1860
Kitsch
description
Bad taste as art.
Kitsch is an art movement where works are focused on the needs of everyday consciousness and mass production, bought “for comfort”, as a keepsake, as a gift. Kitsch works were created by both professional craftsmen and amateurs.
Translated from German Kitsch – bad taste, hack, cheap stuff, kitschen – to do somehow.
Kitsch is postcards, paintings, figurines, souvenirs, sculptures.
The term originated in 1860 in Germany to refer to art objects that were produced for American buyers and sold in European markets.
Key features:
– mass production – mass consumption;
– excessive sentimentality and melodrama;
– simplicity of forms, low cost of materials, lack of painstaking work;
– repetition of the aesthetics of already existing templates;
– beauty is replaced by superficial prettiness;
– noble features of kitsch – sarcasm, self-irony.
There are masters whose work is an exception. For example, Jeff Koons uses high-quality materials and innovative technologies; that is why his work is among the most expensive ones among works of contemporary artists.
Key masters: Victor Lyapkalo, Rolf Ost, Jeff Koons and others.
Key works:
Banja. 2004. Viktor Lyapkalo (painting);
Vater Unser. 2016. Rolf Ost (painting);
Balloon dog. Jeff Koons (sculpture).
description
An American artist and sculptor, one of the most popular and expensive masters of our time. Jeff Koons is a representative of Neo-pop art, which is a continuation of Pop art and focuses on the interests and needs of modern society.The artist’s works are mainly installations and sculptures. The subjects of art for Koons are everyday things, which in the author’s interpretation become symbols of a certain phenomenon that occupies the minds of ordinary people. The most famous works of the artist are brilliant metal sculptures made in the form of balloons. The most well-known one is the “Balloon Dog” figure, which attracts with its simplicity and festive mood.Jeff Koons treats his work as a commercial project, distributing and advertising his art as a special type of product. According to the author himself, his work does not express any deep ideas and subtext. They are a beautiful but meaningless thing, for which the artist is often called the "master of kitsch". Many art lovers openly hate Jeff Koons for selling tasteless sculptures for a great deal of money and often using works by other authors to create his statues. However, despite all this, the works of the American sculptor are in high demand from the public, which forces art critics to change their ideas about what contemporary fine art looks like.
1955