Degenerate Art (film)

Last updated

Degenerate Art is a 2011 documentary by American pipe maker Aaron Golbert, aka Marble Slinger, on the art and culture associated with glass pipes used for smoking cannabis. [1] Its title references the German expression degenerate art, an invective used to denigrate modern art during the Nazi regime. The film, which was featured at the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas in 2012, [2] follows the history of glass pipe-making culture and the tremendous influence of Bob Snodgrass.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Degenerate art</span> Pejorative term used by the Nazi Party for modern art

Degenerate art was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe modern art. During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, German modernist art, including many works of internationally renowned artists, was removed from state-owned museums and banned in Nazi Germany on the grounds that such art was an "insult to German feeling", un-German, Freemasonic, Jewish, or Communist in nature. Those identified as degenerate artists were subjected to sanctions that included being dismissed from teaching positions, being forbidden to exhibit or to sell their art, and in some cases being forbidden to produce art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glassblowing</span> Technique for forming glass

Glassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble with the aid of a blowpipe. A person who blows glass is called a glassblower, glassmith, or gaffer. A lampworker manipulates glass with the use of a torch on a smaller scale, such as in producing precision laboratory glassware out of borosilicate glass.

Plastic arts are art forms which involve physical manipulation of a plastic medium by molding or modeling such as sculpture or ceramics. Less often the term may be used broadly for all the visual arts, as opposed to literature and music. Materials for use in the plastic arts, in the narrower definition, include those that can be carved or shaped, such as stone or wood, concrete, glass, or metal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Degenerate music</span>

Degenerate music was a label applied in the 1930s by the government of Nazi Germany to certain forms of music that it considered harmful or decadent. The Nazi government's concerns about degenerate music were a part of its larger and better-known campaign against degenerate art. In both cases, the government attempted to isolate, discredit, discourage, or ban the works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snifter</span>

A snifter is a type of stemware, a short-stemmed glass whose vessel has a wide bottom and a relatively narrow top. It is mostly used to serve aged brown liquors such as bourbon, brandy, and whisky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snow globe</span>

A snow globe is a transparent sphere, traditionally made of glass, enclosing a miniaturized scene of some sort, often together with a model of a town, neighborhood, landscape or figure. The sphere also encloses the water in the globe; the water serves as the medium through which the "snow" falls. To activate the snow, the globe is shaken to churn up the white particles. The globe is then placed back in its position and the flakes fall down slowly through the water. Snow globes sometimes have a built-in music box that plays a song. Some snow globes have a design around the outerbase for decoration. Snow globes are often used as a collectible item.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art in Nazi Germany</span> Promoted and censored forms of art in Germany from 1933 to 1945

The Nazi regime in Germany actively promoted and censored forms of art between 1933 and 1945. Upon becoming dictator in 1933, Adolf Hitler gave his personal artistic preference the force of law to a degree rarely known before. In the case of Germany, the model was to be classical Greek and Roman art, seen by Hitler as an art whose exterior form embodied an inner racial ideal. It was, furthermore, to be comprehensible to the average man. This art was to be both heroic and romantic. The Nazis viewed the culture of the Weimar period with disgust. Their response stemmed partly from conservative aesthetics and partly from their determination to use culture as propaganda.

South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas, United States. It began in 1987 and has continued to grow in both scope and size every year. In 2017, the conference lasted for 10 days with the interactive track lasting for five days, music for seven days, and film for nine days. There was no in-person event in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Austin, Texas; both years, there was a smaller online event instead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bowl (smoking)</span> Part of smoking pipe

A bowl, when referred to in pipe smoking, is the part of a smoking pipe or bong that is used to hold tobacco, cannabis, or other substances.

<i>a/k/a Tommy Chong</i> 2006 film

a/k/a Tommy Chong is a 2006 documentary film written, produced, and directed by Josh Gilbert, that chronicles the Drug Enforcement Administration raid on comedian Tommy Chong's house and his subsequent jail sentence for trafficking in illegal drug paraphernalia. He was sentenced to nine months in federal prison. DEA agents raided Chong's Pacific Palisades, California home on the morning of February 24, 2003. The raid was part of Operation Pipe Dreams and "Operation Headhunter," which resulted in raids on 100 homes and businesses nationwide that day and indictments of 55 individuals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otto Freundlich</span> German painter

Otto Freundlich was a German painter and sculptor of Jewish origin. A part of the first generation of abstract painters in Western art, Freundlich was a great admirer of cubism. He was murdered at Majdanek concentration camp during the Holocaust.

<i>Jugend</i> (magazine) German art magazine

Jugend (1896–1940) was an influential German arts magazine. Founded in Munich by Georg Hirth who edited it until his death in 1916, the weekly was originally intended to showcase German Arts and Crafts, but became famous for showcasing the German version of Art Nouveau instead. It was also famed for its "shockingly brilliant covers and radical editorial tone" and for its avant-garde influence on German arts and culture for decades, ultimately launching the eponymous Jugendstil movement in Munich, Weimar and Germany's Darmstadt Artists' Colony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ceremonial pipe</span> Ceremonial smoking pipe, used by Native Americans

A ceremonial pipe is a particular type of smoking pipe, used by a number of cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Americas in their sacred ceremonies. Traditionally they are used to offer prayers in a religious ceremony, to make a ceremonial commitment, or to seal a covenant or treaty. The pipe ceremony may be a component of a larger ceremony, or held as a sacred ceremony in and of itself. Indigenous peoples of the Americas who use ceremonial pipes have names for them in each culture's Indigenous language. Not all cultures have pipe traditions, and there is no single word for all ceremonial pipes across the hundreds of diverse Native American languages.

BLA BLA is an interactive animated film for computer created by Vincent Morisset with Montreal studio AATOAA, and produced by the National Film Board of Canada. The online work has been described as exploring "the principles of human communication," and follows Morisset's collaborations with Arcade Fire on Neon Bible, considered the first interactive music video.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Degenerate Art exhibition</span> 1937 art exhibition in Nazi Germany

The Degenerate Art exhibition was an art exhibition organized by Adolf Ziegler and the Nazi Party in Munich from 19 July to 30 November 1937. The exhibition presented 650 works of art, confiscated from German museums, and was staged in counterpoint to the concurrent Great German Art Exhibition. The day before the exhibition started, Hitler delivered a speech declaring "merciless war" on cultural disintegration, attacking "chatterboxes, dilettantes and art swindlers". Degenerate art was defined as works that "insult German feeling, or destroy or confuse natural form or simply reveal an absence of adequate manual and artistic skill". One million people attended the exhibition in its first six weeks. A U.S. critic commented "there are probably plenty of people—art lovers—in Boston, who will side with Hitler in this particular purge".

Degenerate Art Ensemble is a Seattle-based multi-art performance company whose work is inspired by punk, comics, cinema, nightmares and fairy tales driven by live music and visceral movement theater and dance. The group was founded and is co-directed by dancer/performer/director Haruko Nishimura and composer/conductor/performer Joshua Kohl. Degenerate Art Ensemble is both a multi-discipline performance company and a band, having performed major dance and live music works, orchestral concerts, rock shows and site-specific street spectacles.

Jerome Baker is a Eugene, Oregon based glass blower and the founder of Jerome Baker Designs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Snodgrass</span> American lampworker

Bob Snodgrass is an American lampworker known for his contributions to the art of glass pipe-making and glass art. He began lampworking in 1971 while learning from and working with Chuck Murphy for a few years.

<i>Lex Rex</i> (album) 2002 studio album by Glass Hammer

Lex Rex is the sixth studio album by American progressive rock band Glass Hammer, released on September 1, 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerome Baker Designs (company)</span> Design company

Jerome Baker Designs is a Las Vegas, Nevada based company in the cannabis industry formerly known as Jerome Baker Designs, and for having created the largest bong ever created at 24-feet high and 800 pounds. The bong was so large it had to be created in parts and assembled at the Cannabition, where it was put on display at “Bongzilla,” the gallery opening of Jerome Baker Designs’ Las Vegas Studio during which “The Mega Bong Series" was unveiled.

References

  1. Anderson, Timothy. "Film Review: Degenerate Art". Cannablis Now. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
  2. SXSW 2012 Schedule