Ed Zubrow wrote:

> Alex Ross cites a character in a 1902 Thomas Mann story as an illustration
> of the developing split between artists and the masses.  (page 36) The
> character berates a store owner for displaying "kitsch." So far, so good.
> It's the descriptor Ross appends that surprised me; he calls it "art
> that is merely 'beautiful' and therefore worthless."
>
> Now, I can understand that as an accurate term of derision that might
> be used.  But I have never heard or seen the word "kitsch" used that
> way.  ...
>
> Ross' use seems wrong to me.  He seems to be describing something
> valid--but not kitsch.

One would have to see an example of what was being described.  It might
be "art that is merely 'beautiful' and therefore worthless," or it might
be something that we would describe as kitsch and which a significant
number of people in 1902 would have described as beautiful.

I myself was astonished by a touring exhibit of Biedermeier, which
I saw in Milwaukee a few years ago.  I thought of Biedermeier as an
over-embroidered sofa pillow: turns out the name (of a fictitious
character) was applied after 1854 or so to send up a style of German
furnishings, painting, fabrics etc from the first half of that century
which, going back and looking at the real thing, is often very beautiful,
indeed some of it reminding me of the art deco of decades later.  It is
hard to see the same thing that our grandfathers saw.

Donald

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