........................................................................................ - a weBlog by Snowy and me.

Sunday 20 January 2013

I Would Find Kitsch

easier to accept if  there were less of it.
But I know with my hopes I am missing its point.
Kitsch is the process of a high level of productivity
allied to minimal thought, to use a high volume
of materials, all the more to closely mirror
the economic model it is built on.
This industrial scale creativity, like all capitalism,
will make the most driven people famous.
The light of their fame will casts long shadows
over the many, for whom living in the small scale
can only mean a life of relative anonymity.

5 comments:

  1. Bearz,

    "Industrial scale creativity"

    Perfect description of the likes of Bob Ross and the even slimier Thomas Kinkade, who is covered in this book review, "Bullshit Heaven."

    http://www.tnr.com/book/review/thomas-kinkade#

    I guess since America is an expert in "industrial murder," according to Chris Hedges, the citizens reckon that buying a million pictures of a quaint English cottage will make things pretty again.



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    Replies
    1. I am unsure what started me writing this but one strong memory I have is of watching what seemed to be the definitive television documentary on Andy Warhol, who called his studio a factory and in my view exhibited every symptom of having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. He could not stop himself making art and for a while in his factory he created an environment where he withheld from himself all reason to stop, but whilst living out the OCD he seemed in a limited way to be 'happy'.

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  2. Jed Perl, while rightly dismissing Ross and Kinkade as "schlocky" (another Yiddish word, Malc) unfortunately puts Picasso on a much higher level, alongwith Matisse. This shows poor quality of judgement...a case of Following the Art Crowd. Picasso is ultra-schlocky, the Master of Sentimental Cruelty, largely colour-blind, seemingly unaware of the textural possibilities of paint, whose best works by far are his sculptures and ceramics.

    So, in a way, everything is down to opinion..

    :-)

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  3. auban,

    Yes...the "Master of Sentimental Cruelty"! You've put into words what I couldn't. And every creepy Playboy-wannabe in the '60s here in the US had one of his ugly prints along with the smoking jacket, pipe, and hi-fi!

    And since everything is a matter of opinion, sometimes I feel guilty judging the poor wretches who buy this junk. After all, they are at least trying to put beauty into their lives. However, I can't maintain the pity. I always veer back into disgust.

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  4. Just let go of judgment.
    Use your other face. The one that is looking the other way.

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