Art Cannot Exist Without Kitch - Essay Example

Student’s name Course code+name Professor’s name University name Date of submission Table of Contents 1.0.Introduction 3 2.0.Marcel Duchamp Art Works and Kitsch 4 3.0.Kitsch-Jeff Koon Art Works and Kitsch 6 4.0.Marcel Duchamp Art can exist without Kitsch 9 5.0.Jeff Koon Art can exist without Kitsch 11 6.0.Conclusion 12 7.0.References 13 1.0. Introduction There have been arguments and counter arguments put forward by researches to show that art cannot exist without Kitsch. All these arguments tend to show the extent to which Kitsch has influenced art since the 19th century to date. Going by contemporary arguments, Kitsch is believed to have originated in the mid-19th century from a German word Kitschen meaning to collect rubbish from the street (Chilvers and Riemann, 1976). During this time, Kitsch gained much use more so in advertisements. Another school of thought argues that Kitsch originated in the art markets of Munich in the 1960’s and 1970’s describing cheap, popular, and marketable pictures and sketches (Thomas, 1995). Thomas posits that Kitsch is a professional experience “born in a painters studio” and not in the streets (p. 24). Kitsch is a low brow furnished style of mass produced art or designed using popular and/or cultural icons (Chilvers and Riemann, 1976). It is also referred to as tacky---meaning unsubstantial or too bright works or decoration or gaudy, or works that are calculated to have popular appeal. On the other hand, visual counter-culture refers to any kind of visual artwork inspired by the symbolic realm embodied in the art object itself (Nam, 1974). It opposes the main culture and allows its proponents to correct the flaws that may be carried forward in the main culture and rectify in due time. The term readymade according to Alloys (2004 refers to “any ordinary object elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the choice of an artist” (p. 57). Based on these definitions, this paper seeks to critically assess the works of Marcel Duchamp and Jeff Koon and show how Kitsch has facilitated their works. 2.0. Marcel Duchamp Art Works and Kitsch According to Greenberg (1993), everything considered Kitsch has been reclaimed; the idea that pop music is junk today is quite rightly inconceivable. This brands Kitsch a kind of art that seems to care nothing for taste-and this has become a crucial prop to modern culture at a time when “serious” art may have little to it beyond a declaration of superior judgment. Thus an empty room with a folk song playing in it is not likely to be dismissed as kitsch-it may fairly be banal, but it is not vulgar, ostentatious and garish. Kitsch serves as an opposite against which the non-Kitsch defines itself. The significance of Greenberg’s description is to show how Marcel Duchamp’s idea in Kitsch was conceivable in the contemporary culture and in the development of conceptual art. Conceptualization of Greenberg ideologies have also been echoed by Thomas (1995). He says, “If works of art were judged democratically---liked by many people--- Duchamp would easily defeat its competitors” (p. 87). This is best portrayed when Duchamp’s work of Fountain was excluded from exhibition by The Society of Independent Artists in 1917 due to very discriminative arguments. Deeper analysis of this argument posits that Thomas revealed that the Society feared the magnificent work that the Fountain demonstrated hence failure to include it in the catalogues for exhibition. As such, it depicts an artwork that itself had qualities embodied in it that paved way for modern art thus the concept that art could not have existed without Kitsch. According to Danto (1996), the essence of art was laid bare by Andy Warhol in his Brillo’s box that matched a definition of the art world context. In his work, what made a difference in the end between a Brillo’s box and a work of art is the theory of art. This implied that art, if left in such a context was arbitrary and could have influenced little the contemporary art (Kaprow, 1993). Danto believed that this artwork gave birth to the post-modern era by demonstrating that art could absolutely look like something. This assertion opposed Greenberg’s aesthetic restrictions that postmodern art was open ended subspecies of philosophy. Such ‘readymades’ were marveled as exotic beauties and have since then been transformed into niceties of good and high art objects by Greenberg works. Furthermore, Duchamp in his conceptualized theory of the readymades purports that the act of choosing itself qualified objects as art. Moreover, the ordinary urinal was metamorphosed into an admirable artwork by Duchamp; it generated a lot of new meanings to a philosophical discourse of art. The urinal which never was meant to be an object of any aesthetic value, later plainly emerged out of the odds to be brilliantly-paradoxical artistic and aesthetic concept. Duchamp Fountain represents an aesthetic object which is one of the most thought provoking icon and one which is highly conceptualized art. Duchamp asserts that, “my Fountain may be yours.” In this, he meant that each spectator should help in creating the art by helping in interpreting it and such his ideas could find application in the modernized art. Duchamp (1980) believed that a perfect art object was a creation of conglomerate; not an individuated object as such but one whose qualities would be universally marveled. According to Pistolleto’s work of 1967 (Rag Wall) (Herman and Walter, 2000), he makes an opulent and exotic tapestry in loose and discarded fabric that many viewers demonstrated how the future of conceptual art significantly depended on such a magnificent work. This work received massive feedback from the viewers. This Pistolleto’s first solo work was a stepping stone to his advancement in the field of art. Beatrice (1989) asserts, “Marcel Duchamp has already done everything there is to do, except video. Only through video art, we can get ahead of Marcel Duchamp because he has explicitly conceptualized Kitsch” (p. 67). Similarly, Christopher (1998) argues that the event that made conceivable the realization that it was possible to ‘speak another language’ and still make sense in art was Marcel Duchamp’s firs unassisted readymade that was helped by Kitsch. With unassisted readymade, art changed its focus from the form of the language to what was being said. This change from appearance to conception was the beginning of modern art and the beginning of conceptual art. All art after Duchamp’s is conceptual because good art only exist conceptually. All these show that Duchamp in his works is the father of Art; the most influential art of the 20th century. His readymades radically contributed to the current art scene. Much of this is explained in his ltraditional theory that states “reality is nothing but a projection of minds” (Jeff, 1999, p. 19). Duchamp’s readymades represented ordinary objects that he selected with a view to modifying, as antidote to “retinal art”. Retinal art which was only visual did not appeal and sought other methods of expression. Duchamp selected the pieces in terms of their visual indifference that represented sense of humor, irony and ambiguity. In this method the idea never came first and therefore the observers viewed this as a form of denying the possibility of defining art thus delinking his works from Kitsch. 3.0. Kitsch-Jeff Koon Art Works and Kitsch Jeff Koon, since his emergence, blended the methods and concerns of conceptual, pop and appropriation art with popular culture and craft-making to lay bare his unique iconography, frequently engaging and controversial. His works explore broadly obsession with desire and sex, gender and race; and media, celebrity, fame and commerce. By involving technicians and artisans for his actual works, Koon suggests that the artist’s hand is not the important issue. He maintains that art is really just communication of a concept and the more archetypical it can be, the more communicative it is. This suggests that Koon work had direct bearing on the modern art. Koon’s signal of the undisputed achievement is the fact that his artwork rarely elicited moderate responses. He followed basically on the least expected objects as models. This presented “good taste” in art and revealed less on the vulnerability of value systems and hierarchies. According to Christopher (1998), he turns the traditional cliché of the work of art inside out: Rather than embodying a spiritual or expressive essence of a highly individuated artist, art work here is composed from a distinctly American set of conventional middle class values thus embodying Kitsch. Since 1980, Koon’s works has widely been exhibited internationally in group and solo exhibition. His recent solo shows such as the Astrup Feanley Museum of Modern Art, Helsinki City Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Jeff Koon Versailles Chateau de Versailles depicted elements of Art Works and Kitsch. In all these exhibitions he transformed art by appropriation and recontextualization of ordinary objects. He transformed ordinary objects such as the vacuum cleaners, decanters, basketballs, liquor decanters and inflatable toys into artwork that distinguished the boundaries between high art and popular taste. This gives a clear demonstration that modern art depended and derived a lot from Kitsch. Koon in his artwork addressed social issues such as class roles and consumerism within today’s society. In 1980 for instance, he was able to transform vacuum cleaners and challenged the view to consider the cleaner as an artistic object. According to Jeff (1999), Koon was able to transform a Rabbit that started as an inflatable plastic toy. Koon bought the toy, blew it up and cast it into a highly polished stainless steel. Initially, the toy appeared a whimsical art work and was blank and could raise a lot of questions about what constituted a “high art”. However, in its finished state, it appeared lightweight, shiny, and hard. At this moment, the transformed Rabbit appeared to seduce the viewer and as such it addressed consumerism and luxury in 1980’s. Polished objects have often been displayed by church and wealthy people to get stage of both material security and enlighten spiritual nature. This transformation resonates well with most modern art objects used in churches and by wealthy people. In the contemporary culture, Jeff Koon’s Rabbit resembles the Bugs Bunny, the Easter Bunny, Richard Adams novel Water ship Down, Energizer Bunny and Lab animals. The artistic qualities of Trump Tower of 1980 are compared to varied features in the contemporary art in relation to the luxury and consumerism. According to Koon the Reagan-era economy also compares to today’s economy showing resemblance in qualities and features. In Koon’s first major solo artwork entitled appropriately exhibited at New York New Museum of Contemporary Art also captures Kitsch. In this work was a grade –school photo of Koon, earnest and dutiful. His face appeared embryonically indeterminate, soft and full of promise; his hair perfectly shiny and his arms smooth. According to Alloys (2004), the term newness describes “a special kind of appeal some objects have for human viewers” (p. 36). Herman and Walter (2000) indicate that Riegl’s newness shows a kind of imperviousness or immortality to decay. It reminds the viewers of Eden suggesting stability to a crumbling world and provides comfort. By Koon including his grade school photo he demonstrated how mindful he was of lost innocence. The New Jeff Koon’s photo was only not only about the fact of mortality but also the dazzle of freshness, a key feature in high art. Moreover, The New showed how Jeff Koon objectified himself by creating his own persona of a piece using artifacts such as canned drinks and cars. The New Jeff Koon image was a unique kind of token of self-consciousness that revealed true mania of artists. This is vividly recaptured in all the Koon’s work that tried to recapture childhood; the way it portrays glamour, the way it feels and the way it welcomes promise at face value. The New Jeff Koon signifies a man’s pursuit of an idea; idea explored through life as a performance. According to Jeff (1999), Koon asserts that, “I have always tried to be sincere in my work to make art that enriches people’s lives” (p. 104). He views Kitsch; a transcendent thing; a good in a world of daunting complexity, filth and pessimism. 4.0. Marcel Duchamp Art can exist without Kitsch Going by recent arguments such as that of Herman and Walter (2000) the essence of Kitsch is imitation: Kitsch mimics its immediate predecessor with no or very little regard to ethics. It aims to copy the beautiful, not the good. In this, Herman portrays Kitsch as an art object that had no influence on the contemporary and modern art. It lacks new innovations and as such is a useless imitation that never influenced modern art. Broch portrays art as ‘dirty’ and negative to an extent that it lacked ethics. According to Kapprow (1993), “it offers instantaneous emotional gratification without intellectual effort, the requirement of distance, and sublimation”(pp. 210). Critically, this basically shows how Kitsch might have failed to elicit immediate emotional appeal hence had less bearing on the modernized art. It shows Kitsch as a readymade for utilization purposes only and not to serve little for intellectual lessons. In addition, Kitsch is considered a negative product and used as a pejorative statement. Kitsch is described by scholars as tacky and gaudy art that leaves little to admire (Danto, 1996). Actually this brings the notion that Kitsch is a negative term that contains a negative moral dimension to mass produced inferior art. Kitsch seemed to be less appealing thus there could be little to add up to the development of conceptual art. Moreover observers looked at Kitsch with contempt and little admiration, as art object that in itself contained no aesthetic value to influence the advancement in art. Fountain of 1917 was one of the iconoclastic artwork of Duchamp. This was perfect existing example of Duchamp’s readymade. But with this, Duchamp was so irreducible to an extent that everything else could not compare the depths more subversively, more resonantly, more completely and more wittily. With Fountain Duchamp was able to pioneer the concepts of minimal art, low art and conceptual art. This portrayal displays a picture that perhaps the modern and contemporary art could exist without Kitsch. There was little value that low and minimal art could impact on the modern art. According to Beatrice (1998), Duchamp’s Fountain was not exhibited anywhere else except in the Duchamp’s studio. It was entered in the Society Exhibit though rejected from the exhibition due to decency reasons. Wood argues that due to the Fountains base association with excreta and bathrooms, it was gross and indecent object that deserved not to be exhibited. In addition, Wood argues that Fountains placement as a urinal object rendered it non-functional since it was still connected to other toilets thus it never deserved an arts’ status. The second argument as to why the Fountain was not exhibited was based on authorship. This appeared when he wanted to hide his identity by adding the encryption “R Mutt 1917” on the Fountain, but apparently there was no R Mutt. Christopher (1998) referred to the Fountain as a found object as it was not made physically by Duchamp. According to these two arguments, the Fountain therefore did not deserve to be classified as art work that could not be exhibited. 5.0. Jeff Koon Art can exist without Kitsch In the Sculpture Jeff and the wife Ilona (Made in Heaven), Jeff and his wife lie rapturous and prone on a rock encircled by a snake. This sculpture is portrayed as gaudy, garish and that which lacks artistic values appealing to human. However, much positive qualities of good art it might have contained, many viewers marveled as a negative connotation; as a low art. As such, it had little positive influence on the future of the art. Koon’s artistic work in equilibrium and Banality (1988) widely were regarded perhaps as exploitative, crass and derivatives celebrations of culture within the consumers. The manner in which Koon’s represented some of his works was a proof of suckiness of modern art and wickedness of the cultural appeals. Scholars viewed his works with a lot of hostility, talentlessness and charges of sacrilege. This shows how art would have existed without Kitsch. According to Beatrice (1998), the Banality of Koons work showed that his art work on the whole was sub-Wharolian conceptual horseshit, art that only the rich people marveled and not the populist. It was a symbol of rarification of the high art. In addition, this branded Koon as an avatar living in an age of consumerism and shallow celebrity. The vapidity of his work was seen as a cop-out, with low-brow art that was Kitsch; that was a populist. It is a “pop” art and not a pop art; art for people who cared about having something to argue about, but art that never speaks to people. According to Danto (1996), Koon in his works, emphasized the idea that divide between low and high art was unnecessary and arbitrary. This art created a negative effect that robbed popular culture of its popular nature elevating to a stratified level where other artist would not have conceptualized easily. Art therefore developed without Koon’s concepts and ideas. 6.0. Conclusion In view of the discussions above, in Marcel Duchamp’s work, it can be learnt that any artist who has established his presence to manifest itself in the form of a personal achievement; essentially should be followed from a path that interests human and trust ourselves enough with that path as long as it does not eventually cause human misery. In this vein, Marcel Duchamp’s work was worth imitating as it carried the aesthetic qualities that satisfied good art. The mustache on Mona Lisa makes a clearly basic point about the fluidity of the depths and identity to which race, gender and nationality are encoded into vision. As such art should be accepted regardless of race, nationality or gender as was depicted in the post-modern America. In addition, in Koon’s work, a key feature learnt was timing, discreetness and a restraint that only lay bare late in 20th century. Duchamp’s inspired art both intellectually and practically. He transformed the readymades into very good artistic objects that to a score of observers looked marvelous and admirable. 7.0. References Alloys, R. (2004), Explaining Post-modernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau and Foucault, Temple AZ: Scholarly Press. Beatrice, W. (1998), The Writings of Jeff Koon: New York, Da Capo Press. Chilvers, A. and Riemann, H. (1976), A dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art. Oxford University Press. Christopher, K. (1998), Mona Lisa. Who is Hidden Behind the Woman with the Mustache: London Press. Danto, C. (1996), Koon: A Biography. New York, Henry Holt and Company. Greenberg, G. (1993). The Language of Art Knowledge, Elsevier. CRC Press. Herman, B and Walter, J. (2000), Godels Artistic Theorem, New York; New York University Press. Jeff, K. (1999), Profile of a Prodigy: Courier Dover Publications. Kapprow, A. (1993), The Private Worlds of Marcel Duchamp, California Press. Nam, J. (1974), The Language of Art Knowledge. Pomegrante Communications Inc. Thomas, K. (1995), Science and Hypothesis. London; Walter Scott Publishing Company. Read More