„Sztuka żydowska”. O jednym z pojęć nacjonalistycznej krytyki artystycznej w Polsce międzywojennej
“Jewish Art”: One of the Tools of Nationalist Art Criticism in Interwar Poland

Summary/Abstract: The topic of this article is the meaning of the notion of “Jewish art”, which was one of the key topics of the anti-Semitic discourse going on among nationalist art critics. An analysis of views aired by critics in the years 1919-1939 in periodicals with right-wing and nationalistic leanings leads to the conclusion that the features attributed to “Jewish art” fully corresponded to the features attributed in the anti-Semitic Jewish discourse to Jews at large. The works created by Jews and by other artists influenced by them were spreading contagion in the world of art, causing it to become “gangrenous” and “disintegrated”, inviting chaos, degeneration and distortion, were “dirty”, “disorderly”, “misshapen”, “lame”, but also “noisy”, “arrogant”, “false” or “cynical”, or, finally, they were an emanation of a “foreign”, “hostile” or “internationalist” spirit. Just as the Jews in social and economic life, so the objects of “Jewish art” in the field of arts caused damage to such aesthetic values as beauty, harmony or perfection, causing art to disintegrate. In this manner “Jewish art” was supposed to serve the pursuit of the supreme objective of the degeneration and destruction of the Polish people and the spiritual values cherished by it. In order to prevent just that, it was necessary to learn as much as possible about the “Jewish art”, describe any features of it that could be described, and then eliminate them or at least successful isolate it.

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