Herr Hitler's animadversions on art as displayed in Nazified Germany will come like a blow in the solar plexus to those who have hitherto regarded Art as being as international as science. Modern Germany, according to Der Fuehrer, prides itself on having eliminated all the crazes of those who would take short cuts to real artistic achievement, and to have substituted something which has a political background and reflects the developments of the day. The latter is, of course, a universally recognized function of Art, but the former will Certainly not appeal to that large class who believe that Art in itself is superior to the machinations of politicians and does nothing but suffer when it is involved in them. The Old maxim that "Art is long and life is short" is no longer honoured in Germany, for there Art must conform to the regime in power, and must necessarily have no longer life than its sponsors. So far as some of the effects of Herr Hitler's state control of Art are concerned, there must be a large degree of sympathy. Quite recently there has been a lively controversy over Jacob Epstein's Adam—a monstrosity which has been greeted with songs of praise by those whose dentistry will not apparently stand the strain of much gnashing of teeth, and by grinding sounds from those whose bridges can bear the wear and tear. Unconsciously, Mr. Epstein seems to have provided a powerful argument in favour of the Art policy of the regime which is oppressing his race, But Mr. Epstein must be put down as an exception. His art smacks of the post-absinthe school which must not be taken too seriously. Herr Hitlers theories of Art, however, must of necessity be taken most seriously by those who are immediately under his rule. The shades of Leonardo da Vinci, of Ruskin, and even of Walter Pater, must have shuddered when the sentiments expressed at Munich finally reached their present abodes. Was it not Pater who declared that "All Art constantly aspires to a condition of music?" For decades other art critics have been trying to make out what he meant by this, but now they have a clue. For surely, if the cabled versions of Herr Hitler's dicta are correct, Nazi art is aspiring to something very much the same, if beating the big drum can properly be called music.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.