Kitsch is a low-brow style of mass-produced
art or design using popular or cultural icons.
Kitsch generally includes unsubstantial or
gaudy works or decoration, or works that are
calculated to have popular appeal.
The concept of kitsch is applied to artwork
that was a response to the 19th-century art
with aesthetics that convey exaggerated sentimentality
and melodrama.
Hence, kitsch art is closely associated with
sentimental art.
Kitsch is also related to the concept of camp,
because of its humorous, ironic nature.
Kitsch is usually used to reference decoration;
for example "the living room was decorated
in cheap 1950s style monster movie kitsch."
Origin and background
As a descriptive term, kitsch originated in
the art markets of Munich in the 1860s and
the 1870s, describing cheap, popular, and
marketable pictures and sketches.
In Das Buch vom Kitsch, Hans Reimann defines
it as a professional expression “born in
a painter's studio”.
Characteristics
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.
According to Walter Benjamin, kitsch is, unlike
art, a utilitarian object lacking all critical
distance between object and observer; it "offers
instantaneous emotional gratification without
intellectual effort, without the requirement
of distance, without sublimation".
Study and background
The study of kitsch was done almost exclusively
in German until the 1970s, with Walter Benjamin
being an important scholar in the field.
See also
Cliché
Internet meme
Hipster
Poshlost
Prolefeed
Schlock
Lowbrow
Museum of Bad Art
References
Further reading
Adorno, Theodor.
The Culture Industry.
Routledge.
ISBN 0-415-25380-2
Botz-Bornstein, Thorsten.
"Wabi and Kitsch: Two Japanese Paradigms"
in Æ: Canadian Aesthetics Journal 15.
Braungart, Wolfgang.
”Kitsch.
Faszination und Herausforderung des Banalen
und Trivialen”.
Max Niemeyer Verlag.
ISBN 3-484-32112-1/0083-4564.
Cheetham, Mark A. ”Kant, Art and Art History:
moments of discipline”.
Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 0-521-80018-8.
Dorfles, Gillo.
Kitsch: The 
World of Bad Taste, Universe Books.
LCCN 78-93950
Elias, Norbert.
“The Kitsch Style and the Age of Kitsch,”
in J. Goudsblom and S. Mennell The Norbert
Elias Reader.
Oxford: Blackwell.
Gelfert, Hans-Dieter.
”Was ist Kitsch?”.
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht in Göttingen.
ISBN 3-525-34024-9.
Giesz, Ludwig.
Phänomenologie des Kitsches.
2.
vermehrte und verbesserte Auflage München:
Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
[Partially translated into English in Dorfles].
Reprint: Ungekürzte Ausgabe.
Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag.
ISBN 3-596-12034-9 / ISBN 978-3-596-12034-5.
Gorelik, Boris.
Incredible Tretchikoff: Life of an artist
and adventurer.
Art / Books, London.
ISBN 978-1-908970-08-4
Greenberg, Clement.
Art and Culture.
Beacon Press.
ISBN 0-8070-6681-8
Karpfen, Fritz.
”Kitsch.
Eine Studie über die Entartung der Kunst”.
Weltbund-Verlag, Hamburg.
Kristeller, Paul Oskar.
”The Modern System of the Arts”.
Princeton University Press.
ISBN 0-691-02010-1.
/ 0-691-07253-1.
Kulka, Tomas.
Kitsch and Art.
Pennsylvania State University Press.
ISBN 0-271-01594-2
Moles, Abraham.
Psychologie du Kitsch: L’art du Bonheur,
Denoël-Gonthier
Nerdrum, Odd.
On Kitsch.
Distributed Art Publishers.
ISBN 82-489-0123-8
Olalquiaga, Celeste.
The Artificial Kingdom: On the Kitsch Experience.
University of Minnesota ISBN 0-8166-4117-X
Reimann, Hans.
”Das Buch vom Kitsch”.
Piper Verlag, München.
Richter, Gerd,.
Kitsch-Lexicon, Bertelsmann.
ISBN 3-570-03148-9
Shiner, Larry.
”The Invention of Art”.
University of Chicago Press.
ISBN 0-226-75342-5.
Thuller, Gabrielle.
"Kunst und Kitsch.
Wie erkenne ich?", ISBN 3-7630-2463-8.
"Kitsch.
Balsam für Herz und Seele", ISBN 978-3-7630-2493-3.
Ward, Peter.
Kitsch in Sync: A Consumer’s Guide to Bad
Taste, Plexus Publishing.
ISBN 0-85965-152-5
"Kitsch.
Texte und Theorien",.
Reclam.
ISBN 978-3-15-018476-9..
External links
"Kitsch".
In John Walker's Glossary of art, architecture
& design since 1945.
Avant-Garde and Kitsch—essay by Clement
Greenberg
Kitsch and the Modern Predicament—essay
by Roger Scruton
Why Dictators Love Kitsch by Eric Gibson,
The Wall Street Journal, August 10, 2009
