Abstract

Gillo Dorfles offers a veritable "catalogue raisonne of reigning bad taste" in the visual arts. His purpose is not simply to entertain but rather to demonstrate the contagious and corrosive nature of a phenomenon that threatens to debilitate the creative energies of the very society that spawned it. He and the other contributors examine the use of kitsch in politics, religion, advertising, film, architecture and design, "pornokitsch," and the modern trappings that surround birth, family life and death. To document the vulgar and the sentimental, the unintentionally hilarious and the simply hideous is an undertaking that will, inevitably, include something to offend everyone. 311 pages; 276 color and b&w reproductions; 6.75 x 9.25 inches.