The upheaval at Documenta is just one example of how Europe’s art world is being torn by debates about Israel and Gaza, as some institutions have moved to postpone the shows of artists who have criticized Israel. Documenta was initially staged in 1955 as the first large-scale exhibition in West Germany of the art of the European avant-garde. It was a direct response to the Degenerate Art Show, the denunciatory exhibition of modern art staged by the Nazis in Munich in 1937. Although the mural was taken down, it set off a monthslong debate in Germany’s art world about antisemitism, Palestinian activism and Germany’s relationship to formerly colonized countries. Hoskote said Documenta was one of the art world’s greatest events, partly because it had always been a forum for new ideas.

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Persons: Documenta’s, — Simon Njami, Gong Yan, Kathrin, Inés Rodríguez, —, ”, Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger, Ranjit Hoskote, Anaïs Duplan, Ai Weiwei, ” Ai, Ai, Galerie Max Hetzler, Lisson’s, Claudia Roth, Documenta, Hoskote Organizations: Venice Biennale, Folkwang, Israel, Art Newspaper, Galerie Max, Berlin, Die Locations: Israel, Kassel, Germany, Gaza, Venice, India, Essen, Haitian, United States, B.D.S, London, Lisson, New York, Paris, West Germany, Munich, Nazi, Indonesia