Kitsch in Visual Arts: Deconstruction of Kitsch Through Its Use in Elite and Popular Arts

The perception of the presence of kitsch in art has been evaluated in extremely opposite ways, from complete negation to acceptance of kitsch as one of the possible forms of expression in a contemporary work of art. Such assessments were influenced not so much by the works of art themselves but by the changing conditions and contexts of perception, particularly by the redefinition of the very essence of art, its possible functions and boundaries. In our times, starting from modernism, this tendency has even become stronger in postmodernism. We are faced with an open definition of art, in which the divisions between art and non-art have been blurred, and kitsch, previously rejected by scholars, has become an equal form of art in its own right. Contemporary artists use the visual language of kitsch to open up to communication with the viewer and comment on the most important social phenomena, recognising that the condition of art is influenced not only by purely artistic aspects but also by non-artistic reality. Contemporary art, in its structure that transcends the boundaries between art and reality, seeks closer ties with social life while simultaneously wishing to preserve individualism. It is involved in the structure of the work in an increasingly complicated, multifaceted process of reception, in which both the creator and the viewer take an active part. Kitsch, taken from life, thus becomes the key to decoding the hermetic individual language of the artist. Kitsch, deconstructed by an artist, becomes a common language of postmodern art and life.