Degenerates And Perverts : The 1939 Herald Exhibition of French and British Contemporary Art

The 1939 Herald Exhibition of French and British Contemporary Art was the most momentous art exhibition ever held in Australia.

Over 200 works by modern masters, including Cezanne, Dali, Picasso and Modigliani, arrived in Australia on the eve of World War II and remained in the country until the end of the war.

The exhibition attracted many thousands of visitors around Australia and the public greeted the opportunity to view major works by modern masters with enthusiasm.

But it divided Australia's art establishment. J. S. MacDonald, director of the National Gallery of Victoria, along with many others, described the art as 'the work of degenerates and perverts'. "Degenerates and Perverts", the first definitive account of the exhibition and the events surrounding it, describes how modern art and the public taste for it developed in Australia.

Richly illustrated and meticulously researched, it dispels the myths associated with the exhibition and explores the evolution of modernism in Australian art.