"and Kitsch"". In the essay Greenberg claimed that the avant-garde arose in order to defend aesthetic standards from the decline of taste involved in consumer society, and seeing kitsch and art as opposites. Greenberg further claimed that avant-garde and Modernist art was a means to resist the leveling of culture produced by capitalist propaganda. Greenberg appropriated the German word 'kitsch' to describe this consumerism, although its connotations have since changed to a more affirmative notion of leftover materials of capitalist culture. Greenberg later became well known for examining the formal properties of modern art. Meyer Schapiro is one of the"
"""kitsch"" is generally pejorative, as it implies that the work in question is gaudy, or that it serves a solely ornamental and decorative purpose rather than amounting to a work of true artistic merit. The term is also sometimes applied to music or literature. As a descriptive term, ""kitsch"" originated in the art markets of Munich in the 1860s and the 1870s, describing cheap, popular, and marketable pictures and sketches. In ""Das Buch vom Kitsch"" (""The Book of Kitsch""), Hans Reimann defines it as a professional expression ""born in a painter's studio"". The study of kitsch was done almost exclusively"
"Kitsch Kitsch (; loanword from German), also called cheesiness or tackiness, is art or other objects that appeal to popular rather than high art tastes. Such objects are sometimes appreciated in a knowingly ironic or humorous way. The word was first applied to artwork that was a response to certain divisions of 19th-century art with aesthetics that favored what later art critics would consider to be exaggerated sentimentality and melodrama. Hence, 'kitsch art' is closely associated with 'sentimental art'. Kitsch is also related to the concept of camp, because of its humorous and ironic nature. To brand visual art as"
"Degenerate art Degenerate art () was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe modern art. During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, German modernist art, including many works of internationally renowned artists, was removed from state owned museums and banned in Nazi Germany on the grounds that such art was an ""insult to German feeling"", un-German, Jewish, or Communist in nature. Those identified as degenerate artists were subjected to sanctions that included being dismissed from teaching positions, being forbidden to exhibit or to sell their art, and in some cases being forbidden to produce"
"in German until the 1970s, with Walter Benjamin being an important scholar in the field. Modernist writer Hermann Broch argues that the essence of kitsch is imitation: kitsch mimics its immediate predecessor with no regard to ethics—it aims to copy the beautiful, not the good. According to Walter Benjamin, kitsch is, unlike art, a utilitarian object lacking all critical distance between object and observer; it ""offers instantaneous emotional gratification without intellectual effort, without the requirement of distance, without sublimation"". Kitsch is less about the thing observed than about the observer. According to Roger Scruton, ""Kitsch is fake art, expressing fake"
"Cultural Bolshevism Cultural Bolshevism (German: ""Kulturbolschewismus""), sometimes referred to specifically as ""art Bolshevism"" or ""music Bolshevism"", was a term widely used by critics in Nazi Germany to denounce modernist movements in the arts, particularly when seeking to discredit more nihilistic forms of expression. This first became an issue during the 1920s in Weimar Germany. German artists such as Max Ernst and Max Beckmann were denounced by Adolf Hitler, the Nazi Party and other right-wing nationalists as ""cultural Bolsheviks"". The development of modern art at the beginning of the 20th century – but with roots going back to the 1860s –"
"advertising photographs are truly surreal. Various members of the Frankfurt School argued similar views: thus Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer in their essay ""The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass-Deception"" (1944), and also Walter Benjamin in his highly influential ""The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"" (1935, rev. 1939). Where Greenberg used the German word ""kitsch"" to describe the antithesis of avant-garde culture, members of the Frankfurt School coined the term ""mass culture"" to indicate that this bogus culture is constantly being manufactured by a newly emerged culture industry (comprising commercial publishing houses, the movie industry, the record"
"the word’s synonym '– “half tumbleds”. Seen that way, the word is a defamation, because it can be associated with “unformed” and “premature” (in German, there also are a few other slight verbal slanders containing “halb”: e.g. ' (literally: half-educated) and ' (literally: half dish / half portion, used for children or adolescents that appear weak). But it is likely that the defamation was not as defamatory to the subculture itself, because its members began calling themselves “Halbstarke”, too. In German, both terms also have an adjective-form (' / '). These ' had found prototypes for their fashion and style"
"Romantics, Expressionists and Impressionist works. Adolf Hitler's National Socialist German Worker's Party (NSDAP, commonly called the Nazi Party), had, following their leader's example, long taken a strong stance against all modern art styles, which it called ""degenerate art"" or ""Bolshevik art"". After Hitler was appointed Chancellor in January 1933 – the so-called ""seizure of power"" – the Nazi Party in Dresden launched a smear campaign against Posse, accusing him of displaying ""degenerate art"" in the museum, and claiming, inaccurately, that he was partly Jewish. At least one of his attackers, Walter Gasch, was motivated by a desire for Posse's job."
"considered ""degenerate"". Degenerate Art Exhibition The Degenerate Art Exhibition () was an art exhibition organized by Adolf Ziegler and the Nazi Party in Munich from 19 July to 30 November 1937. The exhibition presented 650 works of art, confiscated from German museums, and was staged in counterpoint to the concurrent Great German Art Exhibition. The day before the exhibition started, Hitler delivered a speech declaring ""merciless war"" on cultural disintegration, attacking ""chatterboxes, dilettantes and art swindlers"". Degenerate art was defined as works that ""insult German feeling, or destroy or confuse natural form or simply reveal an absence of adequate manual"
"that is not good. ""Die Welt"" journalist Matthias Heine brings into play German pedagogical scientist Christian Oeser, who may have invented the term. In Oeser's book ""Letters to a Maiden on the most fundamental Topics of Aesthetics"", published in 1859, he writes about naive ""Gutmenschen"" as follows: ""Isn't it clear that in the end, such a gullible ""Gutmensch"" will be laughed at for his unconditional love towards humans, that the whole world will call him a fool and that he will eventually fall prey to his own weakness?"" It is worth mentioning that similar terms can be found in other"
"language of Hamburg is Low German, usually referred to as ""Hamborger Platt"" (German ""Hamburger Platt"") or ""Hamborgsch"". Since large-scale standardization of the German language beginning in earnest in the 18th century, various Low German-colored dialects have developed (contact-varieties of German on Low Saxon substrates). Originally, there was a range of such Missingsch varieties, the best-known being the low-prestige ones of the working classes and the somewhat more bourgeois ""Hanseatendeutsch"" (Hanseatic German), although the term is used in appreciation. All of these are now moribund due to the influences of Standard German used by education and media. However, the former importance"
"art. ""Degenerate Art"" also was the title of an exhibition, held by the Nazis in Munich in 1937, consisting of 650 modernist artworks chaotically hung and accompanied by text labels deriding the art. Designed to inflame public opinion against modernism, the exhibition subsequently traveled to several other cities in Germany and Austria. While modern styles of art were prohibited, the Nazis promoted paintings and sculptures that were traditional in manner and that exalted the ""blood and soil"" values of racial purity, militarism, and obedience. Similar restrictions were placed upon music, which was expected to be tonal and free of any"
"die Füsse"" (""First the Feet"") was condemned by Pope Benedict as blasphemous. Martin Kippenberger Martin Kippenberger (25 February 1953 – 7 March 1997) was a German artist and sculptor known for his extremely prolific output in a wide range of styles and media, superfiction as well as his provocative, jocular and hard-drinking public persona. Kippenberger was ""widely regarded as one of the most talented German artists of his generation,"" according to Roberta Smith of the ""New York Times"". He was at the center of a generation of German ""enfants terribles"" including Albert Oehlen, Markus Oehlen, Werner Büttner, Georg Herold, Dieter"
"neo-Nazi hipsters. The online magazine has since folded. The 'Nipsters': NPD and neo-Nazis change their style Nipster Nipster is a slang term used in Germany to refer to young neo-Nazis who have embraced aspects of hipster culture. Historically, German neo-Nazis promoted an ultra-masculine and extreme right-wing image, preferring short hair, violent imagery and combat gear—in keeping with the white power skinhead or casual subcultures—while rejecting most modern pop culture. This has changed, with young ""nipsters"" embracing causes such as animal rights and environmentalism alongside historically far right positions, including anti-immigration views. Nipsters, rather than rejecting modern pop culture, seek instead"
"Degenerate Art Exhibition The Degenerate Art Exhibition () was an art exhibition organized by Adolf Ziegler and the Nazi Party in Munich from 19 July to 30 November 1937. The exhibition presented 650 works of art, confiscated from German museums, and was staged in counterpoint to the concurrent Great German Art Exhibition. The day before the exhibition started, Hitler delivered a speech declaring ""merciless war"" on cultural disintegration, attacking ""chatterboxes, dilettantes and art swindlers"". Degenerate art was defined as works that ""insult German feeling, or destroy or confuse natural form or simply reveal an absence of adequate manual and artistic"
"of God, cult atrophies in ritualism and culture becomes degenerate"", said Meisner at the blessing of his own archdiocese's new art museum, the Kolumba, on 14 September 2007. His choice of words recalled the phrase """"entartete Kunst"""" (""degenerate art"") used as the title of the exhibition opened by Adolf Hitler in Munich on 19 July 1937 and provoked strong negative reaction. It was widely recognized that Meisner was criticizing the stained-glass window in Cologne Cathedral by Gerhard Richter, which was unveiled just weeks before and of which he disapproved. In April 2016, Pope Francis issued the apostolic exhortation ""Amoris laetitia""."
"Lowbrow (art movement) Lowbrow, or lowbrow art, describes an underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California, area in the late 1970s. It is a populist art movement with its cultural roots in underground comix, punk music, tiki culture, and hot-rod cultures of the street. It is also often known by the name pop surrealism. Lowbrow art often has a sense of humor – sometimes the humor is gleeful, sometimes impish, and sometimes it is a sarcastic comment. Most lowbrow artworks are paintings, but there are also toys, digital art, and sculpture. Some of the first artists"
"gives the individual the liberty to accept this as art or not."" For instance, in Cologne, a happening staged by Schult involving ""19 luxury cars worth a total of over 4 million marks (1.8 million dollars)"" caused what was described by one source as the ""world's most expensive traffic jam"". However, Schult primarily uses trash as an artistic material both for his object art and happenings. The artist calls himself a ""Macher"", a German word that can mean a ""maker"" or ""worker."" According to David Sim, Kim Levin and others, Schult's public extravaganzas have been compared with those of Christo"
"Goebbels in a radio broadcast called Germany's degenerate artists ""garbage"". Hitler opened the Haus der Kunst exhibition with a speech, at the end of which saliva fell out of his mouth in rage. In it he described German art as suffering ""a great and fatal illness"". Hildebrand Gurlitt and his colleagues did not have much success with their sales, mainly because art labelled ""rubbish"" had small appeal. So on 20 March 1939 they set fire to 1,004 paintings and sculptures and 3,825 watercolours, drawings and prints in the courtyard of the Berlin Fire Department, an act of infamy similar to"
"Degenerate music Degenerate music (, ) was a label applied in the 1930s by the Nazi government in Germany to certain forms of music that it considered to be harmful or decadent. The Nazi government's concern for degenerate music was a part of its larger and more well-known campaign against degenerate art (). In both cases, the government attempted to isolate, discredit, discourage, or ban the works. Jewish composers such as Felix Mendelssohn and Gustav Mahler were disparaged and condemned by the Nazis . In Leipzig, a bronze statue of Mendelssohn was removed. The regime commissioned music to replace his"
"Nipster Nipster is a slang term used in Germany to refer to young neo-Nazis who have embraced aspects of hipster culture. Historically, German neo-Nazis promoted an ultra-masculine and extreme right-wing image, preferring short hair, violent imagery and combat gear—in keeping with the white power skinhead or casual subcultures—while rejecting most modern pop culture. This has changed, with young ""nipsters"" embracing causes such as animal rights and environmentalism alongside historically far right positions, including anti-immigration views. Nipsters, rather than rejecting modern pop culture, seek instead to appropriate it to promote neo-Nazi ideals. This has also been seen in the New Right"
"a conspiracy by people who hated German decency, frequently identified as Jewish-Bolshevist, although only six of the 112 artists included in the exhibition were in fact Jewish. The concurrent ""Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung"" (""Great German Art Exhibition"") was intended to show the more classical and ""racially pure"" type of art advocated by the Nazi regime. That exhibition was hosted near Hofgarten, in the Haus der Deutschen Kunst. It was described as mediocre by modern sources, and attracted only about half the numbers of the Degenerate Art one. Another Degenerate Art Exhibition was hosted a few months later in Berlin, and later"
"of the early 1920s, when the cost of a kilogram loaf of bread reached 233 billion German marks, the prices of the paintings were of course greatly exaggerated. The exhibit was designed to promote the idea that modernism was a conspiracy by people who hated German decency, frequently identified as Jewish-Bolshevist, although only 6 of the 112 artists included in the exhibition were in fact Jewish. The exhibition program contained photographs of modern artworks accompanied by defamatory text. The cover featured the exhibition title—with the word , meaning art, in scare quotes—superimposed on an image of Otto Freundlich's sculpture ."
"effectively used as propaganda or bent to a cause, while kitsch was ideal for stirring up false sentiment. Greenberg appropriated the German word ""kitsch"" to describe this low, concocted form of ""culture"", though its connotations have since been recast to a more affirmative acceptance of nostalgic materials of capitalist/communist culture. ""Avant Garde and Kitsch"" is clearly a politically motivated essay, in part a response to the destruction and repression of Modernist Art in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and represents a denouncement of the growing totalitarian threat in Europe and the ""retrogression"" of fascism. Avant-garde, as sociologist Diana Crane"
"the conventional work of painters from southern Germany, what Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels called in his diary ""Munich-school kitsch"", over that of the more experimental painters from the north. In May 1938, when Hitler decreed the ""Law for the Confiscation of the Products of Degenerate Art"" – which retroactively justified the Nazis' confiscation without payment of modern art from museums and galleries for the exhibition of ""Degenerate Art"" mounted in Munich in July 1937, and allowed for the further unpaid taking of such art from institutions and individuals – Hoffmann was one of the commissioners named to centralize the condemnation"
"links to this middlebrow entry ""because it actually provides a smart summary."" Middlebrow The term middlebrow describes easily accessible art, usually literature, and the people who use the arts to acquire culture and ""class"" (social prestige). First used in the British satire magazine ""Punch"" in 1925, the term ""middlebrow"" is the intermediary ""brow"" descriptor between ""highbrow"" and ""lowbrow"", which are terms derived from the pseudo-science of phrenology. The term middlebrow became a pejorative usage in the modernist cultural criticism, by Dwight Macdonald, Virginia Woolf, and Russell Lynes, which served the cause of the marginalization of the popular culture in favor"
"Trash culture The term ""trash culture"" entered into common use from the '80s to indicate artistic or entertainment expressions considered of low cultural profile, and thus able to stimulate and attract the audiences. It refers, as an adjective, to books, movies, TV shows, etc. being characterized by poor taste, vulgarity themes and subjects voluntary chosen and with self-satisfaction to attract the audience through what is shoddy, of low quality, and culturally impoverished. As a noun, it can be referred to the spread of trash, the theorists of trash, TV trash, or trash sub-culture. In this sense, trash culture is defined"
"visitors who came to view the condemned modern art in the ""Degenerate art"" exhibition. Propagandist Joseph Goebbels in a radio broadcast called Germany's degenerate artists ""garbage"". Hitler opened the Haus der Kunst exhibition with a speech. In it he described German art as suffering ""a great and fatal illness"". Hildebrand Gurlitt and his colleagues did not have much success with their sales, mainly because art labelled ""rubbish"" had small appeal. So on 20 March 1939 they set fire to 1,004 paintings and sculptures and 3,825 watercolours, drawings and prints in the courtyard of the Berlin Fire Department, an act of"
"spoken. Etymologically however, ""Platt"" meant ""clear"" in the sense of a language the simple people could understand. In Dutch and German, the word can also mean ""improper"", ""rude"" or ""too simple"" which is why the term is not popular in the Netherlands. The colloquial term denotes both Low German dialects and any non-standard Western variety of German; this use is chiefly found in northern and Western Germany and is not considered to be linguistically correct. The ISO 639-2 language code for Low German (Low Saxon) has been nds ( or ) since May 2000. Low German is a part of"
"all over the Reich and ordered the removal of paintings, drawings and sculptures that were regarded as 'degenerate'."" ""The swathe these four apocalyptic Norsemen cut through Germany's stored-up artistic treasure has been estimated at upwards of 16,000 paintings, drawings, etchings and sculptures: 1,000 pieces by Nolde, 700 by Haeckel, 600 each by Schmidt-Rottluff and Kirchner, 500 by Beckmann, 400 by Kokoschka, 300-400 each by Hofer, Pechstein, Barlach, Feininger and Otto Muller, 200-300 each by Dix, Grosz and Corinth, 100 by Lehmbruck, as well as much smaller numbers of Cézannes, Picassos, Matisses, Gauguins, Van Goghs, Braques, Pisarros, Dufys, Chiricos and Max"
"Schmuck (pejorative) Schmuck, or shmuck, in American English is a pejorative term meaning one who is stupid or foolish, or an obnoxious, contemptible or detestable person. The word came into the English language from Yiddish (, ""shmok""), where it has similar pejorative meanings, but where its literal meaning is a vulgar term for a penis. The etymology of the word is a matter of some disagreement. Lexicographer Michael Wex, author of ""How to Be a Mentsh (And Not a Shmuck)"", has been quoted as saying that the Yiddish word ""shmok"" ""comes out of baby talk."" According to Wex, ""a little"
"permission to marry his own grandmother. Once in control of the government, the Nazis moved to suppress modern art styles and to promote art with national and racial themes. Various Weimar-era art personalities, including Renner, Huelsenbeck, and the Bauhaus designers, were marginalized. Cultural Bolshevism Cultural Bolshevism (German: ""Kulturbolschewismus""), sometimes referred to specifically as ""art Bolshevism"" or ""music Bolshevism"", was a term widely used by critics in Nazi Germany to denounce modernist movements in the arts, particularly when seeking to discredit more nihilistic forms of expression. This first became an issue during the 1920s in Weimar Germany. German artists such as"