in step on every the duo sings, "but I've got a release by Shovels & Rope. that folk themes still have a
track, filling the space be- a plan that's gonna turn it Associated Press place.q