Would you like to make a room for kitsch objects to create some fun in your house? If you hear that it is cool to have kitsch objects in the house these days and there is an American artist who can sell his kitsch art for millions of dollars, what would be your comment on it? Maybe you haven’t become acquainted with kitsch yet, or you completely detest it. It is not a problem because after you read the article you may have a different point of view!
Kitsch versus Art or Kitsch in Art!
Understanding kitsch requires to acquire the meaning of it extendedly. Kitsch means degenerated, banal, inauthentic. However, in everyone’s mind, the meaning of degenerated, banal and inauthentic can be varied. Therefore to understand kitsch it cannot be divided from art. Because in a way kitsch is the opposite of what is called as art from ancient times. The term “from ancient times” refers Ancient Greeks and it also is specified as classic art because the art of today dances on the slippery ground by singing its song with the plurality of voices. Then is there any possibility that kitsch can be classified as another way of expressing reality in art? But what kind of reality is that?
Dog Balloon, Jeff Koons
In The Battle of Reality!
Kitsch can be seen as the puffed version of reality. It is like cotton candy, sweet, colourful, funny but it melts inside your mouth instantly. Just in a little moment you can feel it in your mouth then… Puff! The taste remains for a while but you know that the taste is also artificial. In a way, kitsch is classified as fake art giving fake emotions. Then could it be possible to say that kitsch is the total opposite of what is called as art?
To make a comment on this, it would be useful to indicate the main difference between art and kitsch. The main difference lies in its quality. Art reflects taste and dignity while kitsch reflects cheapness and classlessness. Apart from that, kitsch must be so easy to produce. It can be produced by artisans with many copies just like replicas. So it is easy to understand and it also presents the comfort of being understood. Kitsch also means fun and it gives a space for having fun with the epiphany of reality.
Hanging Heart, Jeff Koons
Where is kitsch?
All of the stuffed information is good but what does kitsch look like really? Actually it is easy to visualize kitsch. Because you can see many little things classified as kitsch in your daily lives, even in your homes! For instance old fashioned china trinket figurines with exaggerated, shoddy colours and expressions, catchpenny Christmas decorations, bad representation of a cartoon character not as the original figure but seen as the copy of the copy. Dreadful clown of your famous artist, objects or the places classified as “arabesque” or just a huge cotton candy hanging from the ceiling of an art gallery or a Hanging Heart!
If kitsch were a place, it would be like a cheap gift shop that you could find weird and funny things with no taste or many tastes! Sometimes very simple things with no meanings and used for nothing. Probably you are able to visualize the kitsch objects one by one that surrounds your daily life!
Michael Jackson and Bubbles, Jeff Koons
Now Think: Kitsch in The House!
What about using kitsch objects in your house as a decorative element? Well, no one wants a huge balloon dog in his/her house because of many reasons such as its size! However, little kitsch objects may create a different atmosphere in your house. If you want to add a little bit of fun and you are keen on throwing a curve in your home decoration then a little bit of kitsch can be suitable for your place! Because kitsch also presents a broad spectrum of decorative accessories for every taste!
Maybe it is the time for being honest right now. If you don’t know the meaning of kitsch you can also love a decorative kitsch object if one of your friends lavishing it as a gift from one of your favourite home decoration store. Could be the kitsch seen as original gift even if it is actually not original but it loses its originality because it is the substitution of the original? Just a question!
Kitsch As An Expensive Form of Art
Main features of the kitsch has been stated. Briefly all over the world, the presence of the kitsch can be seen as cliches. Then why is it accepted and spread all over the world?
Jeff Koons is one of the most reasons for it! Jeff Koons is the most famous representative of producing kitsch in the art world. He deliberately and consciously makes kitsch. As it is indicated before, his works are sold for millions dollars. His works make kitsch popular and have transformed kitsch to an expensive form of art.
What Koons Does?
Koons makes banal objects in popular culture. He actually produces commercial objects and exhibits them as art. While he is producing these works he also uses a different variety of styles such as baroque, rococo or pop art. They are suitable both for kitsch and Koons’ works because the main element of these styles is: Exaggeration. He uses the nostalgic effect of the kitsch. So he finds inspiration from old art styles. Because kitsch also creates nostalgia. You feel like “I have seen this thing in my grandma house while I was a child.”
He makes little pieces perceived like trinkets or religious icons but in huge sizes! He also uses daily life objects like kettles or vacuum. The range of his medium is very wide from porcelain to billboards, balloons to flowers. But what is the aim behind all of this stuff? Making money from art, sure. But is it possible for Koons urging people to think? Or not to think?
Pink Panther, Jeff Koons
Koons also celebrates the victory of the ugliness. His works give pleasure exposing the strange feeling of looking something ugly and weird by looking for some meaning in the work and yourself, as well. One of the main aim of art to create a taste and giving a nice pleasure for the audience. However kitsch subverts the taste. It is like a parody of art. Then do you want to have fun playing with the meaning of art and taste a little bit? If you have a postmodern way of thinking in art, you may want to see a parody of art in your house! Now maybe, it is time to think about kitsch once more!
Seated Ballerina, Jeff Koons,
Ushering In Banality, Jeff Koons
Cover image: Jeff Koons, Gazing Ball (Centaur and Lapith Maiden)
Picture Credits:
Image I https://www.merrittgallery.com/reflections-on-balloon-dog/
Image III https://www.flickr.com/photos/greatestpaka/25724160717
Image IV https://news.artnet.com/art-world/jeff-koons-downsizing-1442788
Imafe V https://stimulacra.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/jeff-koons-pink-panther/
Image VI https://tr.pinterest.com/pin/539306124118581667/
Image VII https://www.flickr.com/photos/jonspence/15385942638
