Abstract

In the context of artistic practice, kitsch and beauty have a similar position being considered as somehow discredited aesthetic categories. Clement Greenberg introduced kitsch as the enemy of avant-garde which should distance itself from the artistic tradition driven by the effort to create “beautiful” objects. So, denying kitsch also means rejecting the tradition where beauty has been the crucial ambition of artistic endeavor. Despite optimistic predictions, the massive comeback of beauty in artistic practice did not take place, and skeptical voices about its role in the arts do not subside. Kitsch has had some space in the postmodernist episode of art history, but it was never taken seriously as such. This paper analyzes the concept of kitsch and its relation to beauty, which offers some lessons for contemporary art and theory. The text reexamines stereotypes and the underlying hierarchical dichotomy between high art and popular culture that have been used to condemn beauty and kitsch in contemporary artistic practice.