Author: Michael Angelo Tata

Source: Critical Studies, "From Virgin Land to Disney World: Nature and Its Discontents in the USA of Yesterday and Today", edited by Bernd Herzogenrath , pp. 209-228(20)

Publisher: Rodopi

Abstract:

Has kitsch eradicated Nature? The fact that the Sublime has taken kitsch for its object in late 20^th century artistic production seems to indicate that this is indeed the case. Using Warhol's THE Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again) as exemplary, this essay explores the ramifications, reverberations, earthquakes and aftershocks that result when Warhol ushers in an era in which kitsch usurps the places previously occupied by art and self. In obliterating nature, kitsch installs itself as supreme object (and, in the case of personality, supreme subject). Paying close attention to Warhol's ambivalence to sublimity – it might happen, or it might not; it might happen, and we may be bored by it; it might happen, and we might not notice it – I identify and isolate the Postmodern Sublime as a pulsation or Tingle: i.e. an indeterminate oscillation between the two poles of sublimity and mundanity. Reading Arthur Danto's art criticism à rebours – against the grain – I find within it an admission that the manufactured object may transport one to the edge of paradise: hence the ecstasy of kitsch, our mania for producing it, consuming it, living it.

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2001-01-01

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