The Kitsch Movement

The Kitsch Movement is an international movement of classical figurative painters, which define kitsch on similar basis with Aristotle’s Techne. The movement was born in 1998, upon a new philosophical understanding of kitsch — announced by Odd Nerdrum at his retrospective show at the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo. Nerdrum decleared himself a kitsch-painter and later clearified the concept of kitsch in his book On Kitsch – written together with Jan-Ove Tuv and others.

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (1844 – 1930) Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16th, 1581. Oil on canvas, 1885 (199.5 × 254 cm (78.54 × 100 in)) State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

Historical background

According to Hans Reimann, the concept of ‘kitsch’ came into being in mid-1800´s Munich ateliers. Its purpose was to attack ”the previous culture”, making room for modern art. Historically, the term is linked with the birth of the system of the fine arts 100 years earlier. While the latter praises aesthetical indifference, ”kitsch” encompasses sentimental and narrative paintings, literature and music. Kitsch motifs typically deal with the unchanging experiences of human life. According to Tomas Kulka, these motifs could even be futher analyzed ”in terms of Jungian archetypes”.

Odd Nerdrum has always identified with these values. In the manner of classical kitsch criticism, he has thus been reproached for his concern with past masters and sentimental, pathos-filled images.

Reading Hermann Broch´s essays on kitsch represented an immediate identification on Nerdrum´s part. In 1999, he inserted three articles (as ads) in ArtNews. Together with other authors, he published the books On Kitsch (2000) and Kitsch – More than Art (2011).

To Nerdrum, the concept of kitsch represents a new superstructure for sincere and narrative figurative painting.

Kitsch is deep in its superficiality, art is superficially deep.
– Odd Nerdrum

Community

In 2005, Jan-Ove Tuv and Helene Knoop launched worldwidekitsch.com, an international community for kitsch painters and hoster of the Kitsch Biennale – a travelling exhibition showing kitsch-painters from around the world.

Related philosophical writings

• On Kitsch (2000) by Odd Nerdrum, Jan-Ove Tuv, Jan-Erik Ebbestad Hansen and Dag Solhjell
• Kitsch more than Art (2011) by Odd Nerdrum and others
• The Invention of Art (2001) by Larry Shiner
• Kitsch (1933) by Herman Broch
• Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics (1818-1829) by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
• Kitsch and Art (1996) by Thomas Kulka
• Avant Garde and Kitsch (1939) by Clement Greenberg
• Critique of Judgment (1790) by Immanuel Kant
• The Dehumanization of Art (1925) by José Ortega y Gasset
• Art and Culture: Critical Essays (1961) by Clement Greenberg
• Poetics (ca. 335 BCE) by Aristotle
• Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-Garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism (1987) by Matei Călinescu
• Notes on the Problem of Kitsch (1950) by Herman Broch

Related articles

• Huffington post – The Dawn of the Kitsch Movement by Brandon Kralik
• Artist daily – The Kitsch Alternative by Michael Gormley
• Boise weekly – The Kitsch Campaign by E.J. Pettinger
• Sivilisasjonen – The Invention of Art — the Book that will Redefine your view of «Art History» by Bork Nerdrum
• Realism Today – High Kitsch? by Luke Hillestad
• World Wide Kitsch – What is Kitsch? A Brief History by Bork Nerdrum
• World Wide Kitsch – Kitsch and the Self: The Virtues of a Limited Voice by Carl Korsnes
• #Kitschified – The Truth About Art by Nic Thurman and Bork Nerdrum

Related videoes

• Are you a Kitsch-person or an Artist?
• The Truth About Art | History you have never heard
• A late night discussion about Kitsch with Jan-Ove Tuv, Öde Nerdrum, and Sebastian Salvo
• How the Kitsch Questionnaire Helps Kitschmen and Artists Clarify their Values
• TRAC2014: Roger Scruton and Odd Nerdrum – Contemporary Representational Aesthetics
• Larry Shiner’s The Invention of Art and how the 18th Century gave Birth to Modernism
• Boris Koller on Kitsch, the Art Police, and Art as the New Religion
• Is Self-expression a Bad Idea? | Carl W. Korsnes
• “Art” or “Kitsch” as a Name for Classical Culture? | Jan-Ove Tuv & Martin Romberg
• The Kitsch Movement | Willem Venter
• Kitsch & Art — Two Different Value Systems | Magnus Vanebo and Jan-Ove Tuv
• TRAC2014: The Aesthetics of 21st Century – Panel Discussion
• TRAC2014: Jan-Ove Tuv – “Kitsch” as Superstructure for representational, narrative painting

Exhibitions

• 2002: Kitsch Katakomben, Haugar Vestfold Kunstmuseum, Tønsberg, Norway
• 2002: Raugland Atelier, Stavern, Norway
• 2002: Larvik Kunstforening, Larvik, Norway
• 2004: Kitsch, Telemark Museum, Skien, Norway
• 2005: Kitsch Annuale, Krutthuset, Fredricksvern Verft, Stavern, Norway
• 2006: Kitsch Annuale, Stavern, Norway
• 2008: Kitsch Biennale Pasinger Fabrik, Munich, Germany
• 2009: Kitsch, Krapperup Castle, Sweden
• 2009: Fall Kitsch, Galleri PAN, Oslo, Norway
• 2009: Immortal Works, VASA KONSTHALL, Gothenburg, Sweden
• 2010: Kitsch Biennale, Palazzo Cini, Venice, Italy