Despre fenomenul kitsch
Around the Kitsch Phenomenon

Summary/Abstract: According to dictionaries, kitsch is defined as a term that has been used to designate an object of bad taste, a reproduction on industrial-scale of copies of artworks with the purpose of commercial capitalization. Another approach of the term refers to all those pseudo-art objects that promote bad taste, firstly through the low qyuality of materials that exclusively replace the original ones, then by the symbolism they transmit, i.e. the imitation of art-works from a simplistic perspective in which the rigors of valuable artistic creations are abandoned. If one considered only the above definition, this would mean a simplistic approach for an ample phenomenon that penetrated not only the artistic field, but also society, starting with 1860-1870, when the term kitsch appears for the first time. Starting with this period, the kitsch phenomenon has had a perpetual evolution, changing into a concept that makes reference to different levels of the social existence. That is why the paradigm of the term becomes an extensive one: the kitsch –man, the kitsch behavior and mentality, the kitsch language or the invasion of the elements characterizing the phenomenon in today’s mass media. It is also worth considering the synonymous series of the term that mainly includes a negative conotation(bad taste,dilettantism, stereotype, lack of originality etc.), neglecting an aspect that can relativize the paradigm: if kitsch had not existed, we would not have known what real art is.

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