Kitsch movement

Description

Kitsch painting is an international movement made up of classical painters, a result of a 24 September 1998 speech and philosophy given by the Norwegian figurative artist, Odd Nerdrum, later clarified in his book On Kitsch with Jan-Ove Tuv and others. The movement incorporates the techniques of the Old Masters with narrative, romanticism, and emotionally charged imagery. The movement defines Kitsch as synonymous with the arts of ancient Rome or the techne of ancient Greece. Kitsch painters embrace kitsch as a positive term not in opposition to "art", but as its own independent superstructure. Kitsch painters assert that Kitsch is not an art movement, but a philosophical movement separate from art. The Kitsch movement has been considered an indirect criticism of the contemporary art world, but according to Nerdrum, this is not the expressed intention. Read more ↗

Key Artists

Odd Nerdrum
Norwegian classical figurative painter who founded the international Kitsch movement during his famous September 24, 1998 speech, declaring himself a kitsch painter rather than an artist.
Jan-Ove Tuv
Prominent Norwegian figurative painter and longtime pupil of Nerdrum who co-authored the foundational 2001 book 'On Kitsch' and articulated the philosophical defense of emotional craftsmanship.
Helene Knoop
Leading Norwegian Kitsch painter and former student of Nerdrum whose romantic, classically rendered figurative works exemplify the movement's revival of ancient Greek 'techne.'
Jeremy Caniglia
American figurative painter and illustrator who contributed to the Kitsch movement's theoretical publications and exhibited in international Kitsch biennials.
Boris Koller
Austrian figurative painter associated with the Kitsch movement who employs Old Master glazing and narrative emotionality in opposition to contemporary institutional conceptualism.

Famous Artworks

On Kitsch Speech & Anthology
Odd Nerdrum, Jan-Ove Tuv, and Collaborators · 1998
Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo / Published by Kagge Publishing (2001) - Manifesto speech and philosophical book
Self-Portrait in a Boat (Man in a Boat)
Odd Nerdrum · 1998
Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art Collection / Private Archives - Oil on canvas
Self-portrait in a Tree Trunk
Odd Nerdrum · 1999
Private Collection / Odd Nerdrum Studio Archives - Oil on canvas
Twin Mother by the Sea
Odd Nerdrum · 1999
Private Collection - Oil on canvas
Lunatics
Odd Nerdrum · 2001
Private Collection / Featured in 'Odd Nerdrum: Paintings, Sketches and Drawings' - Oil on canvas

Fun Facts

On September 24, 1998, at the opening of his retrospective at the Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo, Odd Nerdrum shocked the Scandinavian art establishment by formally declaring: 'I am not an artist. I am a kitsch painter.'
↗ Source: en.wikipedia.org
According to the philosophy of the Kitsch movement, 'Kitsch' is not a degraded or lowbrow form of art, but rather an independent, positive philosophical superstructure synonymous with the ancient Greek concept of 'techne' (masterful craftsmanship).
↗ Source: en.wikipedia.org

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