I've always thought of kitsch as overly decorated, overworked, mass produced commodified art meant for venues outside of museums and galleries. I can see describing Jeff Koon's work of late 80s - 90s as perfect kitsch, (Michael Jackson & Bubbles, Cicciolina, the whole x-rated series) but then he performs a oneupsmanship on that very definition by showing his kitsch pieces in those very venues. I just can't see where Nerdrum is coming from in relationship to the phrase other than just applying his own definition to gain further attention and turn the spotlight on himself. I need to do a bit more reading up on this, but I think your words apt, Ann.
Plus, it really is a damned interesting subject. Just what the hell is kitsch in arts/literature these days?
Best,
PK
ann klefstad wrote:
I've been following Nerdrum's experiments in rhetoric for some time--he does these
same type of paintings, and they're not kitsch, really, but they have been labeled
so by some, critics for whom this sort of thing is just a bit too "wet," you know,
so Nerdrum seems to be embarked on a reverse cooptation crusade, to snatch his own
work from the critical forum, to abrogate for himself the right to insult them,
which, in the course of the developing rhetoric, becomes a way to valorize them.
It's all very Norwegian. Just like my family . . .AK
His theme in recent years has been gender and the processes of the human body, seen in any works depicting hermaphrodite figures in which man and woman merge. In late 1997, Nerdrum declared that he had gradually come to the conclusion that he was a kitch painter. But he believes that art and kitch have changed places today. While art is permeated by irony and disassociation, kitch represents a profoundly serious approach. Kitch is private, appealing to the individual. Nerdrum has apologized to his critics, since he now considers that he was sailing under a false flag when he described himself as an artist.
allen bukoff wrote:
> in the email today...
>
> ODD NERDRUM - KITSCH PAINTER
> Reykjavík Art Museum - Kjarvalsstadir
> April 7th - May 27th, 2001
>
> Opening his first exhibition in Iceland, Odd Nerdrum ask his critics to
> forgive
> him, since he now considers that he was sailing under a false flag when he
> described himself as an artist.
>
> For full information please click below:
> http://www.e-flux.com/decode.php3?cid=493
>
> Odd Nerdrum’s challenging statements in the media have won him a place in the
> public eye. The paintings in this exhibition demonstrate his developments from
> the mid 1980s, particularly his most recent works in which he provocatively
> labels himself as a kitch painter.
> .................................
>
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