Sweet and sour
On Avant-garde and Kitsch around 1920
Andreas Baumgartner
To compare early avant-garde currents with kitsch is something that seems far-fetched, since under kitsch are usually categorised artistic productions of lesser value, that use easy means to appeal directly to feelings, and thus create immediate effects. The expression “kitsch”, created at the end of the 19th century, will nevertheless be directed at the Avant-garde, and, thanks to those “sour” elements, undergoes a fundamental conceptual expansion.
