![]() ![]() ![]() The novel goes on to relate this definition of kitsch to politics, and specifically - given the novel's setting in Prague around the time of the 1968 invasion by the Soviet Union - to communism and totalitarianism. For Kundera's narrator, this is the definition of kitsch: an "aesthetic ideal" which "excludes everything from its purview which is essentially unacceptable in human existence". Thus, in order for us to continue to believe in the essential propriety and rightness of the universe (what the narrator calls "the categorical agreement with being"), we live in a world "in which shit is denied and everyone acts as though it did not exist". Towards the end of the novel, the book's narrator posits that the act of defecation (and specifically, the shame that surrounds it) poses a metaphysical challenge to the theory of divine creation: "Either/or: either shit is acceptable (in which case don't lock yourself in the bathroom!) or we are created in an unacceptable manner". The concept of kitsch is a central motif in Milan Kundera's 1984 novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Kitsch in Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being Kitsch does not substantially enrich our associations related to the depicted subject.The depicted subject is instantly and effortlessly identifiable.Kitsch depicts a beautiful or highly emotionally charged subject. ![]() Tomáš Kulka, in Kitsch and Art, starts from two basic facts that kitsch "has an undeniable mass-appeal" and "considered (by the art-educated elite) bad", and then proposes three essential conditions: According to Roger Scruton, "Kitsch is fake art, expressing fake emotions, whose purpose is to deceive the consumer into thinking he feels something deep and serious." Kitsch is less about the thing observed than about the observer. In a short essay from 1927, Benjamin observed that an artist who engages in kitschy reproductions of things and ideas from a bygone age deserved to be called a "furnished man" (in the way that someone rents a " furnished apartment" where everything is already supplied). According to critic Winfried Menninghaus, Benjamin's stance was that kitsch "offers instantaneous emotional gratification without intellectual effort, without the requirement of distance, without sublimation". According to Walter Benjamin, kitsch, unlike art, is a utilitarian object lacking all critical distance between object and observer. Modernist writer Hermann Broch argues that the essence of kitsch is imitation: kitsch mimics its immediate predecessor with no regard to ethics-it aims to copy the beautiful, not the good. Kitsch is regarded as a modern phenomenon, coinciding with social changes in recent centuries such as the Industrial Revolution, urbanization, mass production, modern materials and media such as plastics, radio and television, the rise of the middle class and public education-all of which have factored into a perception of oversaturation of art produced for the popular taste.Īnalysis Kitsch in art theory and aesthetics The study of kitsch was done almost exclusively in German until the 1970s, with Walter Benjamin being an important scholar in the field. In Das Buch vom Kitsch ( The Book of Kitsch), published in 1936, Hans Reimann defined it as a professional expression "born in a painter's studio". History Īs a descriptive term, kitsch originated in the art markets of Munich, Germany in the 1860s and the 1870s, describing cheap, popular, and marketable pictures and sketches. Kitsch relates to camp, as they both incorporate irony and extravagance. For example, it carries the ability to be quaint or "quirky" without being offensive on the surface, as in the Dogs Playing Poker paintings.Īlong with visual art, the quality of kitsch can be used to describe works of music, literature or any other creative medium. Art deemed kitsch may be enjoyed in an entirely positive and sincere manner. To brand visual art as "kitsch" is often still pejorative, though not exclusively. However, since the emergence of Pop Art in the 1950s, kitsch has taken on newfound highbrow appeal, often wielded in knowingly ironic, humorous or earnest manners. In the first half of the 20th century, kitsch was used in reference to mass-produced, pop-cultural products that lacked the conceptual depth of fine art. The modern avant garde traditionally opposed kitsch for its melodramatic tendencies, its superficial relationship with the human condition and its naturalistic standards of beauty. Kitsch ( / k ɪ tʃ/ KITCH loanword from German) is a term applied to art and design that is perceived as naïve imitation, overly eccentric, gratuitous or of banal taste. Puppy by Jeff Koons (2010) is a self-aware display of kitsch, specifically as a combination of opulence and cuteness. ![]()
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