What is Kitsch?

The artworld has been focusing on Kitsch for over 100 years became, basically we living a time in which Kitsch took over and only a few people recognize it. Thank you for sharing your video with this great content that has been confusing not only art viewers but also art collectors and even some artists.

So basically: Kitsch is trashy-- not just because of the commercialized pandering aspects of it, but also because it appears to lack any self-awareness. If people see a kitschy piece of art and have an un-ironic love for something so basic & soul-less, then it's classified as kitsch yeah? But if you have self-awareness, and use kitschy themes in a critical way, then it becomes kitsch-art and at some point, if exaggerated a bit further for irony's sake, then it becomes camp. Camp is a little more flamboyant than just regular kitsch-art I think. Admittedly this is all just a little bit confusing, but I think I'm starting to understand it.

I read "Kitsch" and all I could think of was the Tekken 4 beach stage..

Thank you for this video, helped sort out a concept that's poorly-defined and confusing elsewhere I've looked. Music at the very end startled me though, lol.

One of the most banger soundtracks in all of Tekken.

Thanks for the wonderful explanation, I think I need to redecorate the living room.

probably the most informative video on kitsch on the web.

excellent overview.

This is both a good introduction to kitsch and a good vocabulary builder.

Kitsch? Camp? Groovy!🎉

This is why I have a giant wooden fork and spoon in my kitchen, a wicker peacock chair ala Huey P. Newton in my living room, along with a 1970's black leather sofa that makes me feel like Shaft

Kitsch can definitely be used artistically! Apparently, I love "camp!" and thank you for the new vocabulary.

I'll come with a strange standpoint. I might be someone who'd be considered a Kitsch artist if we follow this video, maybe a Camp artist, though I'd not agree with either. I use the word "art" for what I do purely for convenience's sake, but I don't like calling myself an artist. My main medium is digital painting, I've been learning it since 2017 and I describe myself as a digital Kitsch painter. My main reason is how I value how kitsch aims to be an improvement and idealization of reality. What the video refers to as kitsch art vs kitsch is a thing I see as either kitsch with a focus or kitsch without a focus. I don't use kitsch ironically in my digital paintings to make art instead, I use kitsch the way it is, I only do my best to keep it focused instead of getting into the totally lost version of it if that makes sense. One example I could use is I aim for using kitsch the way Norman Rockwell used it and not like Thomas Kinkade did, though I do like and find value in the works of both. The difference for me is how Rockwell always aimed to tell a story, to put his technical skills to use, and keep his works focused instead of overwhelming. I have this ongoing "series" of paintings, every Christmas season I make at least 1 digital painting that is highly inspired by the aesthetics of Kinkade, but I always focus on characters similarly to how Rockwell did. I just absolutely love to make these and to make them in a way that can (at least I hope so) touch people to some degree. Other thing about a more recent work of mine is when I made my own version of Picasso's Guernica, only with a semi-realistic digital painting style and with a contemporary theme about the war in Ukraine, and I titled the piece 'Kherson'. Instead of depicting the pure chaos of the scene like the original, I focused on making detailed and more realistically rendered disturbing elements. Pretty much my idea was that the "prettier" the picture ends up being the more it will carry the mixture of hate and grief that I feel. I did want people to look at it and say "what am I even looking at, this is horrendous!" I also made it so it looks like a blend of a Hollywood movie poster and a death metal album cover that are meant to make it feel more 21st century. The only thing I really don't understand (and I'm sure people will say that it explains a lot) is what do people even mean by having a good or a bad taste? From what I gathered what people call tasteless for the most part is something that lacks focus and message. I always aim to have focus and I mostly go for a clear message even if that isn't deeper than a depiction of an emotion. Would people say that it's enough to at least have a passable taste, or is that something completely different? I live and breath kitsch, I both enjoy and make it unironically and I find move value in a work of kitsch that has 1% art in it instead of an artwork that has 1% kitsch. I value the beauty and technical execution of works of kitsch given the fact that they don't lose their focus. I love many works of Kinkade, but not the ones where he made giant pieces with many Disney characters that are just aimlessly scattered around and would objectively work much better if we sliced them apart into 10 different pictures. I like the technical execution behind his many cottages for example even if they don't interest me nearly as much as characters from the aforementioned Rockwell that were skillfully executed by someone I consider a master of representational figure painting. I just realized this comment kinda lost focus too, but I just wanted to briefly type it out, maybe to make some people think and see it differently, maybe to get some thoughts if someone wants to add to it or find a better term for me.

Very interesting. I have come across many misunderstandings about kitsch in everyday life. Maybe this video can help. It also reminds me Magda Szabo's book "The Door" where people try to explain to somebody what kitsch is.

Brb boutta put my Rembrandt in the elevator

very interesting!!

My professor described my art as kitsch the other day, and I wasn’t sure whether to be offended or not. If I’m honest, I’m just trying to grasp a better understanding of the concept and history of Kitsch 😅😂

Thank you for this presentation; fascinating; I love camp and kitsch; also the grotesque and the incongruous; surrealism fascinates me; Kafka makes more sense to me than rule-book religions - Kafka was real - rules are made to be broken; high church - especially the Arseys - if you get my drift, mostly have too much of it and often not enough of it either/or; I once had an affair with a priest - I am gay and he was a sinner; anyone who has a passionate relationship with his Jesus is - exactly; and Francis Bacon's triptychs are powerfully, profoundly and shockingly kitsch; yes/no?

I feel like this video is an update on the work of Gillo Flores 🌹 very interesting !

Think - Bob Ross. Is this comment kitsch?