Degenerate art is a translation of the German term Entartete Kunst used by Hitler for art that didn't fit his definition of good art, which included most modern art. In 1937 some 16,000 were removed from museums and galleries in Germany. An exhibition called Entartete Kunst was held in Munich mocking modern art. An auction was held in 1938 to sell 126 of the paintings overseas ("In doing so we hope to at least make some money from this garbage" -- Joseph Goebbels). Others were destroyed.
Quotes from Hitler on Art:
"I have observed a number of works which actually lead one to assume that certain people's eyes show them things differently from the way they really are... who perceive – or as they would doubtless say 'experience' – the meadows as blue, the sky as green, the clouds as sulphurous yellow, and so on ... I wish to prohibit such unfortunates, who clearly suffer from defective vision, from trying to foist the products of their faulty observation on to their fellow men as though they were realities, or indeed from dishing them up as 'art'."
"'Works of art' that are not capable of being understood in themselves but need some pretentious instruction book to justify their existence until at long last they find someone sufficiently browbeaten to endure such stupid or impudent twaddle with patience will never again find their way to the German people."
"Anyone who sees and paints a sky green and pastures blue ought to be sterilized."
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