Creative Rationale - Kitsch
Creative Rationale
What is Kitsch?
Kitsch is a form style all though many people would argue that it is rather a lack of style and this is the essence behind the concept of kitsch. kitsch is cheap, useless and tasteless art that is more likely to be hoarded rather than collected. It is stored away, hidden never to be used.
Clement Greenberg concluded the idea of kitsch “Where there is an avant-garde, generally we also find a rear-guard. True enough -- simultaneously with the entrance of the avant-garde, a second new cultural phenomenon appeared in the industrial West: that thing to which the Germans give the wonderful name of Kitsch: popular, commercial art and literature with their chromeotypes, magazine covers, illustrations, ads, slick and pulp fiction, comics, Tin Pan Alley music, tap dancing, Hollywood movies, etc., etc. For some reason this gigantic apparition has always been taken for granted.
Kitsch changes according to style, but remains always the same. Kitsch is the epitome of all that is spurious in the life of our times. Kitsch pretends to demand nothing of its customers except their money -- not even their time.”
After looking at some work by Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst and reading some writing about kitsch, I started to formulate my own perception of the concept - kitsch. I found that some of the artists, who create kitsch artwork, do not even like it or find it artistic. They mock the idea of Kitsch and its lack of taste and style. When I think of kitsch, what always comes to my mind is cheap stuff people buy on holiday just for the sake of it and as a souvenir to represent their holiday. Not that they would dare use it as art in their home. Kitsch however in its own way plays a role in the artistic evolution and society. There is an appeal for it and it is everywhere. It plays off peoples’ styles and manner which will always be around. We can deny it or mock it but one thing we can not do, is ignore it.
In my final kitsch concept I
What is Kitsch?
Kitsch is a form style all though many people would argue that it is rather a lack of style and this is the essence behind the concept of kitsch. kitsch is cheap, useless and tasteless art that is more likely to be hoarded rather than collected. It is stored away, hidden never to be used.
Clement Greenberg concluded the idea of kitsch “Where there is an avant-garde, generally we also find a rear-guard. True enough -- simultaneously with the entrance of the avant-garde, a second new cultural phenomenon appeared in the industrial West: that thing to which the Germans give the wonderful name of Kitsch: popular, commercial art and literature with their chromeotypes, magazine covers, illustrations, ads, slick and pulp fiction, comics, Tin Pan Alley music, tap dancing, Hollywood movies, etc., etc. For some reason this gigantic apparition has always been taken for granted.
Kitsch changes according to style, but remains always the same. Kitsch is the epitome of all that is spurious in the life of our times. Kitsch pretends to demand nothing of its customers except their money -- not even their time.”
After looking at some work by Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst and reading some writing about kitsch, I started to formulate my own perception of the concept - kitsch. I found that some of the artists, who create kitsch artwork, do not even like it or find it artistic. They mock the idea of Kitsch and its lack of taste and style. When I think of kitsch, what always comes to my mind is cheap stuff people buy on holiday just for the sake of it and as a souvenir to represent their holiday. Not that they would dare use it as art in their home. Kitsch however in its own way plays a role in the artistic evolution and society. There is an appeal for it and it is everywhere. It plays off peoples’ styles and manner which will always be around. We can deny it or mock it but one thing we can not do, is ignore it.
In my final kitsch concept I
References: Clement Greenberg --> Sharecom.ca (1939) Greenberg: Avant-Gardde and Kitsch. [online] Available at: http://www.sharecom.ca/greenberg/kitsch.html