As you can see from the post below, I went to some pretty great lengths to avoid facing this. I haven't written anything to this length or importance for years - I was a definite Science lover at school. However, the glitter cat collages ended up having a secondary use; they inspired my final dissertation topic.
The unexpected popularity of them got me thinking. Although I love them, they were not done in seriousness. Nor am I trying to claim that they are great images, or works of art. Undeniably they are ridiculous and utterly kitsch. Yet everyone who was raving about them came from some sort of art education background. So is there now a new, and accepted, role for kitsch within contemporary culture? Bring on the new title...
KITSCH AND ITS NEW ROLE IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURE
INTRODUCTION
Whether found in galleries through the work of William Bouguereau and Jeff Koons, on the high street within Cath Kidston shops, or being sold as souvenirs, kitsch is all around us. 'If works of art were judged democratically...that is according to how many people like them...kitsch would easily defeat all its competitors' [1] observed writer Thomas Kulka. Yet despite its status as a source of pleasure for the masses, kitsch is usually considered a negative product. The contemporary definition of kitsch denotes work that is executed to pander to popular demand; created for commercial purpose rather than self-expression, Thereby it is thought that 'to establish that kitsch is bad...is to establish a truism' [2]. It is 'to render worthless, to affect with sentimentality and vulgarity'[3]. No matter how we classify it, kitsch always seems to imply the notion of aesthetic inadequacy. By investigating ideas and views about kitsch; drawing on notions of nostalgia and sentimentality; along with comments on society today; this paper will reflect on kitsch in art, print and design. Proving that kitsch has developed over time, providing itself with a new and accepted place in contemporary culture.
[1] KULKA, T. (1996) Kitsch and Art. United States of America: The Pennsylvania State University, p.p. 17.
