Kitsch and Art: Broch's Essay “Das Böse im Wertsystem der Kunst”

Summary

I WOULD LIKE TO SKETCH a problem, show how Broch deals with it, and then place his solution within a contemporary context and argue that his views remain of importance today, in spite of their partially political origin in the thirties.

The German word Kitsch, of uncertain origin, is an invention of the late nineteenth century, while the thing itself, I would argue, goes back to the late eighteenth. There was certainly “bad” art before, but it was the art of the dilettante, works that fell short of perfection. Taste was synonymous with good taste, “bad,” that is, corrupted taste wasn't a problem. If you were well educated you had taste, and if you weren't educated you weren't likely to have opinions on these matters anyway. Folk art was looked down on, and was only raised to the level of respectability at a time when commercial art was already a problem.

We all know what kitsch is and, let's admit it, we have all fallen for it, at least as children, when we were more vulnerable to being manipulated, but later on too, I should say. We all point to it when we recognize it and we mock it, but when it comes to defining, circumscribing it, we are more apt to give egregious examples than to zooming in on its essence. When we are pressed for the characteristics of kitsch, we are apt to say, it is epigonal, imitative.