‘Degenerate Art’ Attracts Berliners : Exhibit: The curator who organized the landmark Los Angeles show calls Germans’ response ‘unbelievable.’

German officials expected a high degree of interest in “Degenerate Art: The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany” when they requested that the Los Angeles-organized exhibition travel to the historic Altes Museum in Berlin. But German response to the landmark show--which re-creates Hitler’s most notorious attempt to denigrate modern art--has far outstripped expectations.

“It’s been unbelievable,” said curator Stephanie Barron, who organized the exhibition for the County Museum of Art. German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher presided over the March 3 opening, which attracted 4,000 people. Attendance totaled 100,000 in the first month and there have been queues of 6,000 to 7,000 people on weekends, Barron said. A total attendance of 300,000 is expected by the end of the show on May 31. If that prediction comes true, “Degenerate Art” will have attracted as many people to the Altes Museum as the major exhibition of Rembrandt’s work that preceded it.

The German edition of “Degenerate Art” has received a blitz of media coverage, Barron said. So far, 1,600 journalists and 22 television stations have told the museum they intend to cover the show. The BBC plans to do a 20-minute segment on the exhibition for “The Late Show,” including Berlin footage and an interview with Barron in Los Angeles.

Catalogue sales also have exceeded expectations. The original German edition of 10,000 sold out quickly, an additional 20,000 copies have been printed and a third printing appears likely.

Barron has already received four volumes of press clips from the museum, she said, and the reviews are overwhelmingly positive. Although a few critics have suggested that the exhibition is more suited to Americans than to Germans, who are better informed about the period, reviewers have agreed that the show and its extensive catalogue are the definitive work on the subject, she said.

Indeed, Barron designed the show for an American audience. After leaving Los Angeles last May, it traveled to the Art Institute of Chicago and to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. But since German government officials decided to present the show in Germany and print the catalogue in German, “it has just snowballed,” the curator said. “I’m really pleased. I just never expected to see it go full circle like this, but it’s appropriate for it to end in Berlin.”