Decorated Havaianas and ‘Avant Garde and Kitsch’, by Clement Greenberg.
Kitsch, as being “a product of the industrial revolution which urbanized the masses of Western Europe and America and established what is called universal literacy” (Greenberg, 1939, p. 9) could define, not only an aesthetic purpose of style but also great utility to it. In comparison to a product that is initially born from national industry and in latter suffers handcraft customization, it serves both intentions to the market it sells for appealing furthermore to the ‘unreflective enjoyment’ (Greenberg, 1939) of obvious embellishment applied over an object that is mainly functional — a sandal covered in colourful flowershaped plastic beads, the havaianas.
This relatively new form of art is given as a gift to the tired urban worker, it ‘spares him effort’ (Greenberg, 1939). The havaianas itself, design certain adaptation over mass’ style essentially coming from a shoe that throughout its history is considered a ready-to-wear in nearly any situation. In more primordial suspects, feeding what Greenberg considers systematic for kitsch aesthetic, born from a “culture fit for their own consumption” and chained to “the source of its own profits” (Greenberg, 1939).
Although fitting specifically a lower-income feminine audience, these customizations could be counterbalanced with different class’ desires, therefore higher ones, as aesthetically outrageous. Over the article’s dissection comparing two painting’s aesthetics (the Soviet Realism by Repin and Picasso’s Cubism), which have clear separation over the sensitivity each audience can afford, the differences in taste and aesthetic choice can be explained from the separation of Superior Culture, as ‘one of the most artificial of all human creations’ (Greenberg, 1939) where spectator’s comprehension comes as:
The result of reflection upon the immediate impression left by the plastic values. It is only then that (…) the sympathetic enter. They are not immediately or externally present (…) but must be projected into it by the spectator sensitive enough to react sufficiently to plastic values (Greenberg, 1939, p. 15).
This classification can be enriching to a product that, since in a profitable market culture and being extremely popular nation-wide (or even worldwide), it is then sold merely because of its function. With the help of customization, it receives additional value for a handcrafted good, again focusing on utility or technique. But with distinction over its audience’s locus and capacity of comprehension proposed by Greenberg, this art/practice is put in debt if ignores political, social, and cultural backgrounds coming along with the audience it sustains — as it is to kitsch, being born along with industry.
Greenberg, C. (1939) ‘Avant-Garde and Kitsch’ Partisan Review no. 5 (Fall) pp. 34- 49.
