WATERCOLORS BY EMIL NOLDE

WORKS BY EMIL NOLDE:  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.