Home / Quotes / Quote by Theodor Adorno

Quote by Theodor Adorno

“Kitsch parodies catharsis...It is in vain to try to draw the boundaries abstractly between aesthetic fiction and kitsch's emotional plunder. It is a poison admixed to all art; excising it is today one of art's despairing efforts.”

Quote by Theodor Adorno

Author

Theodor Adorno was a German sociologist, philosopher, and musicologist. He is renowned for his critical theory, co-developed with Max Horkheimer and other members of the Frankfurt School. Adorno's research focused on the analysis of modern society, culture, and the influence of mass culture on individuals. more

You May Also Like

“The trumped-up charges against kitsch and sentimentality should disturb us and make us suspicious.”

Should Suspicious Sentimentality Kitsch

Book:In Defense of Sentimentality

Source: In Defense of Sentimentality

“Kitsch is the contemporary form of the Gothic, Rococo, Baroque.”

Form Contemporary Gothic Kitsch Baroque Rococo

Author:Frank Wedekind

“How can we prevent this telescoping of cultures and styles from ending up in kitsch eclecticism, a cool hellenism excluding all critical judgment?”

Culture Style Judgment Critical Kitsch Hellenism

Author:Nicolas Bourriaud

“The essence of kitsch is the confusion of ethical and esthetic categories; kitsch wants to produce not the "good" but the "beautiful."”

Want Beautiful Produce Essence Confusion Ethical Categories Kitsch

Book:Geist and Zeitgeist: Six Essays by Hermann Broch

Source: Geist and Zeitgeist: Six Essays by Hermann Broch

“A real Rembrandt hung in a millionaire's home elevator would undoubtedly make for kitsch.”

Real Home Hung Millionaire Elevators Kitsch

Book:Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism

Source: Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism

“Don't we all have an itch for kitsch?”

Book:Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism

Source: Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism

“While a forgery illegally exploits the elitist taste for rarity, a kitsch object insists on its anti elitist availability. The deceptive character of kitsch does not lie in whatever it may have in common with actual forgery but in its claim to supply its consumers with essentially the same kinds and qualities of beauty as those embodied in unique or rare and inaccessible originals.”

Kind May Doe Character Lying Common Quality Objects Taste Unique Claims Originals Consumers Exploits Deceptive Availability Elitist Kitsch Inaccessible Rarity Forgery

Author:Matei Calinescu

“Romanticism is the mother of kitsch and that there are moments when the child becomes so like its mother that one cannot differentiate between them”

Children Moments Mother Romanticism Differentiate Kitsch

Author:Hermann Broch

“Those who were still able to write beautiful melodies were kitsch composers like Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky approaches true art not in his numerous beautiful melodies, but when a melodic line is thwarted.”

Writing Art Stills Able Beautiful Lines Approach Melody Composer Kitsch Tchaikovsky

Author:Slavoj Žižek

“Must one become seventy years old to recognize that one's greatest strength lies in creating musical kitsch?”

Years Lying Creating Musical Seventies Kitsch

Book:A Confidential Matter: The Letters of Richard Strauss and Stefan Zweig, 1931-1935

Source: A Confidential Matter: The Letters of Richard Strauss and Stefan Zweig, 1931-1935