CONFERENCE
14–16 August 2014
What battles were fought over art in Nazi Germany, 1933–1945?
How did artists respond to the Nazi regime?
How was art used as propaganda during the German occupation in Norway?
ART IN BATTLE takes as its starting-point the exhibition, ‘Kunst og ukunst’ [‘Art and
non-art’] in Oslo, Trondheim and Bergen in 1942–43. It was modelled on two different
types of official art shows in National Socialist Germany: The annual ‘Great German Art’
exhibitions from 1937 on, and the exhibitions ‘Entartete Kunst’ in Munich in 1937 and
1938. These exhibitions showcased official ideology under Hitler and were the principal
manifestations of a well-organised policy that could deploy art as a political instrument
from the centre of the Reich to its peripheries. By examining connections between ideology, politics and artistic expressions in these concrete manifestations, the conference
looks at how art can function in different ways in a contemporary context, and how art
is written into or excluded from history.
SPEAKERS
Line Daatland KODE
Gregory Maertz St. John’s University, New York
Erik Tonning University of Bergen
James Van Dyke University of Missouri
Peter Chametzky University of South Carolina
Christian Fuhrmeister Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich
Terje Emberland Holocaust Centre, University of Oslo
Despina Stratigakos University of Buffalo
Anita Kongssund National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo
Dag Solhjell Art Sociologist, Dr. philos.
Eirik Vassenden University of Bergen
RESPONDENT: Matthew Feldman Teesside University
Organised by KODE and the “Modernism and
Christianity” project, Department of Foreign
Languages, University of Bergen
Venue: Tårnsalen, KODE 4 (Lysverket)
Day tickets: NOK 250 / Full conference ticket: NOK 700
Lunch and refreshments included.
Please register at kodebergen.no
Contact e-mail: conference@kodebergen.no
The conference is open to the general public.
PROGRAMME
14 AUGUST
15 AUGUST
16 AUGUST
0930–1000 Coffee/refreshments and welcome
0930–1000 Coffee/refreshments
0930–1000 Coffee/refreshments
1000–1045 Line Daatland (KODE)
1000–1045
Peter Chametzky (University of South Carolina)
‘Art in Battle: The Staging of Power in Art Museums’
‘But is it Art? Baumeister, Breker, Ziegler,
1045–1115
Q&A with Daatland, chaired by Erik Tonning
Then and Now’
1115–1130
Break
1130–1215
Gregory Maertz (St. John’s University, New York)
1000–1045
‘Art and Non-Art: A Modern Iconoclasm’
1045–1115
Q&A with Anita Kongssund, chaired by Erik Tonning
Matthew Feldman
1115–1130
Break
1115–1130
Break
1130–1215
Dag Solhjell (Art Sociologist, Dr. philos.)
1130–1215
Christian Furhmeister
1045–1115
Q&A with Chametzky, chaired by
‘“Entartete Kunst” in Norway’s Wartime Nazi Regime:
‘War Art/Art War: Wehrmacht Modernism in the
Context of Official German and Norwegian Art
1215–1245
Anita Kongssund (National Museum, Oslo)
Policies in World War II’
(Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich)
Q&A with Gregory Maertz, chaired by Matthew
‘Art and Wartime National Socialist Foreign Cultural
Feldman
Aestetics, Nationalism or Art Policy Power-Struggles?
The Story of a Double Revenge’
1215–1245
Q&A with Solhjell, chaired by Matthew Feldman
Policy: Glimpses, Observations, Hypotheses’
1215–1245
Q&A with Fuhrmeister, chaired by Gregory Maertz
1245–1400
Lunch
1245–1400
Lunch
1400–1445
Eirik Vassenden (University of Bergen)
1400–1445
Terje Emberland (Holocaust Centre, University of Oslo)
1245–1400 Lunch
1400–1445
’“Norwegian Spirit and Will”: Vitalism as Radical
Erik Tonning (University of Bergen)
‘Apocalypse, Iconoclasm and Faith:
Nazi Art as Religious Art?’
‘The Teutonic Rage of the Ancient Timbers. The SS and
1445–1515
Q&A with Erik Tonning, chaired by Matthew Feldman
Norwegian Folk Culture’
1515–1530
Break
1530–1615
James Van Dyke (University of Missouri)
‘The Challenge of Nazi Art’
1615–1645
1445–1515
Q&A with Emberland, chaired by Erik Tonning
1515–1530
Break
1530–1615
Despina Stratigakos (University of Buffalo)
Q&A with Van Dyke, chaired by Gregory Maertz
‘Architectural Propaganda and the Nazis as Colonial
Builders in Norway’
1615–1645
Q&A with Stratigakos, chaired by Matthew Feldman
Aesthetic and Reactionary Ideology in Literature and
Art (1934–1942)’
1445–1515
Q&A with Vassenden, chaired by Matthew Feldman