Kitsch Was a Hige Sensation - Essay Example

Order 194486 "Where there is an avant-garde, generally we also find a rearguard. True enough - simultaneously with the entrance of the avant-garde, a second new cultural phenomenon appeared in the industrial West: the thing to which the Germans gave the wonderful name of "kitsch"Kitsch is vicarious experience and faked sensations. Kitsch changes according to style, but remains always the same. Kitsch pretends to demand nothing of its customers except their money - not even their time." ( Calinescu, 223) It is what Clement Greenberg thinks about what in contemporary mentality is understood as lack of value, being often associated with the term "rubbish". This is, in fact, etymologically correct, as the term comes from the German word "kitschen" which refers to the action of collecting rubbish from the street. There are various definitions of kitsch, most of them designating it as a bad art or even as non-art. Jean Baudrillard is quite harsh in his conception of kitsch. He defines it as "an army of trashy objects" (Baudrillard, 109) made out of plaster of Paris or an imitation of it, "a gallery of cheap-junk accessories, folksy knickknacks, souvenirs, lampshades or fake African masks- which proliferate everywhere, especially in resort areas"(110). In his opinion, "to the aesthetics of beauty and originality, kitsch opposes its aesthetics of simulation: it everywhere reproduces objects smaller or larger than life; it imitates materials (in plaster, plastic, etc.); it apes forms or combines them discordantly; it repeats fashion without having been part of the experience of fashion."(111) According to Matei Calinescu, who studies this subject extensively, kitsch is a result of romanticist. The theorist gives two reasons for his opinion: the first refers to the fact that the romantic revolution brought about an almost complete relativization of taste, the second reason is connected to romanticist's promotion of a sentimentalist type and view of art.(237) He says that "the desire to escape from adverse or simply dull reality is perhaps the main reason for the wide appeal of kitsch." (237) So we have two views; the first of them is a harsh criticism of kitsch, the second constitutes itself in an explanation of its appearance. Each point of view is relevant in producing the image of the contemporary kitsch and in identifying its features. A kitsch is, thus, a imitation, something that lacks originality. It is so spread throughout the world and to be found in all cultures as a result of man's need to escape and people's tendency of being sentimental when dealing with art as well as to their tendency of disregarding established values. Kitsch is present in different forms in all the fields of human creation. It is to be seen in art, clothing, home decoration, children's toys, and architecture. It is so ubiquitous that there has even been created a dictionary of kitsch objects. There are kitsch cars, kitsch clocks, kitsch dolls and furniture, kitsch lamps, kitsch tents and there are a multitude of such examples. At the level of interior design, kitsch is produced either by the choice of decoration objects or by the combination of decorative elements. Some interiors, or designer's creations can be shocking at first sight because of the explosion of colors and forms or because of the combination of objects that lack value or originality, with objects with valuable and stylish works of art. It is difficult to decide nowadays where the border between a real kitsch and a trendy interior is. This border seems to have dissolved in world where a plastic imitation of a stylish candelabrum doesn't surprise anyone anymore. Kitsch is a copy without value, or in today's design, a re-taking or a conceptualization of clisheistic lines. The glamorous style is inspired by the Hollywood world where everything is appearance. A neoclassic villa is a home made out of cartoon and gypsum, a poque chair has got the mark of time a day ago, plastic can imitate elaborate forms. A porcelain, the decoration object present in many houses, almost in all homes, enters the dictionary of kitsch objects. Copy of sculptural achievements, porcelain objects became the selling material of antiquities shops. When you think of buying or having an antique object, you have in mind something valuable. But often an imitation is what replaces a really valuable object. Porcelains like angel figures, Christ's birth celebrating scenes, small animals- especially dogs and cats, young girls, have been so much multiplied that they even became annoying. The young girl porcelain figure appears under different forms. Most of the times, the girl is standing and she is sometimes holding a bunch a flowers in her arms. She usually wears a dress and very often a hat also. Usually she has long hairs but some of the porcelains represent short haired girls. They may be more or less detailed in their physical features but one thing they all have in common is beauty. Some of the porcelain girls wear accessories others may be described by simplicity. Analyzing one of these kitsch porcelain girl figures in the light of the two theories concerning kitsch, previously presented, we notice that there is more than one interpretation to the world of kitsch. Baudrillard would see it, the way he sees kitsch in general, as a totally lacked of value object, as an ugly imitation, an aesthetic simulation, a repetition of fashion. This porcelain is indeed, part of a series of porcelain girls. Not only are there many different porcelain representations of girls, but there are also many identical such objects. So this object I hold now in my hand, this beautiful, slim, long haired and well dressed girl made out of porcelain is not unique. My breaking it, wouldn't be such a tragedy, because I can buy another one tomorrow just like it. And it's not only in my house that I find it, but I may find it in a friend's house too. This is a mark of kitsch - you own something, but someone else, in fact many other people, have a copy of that object too. There's no question of originality, the whole series of porcelains have nothing in common with the idea of originality, they are only copies. We may see them as a sort of imitations of the great and valuable stone or marble sculptures and as imitations, they will not be able to attain the value of their object of imitation. They are the ambiguous combinations of elements and influences. Imitation of real art and of reality, they are multiplied the way functional objects are multiplied, yet not serving functional purposes. When a whole industry is developed around an object that is supposed to have artistic value, or to address man's spirit, value fades away, even if at the beginning it existed more or less in a higher or lower degree and at a higher or lower level. The porcelain we see today in shops is in fact a mixture, a combination of styles and influences. They invaded the world, at the side of other kitsch decorative objects. It's something in fact understandable in a money, progress, transformation and speed based society. You no longer have the time to contemplate original and valuable works of art, but you need to place some decorative objects in your home. A practical society is a place where comfort and utility come first, art and the idea of taste are placed in the background. And kitsch finds the proper ground to develop. According to Calinescu's ideas kitsch would be the result of a romantic treatment of art. Romanticism appeared as a reaction of opposition towards classicism and its rules and rigidity. And it meant a rejection of these rules, and a preaching of freedom in art as well as in society. It preached free inspiration and disregard for the classical rules. According to Calinescu it was this liberalization and this new way of conceiving and considering art that lead to the apparition of kitsch. If we analyze the common girl figure porcelain starting from this theory we understand how the mixture of elements could produce. Classicism was characterized by order, clarity and purity. Romanticism destroyed all these and brought instead the principle of freedom. Everything was allowed. Sources of inspiration could be found in anything, the artist was free to treat his subject matters the way he wanted. More than this change in point of artistic creation, Romanticism brought about a change at the level of interpreting and receiving art. That is how, the theorist explains, kitsch was initiated. Sentimentalism, like relativization of art perception and creation, is one of the Romantic roots of kitsch. Porcelains show very well this tendency of kitsch of appealing to man's feelings. The porcelain figure may be compared to a sentimentalist novel female character, who spends her time reading, picking flowers or wandering, who doesn,t care too much for anything else than her daily activities is preoccupied with finding love. It's a theme that has been used over and over again. Kitsch has also been identified with the idea of bad taste. In Calinescu's opinion this is in fact nothing else than the ideologically manipulated illusion of taste just as mass culture is described as false consciousness. "According to him if true art always contains a finally irreducible element, an element that is constitutive of what we may call "aesthetic autonomy" art that is produced for immediate consumption is clearly and entirely reducible to extrinsic causes and motives." (240) And indeed, how could we consider the porcelain figure as embodiment of great values when it only a commercial object based on a series of elements taken from other objects What Calinescu and Baudrillard's conceptions about kitsch have in common is the fact that they both see kitsch out of the sphere of art. It's in fact what most theorists of kitsch say about it. It is seen as a non art, not only as a bad art. Herman Broch, for instance shows that we cannot see kitsch as bad art, it being in fact exterior to art. Like Matei Calinescu, he connects the rise of kitsch to the change brought about by Romanticism in the conception of the aesthetic ideal. If before Romanticism, the concept of beauty was seen as transcendent and never attainable, it came to be perceived, afterwards, in terms of its immanence in particular, finite works of art. (Calinescu, 239) Broch also says that the kitsch's aim is to do something pretty, and not to do something well. We may see the idea of pretty as opposed to that of seriousness. When we say "pretty", there is a sort of indulgence from our part towards the object that is described this way. We won't say about a real work of art that it's pretty. "Pretty" refers to something that may be called earthly, or of a worldly nature. And it is indeed a proper word to describe kitsch. The porcelain girl is pretty. This is the way I could describe it best. And it surely was meant to be a pretty object. Porcelains in general are meant to be pretty objects. They fill spaces, decorating homes, usually placed in a glass case, in a window or on a furniture object. They were made in series, a lot of pretty things and it wasn't aesthetic value that was considered when making them, commercial considerations represented their basis. So, if we want to analyze the extent to which the porcelain girl was meant to be a kitsch, we can do it by referring to the intention of kitsch in general- that of being pretty. When conceived, it was certainly not thought as more than a common decoration object and not more than pretty. And seeing things in this light, the porcelain girl was conceived as kitsch. Only that rather than consciously understanding that what is about to be conceived is a kitsch, the producer had in mind the idea of business and commercial considerations. Today there are very few homes that don't have at least a few kitsch objects, and most of these "special" homes belong to the art collectors and lovers. The attitude towards kitsch started to change. Although perceived as being exterior to art, it is not so widely rejected today. This attitude is part of a changing perspective on life, and a changing world. Everything happens and changes nowadays very fast and people need to keep up in order not to be left behind. As a consequence, little time is given to detail or to originality. The important thing today is to sell. A porcelain young girl appeals to man's need for aesthetic values but this doesn't need that it is indeed an aesthetic value. Kitsch is even promoted today, and its pejorative meaning begins to fade away more and more. It is a natural thing in a world where the impact of movie images and of television in general is so great. People have the tendency to imitate, generally they want to have what others possess. Kitsch often becomes a fashionable thing, something you must have in order to be trendy. It remains to be seen how dangerous kitsch is to real art. Imitations of art are everywhere, real art is rare. Not everyone affords to spend so much money or effort to come in contact with the real art, and most people are satisfied with substitutes. Avant-garde movements and postmodernism appeared as a opposition reply directed towards the decay of seriousness in art. It's not enough for an object to be pretty in order to be considered valuable. The development of a theory on kitsch that would see kitsch in a positive light and of a fashion of kitsch is seen as great danger for society by some representatives of art. Kundera says that kitsch is not only useless, but also dangerous. At a first glance it's difficult to understand how the small porcelain girl is so dangerous but the important fact to be noticed is that kitsch examples like this one are so many and in such different combinations that their being seen in a positive light may be detrimental to man's artistic taste and to art itself. Kitsch appears not only in the object itself, but also in the strange combination of objects that although not really being kitsch, give a kitsch environment when placed together. But there is also another type of kitsch, one that can be named double kitsch, as it appears out of the unhappy or inappropriate combination of kitsch elements. Sometimes homes are stuffed with porcelain statuettes, of different forms and statues, imitations of valuable paintings, kitsch furniture, garden statues like dwarves or other sort of imitations. In Calinescu's opinion, when we talk about kitsch, we should also study the person that accepts it in order to better understand it. The author talks about a "kitsch man." He defines it as the person likely to experience as kitsch even non-kitsch works or situations, a person who involuntarily makes a parody of aesthetic response. (259) So, if we want to somehow reduce the influence of kitsch, we should try and find a way to educate taste. Kitsch is, as many critics of contemporary times argued, a sign and a product of modernity. It is closely associated with economic development and industrialization. It is the cheap or the rather expensive imitation. The aesthetic value is in kitsch replaced by a value that is the result of demand. It's a commercial value and not an artistic one. To answer the question "is kitsch always ironic" we must go again to the definition of kitsch and to analyze it in connection with the concept of irony. Kitsch is, as we have seen, an imitation, a copy, with no value as far as art is concerned. Irony, by definition, is a gap or incongruity between what the speaker says and what is understood. It is also explained as the use of certain words in order to express the opposite of what is really said. So, applied to kitsch, it would refer to the use of art elements, in an attempt to create a copy of it, but with a total different result from the original one - instead of art, it's non-art. The spreading and multiplication of kitsch in our society cannot be reversed anymore, being too connected, as we have already mentioned, with the modern society. But in order to maintain a balance between kitsch and real art, the introduction of a method of educating people in the spirit of true values is needed. Otherwise, they will eventually be forgotten. Bibliography 1. Baudrillard, Jean. The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. London: Sage, 1998 2. Calinescu, Matei. Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism. Durham: Duke University Press, 1987 Read More

 

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