There are two articles about the art in mass media, I’ve read
– “The Avant-Garde and Kitsch” and “The Arts and the Mass Media”. Those texts
are about “kitsch” – the type of art made by formulas, and about its role in art
and society. The first one made me think “Oh, there are some issues in the modern
world”, the second one turned it into “And so what?”.
I really hate blaming modern society. I could even say
blaming it is popular in a way. But yet I should admire that we do have
problems with kitsch. I really enjoy watching some cinema and cartoon critics,
and I often hear similar statements to “Kitsch is mechanical and operates
by formulas” (Willette, 2011), especially cartoons. The statement is not art but a product.
Like companies are not interested in some originality or new thoughts, and it
is much easier to make sequels by a formula of less effort and much profit to
make sure the money will be earned. And it is easier for the audience too – parents
are taking children to watch a movie with 100% friendly content, being sure no
tricky questions will be asked after.
Of course, it is an issue. As long as people are happy about
the content, and companies are earning money, there would be no point to change
the system and the formula. And there is less space to original ideas that need
people, effort, and money to be created. Even those type of things that could be
made by one person are going to be drawn and never seen in thousands of kitschy
copies.
But could we say kitsch is “bad” and shouldn’t be even
considered as art? Well, I always was pretty liberal to any art forms and
ideas. Everything has the right to be called art. Even if we are talking about the pop-music,
that could be blamed by musicians, it is too easy, and you shouldn’t put much
effort and to have the talent to create it, it is still may sound good, and someone
to enjoy it. Everything is fine as long we are not forced to make kitsch and
only kitsch. And destroying it would be a huge loss. “...rejection of the mass-produced arts is not, as critics think, a defense of culture but an attack on
it” (Alloway, 1958).
Kitsch might be inspiring. A lot of people I know started
their art by copying something popular and soulless, to developing it in
something original and soulful in the future. Also, kitsch has a part of merit
art is everywhere nowadays. It is not anymore about your choice, but about having
no chance to ignore it. Even if mostly it is about kitsch, it still an art, and
it is a chance for people to discover themselves as artists.
Of course, nowadays we have some problems with kitsch, being
taken as the best model of mass media art creation. It imposes itself and
sometimes even truly displaces other art. But it also creates people being
displeased upon it and creating something better. It also inspires people to
get started with art so some of them could understand repeating kitsch is a road
to nowhere and changing the style and the goal to something bigger than it.
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