Ricardo Borsatto Faria

Artistry, Society and Avant-Garde

Fall 2015
Prof. Antony Scibilia
Reading Response 6: Greenberg/Katsifiacas

The War between Genuine Art and Kitsch

(454 Words)
In his essay entitled Aesthetic and Political Avant-Gardes(2003), George Katsiaficas
says that the definition of the term avant-garde, although has evolved since its origin,
implies both aesthetic innovation and political engagement, which would be used to
propel society forward.
Accordingly Katsificas, the origin of the term Avant-Garde was merged in Europe in
the 1820s, when Realists like Honore Daumier and Jean Francis Millet advocated that
art could play an emancipatory role in society. The canvas Stonebreakers, painted by
Gustave Courbet in 1849 is a perfect example of the relation between Avant-Garde and
political engagement.
In 1939, Clement Greenberg in his Avant-Garde and Kitsch arguments that the avantgarde had detached successfully from politics, and turned to search for the absolute,
the imitation of imitation, the invention and arrangement of spaces, surfaces, shapes
and colors became the central piece of that form of Art to the point that terms such as
art for arts sake and pure poetry gains monumental importance. Katsificas attributes
this detachment to the emphasis on abstract and Cubism on detriment of Dada,
Surrealism and Constructivism.
Art forms such as Cubism have raised a problem as these forms of expression, even
when expressing political concerns, would require a certain elitism in order to be
comprehended. That is the reason why a popular and more commercial culture has

always been in the rear-guard of avant-garde. Greenberg uses the german term
Kitsch, to refer to this art form that, that in his own words, uses for raw material the
debased and academicized simulacra of genuine culture, welcomes and cultivates this
insensibility. Kitsch art would be directed into commercial values, being a vicarious
experience with faked sensations. It was created in order to fill the demand of the new
market created by the economical ascension of peasants, which had profits for
acquiring art but no cultural background in order to understand abstract art forms. In
other words, Kitsch would be a synthetic art, which provides a short cut to the pleasure
of art, a digested art, easier to be understood. On the other hand, genuine art must
belong to the Reflected effect, on which a painting must be enoughly projected into
the sensitive spectator in order to provoke reaction with its plastic qualities.
To sum up, the commercial value of Kitsch, that was used to promote totalitarian
regimes due to its direct communication to the spectator, has contributed to the
detriment of Avant-Garde art, whose artists are constantly tempted to the enormous
profits that the Kitsch provides. Genuine art is only preserved between artists who have
a true passion for what they do, and believe in Art as a way of expressing themselves,
propelling society forwards, being that in as an aesthetically or political fashion.