Saturday, May 02, 2009

Is This Kitschy ART?

Me the ever self effacing, I go to Girdwood yesterday to pick up some of my art work. There is a piece that I did out of an old window frame, It has birch bark, encaustic wax, moss, it's a quint folksy piece and would work in a rustic Alaska cabin or with someone who likes fun artwork. But I find it in the gallery bathroom, no one wants to buy the bathroom art. So I say to the lady at the gallery,"I 'm taking this home I think it is a little too kischy for your gallery." She just nods, smiles and agrees. Snarkey, snarkey.

Peter laughs at me and tells me kichey is not a word. So I ask my Jewish friend in San Francisco, Marty, if it is not a Yiddish word for low class or tacky? He e-mails me back and says: No, I don't think that "kitchie" is a Yiddish word...I think it's modern slang, meaning like "it's a bit too much", but who knows?

Then daughter Nicole finds the definition with a different spelling, bingo I am right on! When it comes to vocabulary I am better than most.

Kitsch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kitsch (/kɪtʃ/) is the German and Yiddish word denoting art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art. The term kitsch was a response to the 19th century art whose aesthetics convey exaggerated sentimentality and melodrama, hence, kitsch art is closely associated with sentimental art.
However, this beggs the question is this piece of artwork Kitchey or should I add some kitchen curtains???

2 comments:

Patti Gibbons said...

would have to see it in real life before I could make such a judgement!

Judy Vars said...

LOL I already called it kitschey and it is, but I like it for what it is and my opinion is the only one that counts after all. I wish you could see it in real life the pic is hard to take because of the glass.