Since its beginning, kitsch has been viewed as poor art, failing to achieve the transcendental, acquired by Fine art. In his own retrospective show at the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo, Odd Nerdrum announced himself as a kitsch painter – proposing a new understanding of kitsch. “On Kitsch” contains essays and speeches by Odd Nerdrum and others, concerning the origin of “art” and “kitsch” and how these definitions developed. The book will give insight to why the art world is where it is today, and why Nerdrum felt he could no longer be a representative of the word “art” and its values.
I am a filmmaker, composer. Son of Odd Nerdrum, the great painter. I produce the monthly talkshow The Cave of Apelles and I host the annual World Wide Kitsch painting competition.
How can I consider myself an artist if I don’t know what that is? Every time I hear this word my stomach unfailingly turns. Nobody knows what it is because
I started drawing when I was a little girl. I had a lot of interest in studying faces and portraying them. Especially older people, perhaps because their faces showed that
I don’t call my work art. The reason is simple: all fields that the ideas of Art have touched, have crumbled to dust. From modern architecture, modern concert music, to
I started studying on my own, attending workshops, and copying photographs in a painter’s studio. I knew that to progress from there I needed a mentor. That is how I
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Once kitsch is interpreted ironically, it ceases to be kitsch.
