Immediately after seizing power the National Socialists began to bring the art scene ‘into line’, along with other areas of life. Innumerable artists were proscribed as ‘degenerate’. Works of modern art were systematically removed from German museums. In the touring exhibition Degenerate Art they were subject to mockery and criticism, particularly those of the expressionists.
Vlaminck, who was formally close to German expressionism, was also affected by the ‘degenerate art’ campaign. Works by him in museums in Düsseldorf, Essen, Hamburg and Wuppertal were confiscated – but they were not shown in the exhibition Degenerate Art.
Three of his paintings, however, were presented in Contemporary French Art in Berlin. The exhibition, which opened around three months before Degenerate Art, was intended to signal to French artists the good will of the German government.
