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Arts & Communication Kitsch and art

children running on the grass! The second tear says: how 4. Functions of kitsch
nice to be moved, together with all mankind, by children
running on the grass! It is the second tear that makes kitsch So now, the question arises as to what functions works
kitsch.” 40 perceived as kitschy can fulfill and how to evaluate them.
As mentioned, kitsch is often considered commercial. Yet,
This also reminds us of Tolstoy, who wrote that “art is a its commercial side enables wider parts of the population
human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously to be exposed to and actually own some works. This also
by means of certain external signs, hands on to others concerns the relationship of kitsch to what is widely known
feelings he has lived through, and that others are infected as “serious art”: Gustav Klimt’s Kiss or Leonardo’s Mona
by these feelings and also experience them.” Thus, it is Lisa have been countlessly copied and printed on t-shirts,
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about the evocation of a feeling “of spiritual union with plates, ties – maybe this is why so many people know these
another.” Tolstoy here defines art in a similar way to the paintings, and some exposure to art may be preferable to
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rasa theory, and in this way, it is all the more difficult to none.
distinguish art from kitsch.
Another function from the perspective of postmodernism
3.2. Postmodernism is that kitsch can be an eye-opener and contribute to
reflection on oneself and society – depending on how the
Postmodernism is a contested concept: Some define it recipient, who is not seen as a passive part of the process
“as a break with the aesthetic field of modernism […] but as an active agent, chooses to understand it.
others […] frame its rise in the fall of modern myths of
progress and mastery. But all the critics […] hold this But what does it look like when the recipient surrenders
belief in common: that the project of modernity is now completely to the feeling? Here, kitsch’s ideological service
deeply problematic.” Thus, the postmodern has to be has been criticized as “cheaply tinkering with affects, by
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defined against the modern: the modern is characterized presenting pre-digested formulas for interpreting reality, or
by an “Enlightenment Weltanschauung, a belief in the by offering an illusory appeasement for fundamental human
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omnipotence and liberating potential immanent in the needs.” This reminds us of the Frankfurter School’s way
application of reason and science to both the natural of thinking, which states that consuming Kulturindustrie
environment and to social relations.” It can be understood will distract people from political consciousness and
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as a consequence of urbanization, industrialization, and engagement, thus only servicing the status quo. However,
the French Revolution. one has to ask: “For if the world is indeed a meaningless
conglomeration of facts, does not Kitsch offer us the only
Postmodernism, on the other hand, has been understood escape from the absurdity of man?” Solomon argues that
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as both a further development and reaction to modernism, the typical attack on sentimentalism is, in fact, an attack
“united by a self-proclaimed commitment to heterogeneity, on emotion and psychological well-being itself, and he
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fragmentation, and difference.” Therefore, it means, accuses kitsch’s critics of coldness and cynicism. Some
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among others, acknowledging the limits of rationality that theorists have thus connected kitsch with an escape and
has become apparent not only in the natural sciences but reconciliation with the world, or the “denial of shit,”
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also in transcultural contexts and thus connects to the excluding “everything from its purview which is essentially
previous point. Postmodernism, as confusing as the term unacceptable in human existence” —which, in itself, can
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may be, is characterized by the abandonment of grand be considered a strategy to promote one’s well-being and a
narratives – and consequently by a rather relativistic political stance.
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attitude – and self-reflexivity, which often includes irony.
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In this context, Mecacci has introduced the term “neo- In this context, kitsch has been, in particular, described
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kitsch.” as “inextricably linked to nostalgia in the past decade.”
Originally, the term “nostalgia” referred to something
Postmodernism has added a new perspective on kitsch, absent in space but has since been transferred to
“a re-enchantment […] of the world that modernity tried something absent in time. However, it is about something
hard to dis-enchant,” as an answer to Weber’s definition that apparently cannot be experienced in “real life” apart
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of modernity as “.disenchantment of the world.” (Even from the indulgence in kitsch. This may suit McBride’s
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though this point of view may be contestable, Maltby 50 observation that “kitsch reifies concepts by depriving them
In postmodern art, we encounter works by Jeff Koons or of the imprint of lived experience, by erasing the singularity
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Pierre et Gilles that consciously work with the concept of and ambiguity of emotional life.” Yet, just as rasa theory
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“kitsch.” Significantly, Jeff Koons called his 1988 exhibition has shown, emotional experience does not have to be
Banality and made US$3 million from it, resulting in the ambiguous, and certain emotions can be triggered in a
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soaring prices of his objects. targeted way. Further, the lack of “singularity” mentioned by
Volume 2 Issue 3 (2024) 4 doi: 10.36922/ac.2990