Avant-Garde and Kitsch - Essay Example

Avant-Garde and Kitsch Clement Greenberg was an American art critic who was associated with Modern art in the United s, with a strong focus onabstract expressionism. As a critic, he wrote the essay “Avant-Garde and Kitsch,” which claimed that avant-garde and modernist art were used as resistance against the dumbing down of culture caused by consumerism and capitalism. Greenberg called this “kitsch” and it immediately caught on and became a household name. In his essay, Greenberg discussed that art was no longer what it used to be when capitalism took over and attempted to define what art was and how it should appear.

Through avant-garde and modernist art, artists were able to rebel against what was expected of them, continuing to make art the way they felt it should be made - with no regard to the opinion of others. There are no boundaries, limits or laws to art, and avant-garde and modernism saw to it that the concept of art remained that way. Greenberg further discussed how avant-garde and modernist art were methods in which to mock the idea of consumerism and capitalism. Artists refused to be taken over by such ridiculous concepts, so they used their talents to express their feelings in regard to such concepts.

Furthermore, artists used the idea of Academic art to make this point. At times, the artists would follow rules and formulations that had once been used to make art something that could be learned, so that others may easily use it to express themselves. They, of course, used this along with their avant-garde and modernistic depictions, as to further mock the concepts of capitalism and consumerism.