3 June 2014

kitsch

[kich]

noun

– something of tawdry design, appearance, or content created to appeal to popular or undiscriminating taste.

Origin:
1925–30; < German, derivative of kitschen to throw together (a work of art)

Related forms
kitsch·y, adjective

Today’s quote

Ultimately Warhol’s private moral reference was to the supreme kitsch of the Catholic church.

– Allen Ginsberg

On this day

3 June 1924 – Death of Franz Kafka, Austrian novelist, who wrote in German. Two of his books (‘The Trial’ and ‘The Castle’) were published posthumously against his wishes. He wrote of a dehumanised world in which he explored paranoia, isolation, fear and bewilderment, from which the term ‘Kafka-esque’ has been coined. Born 3 July 1883.

3 June 1926 – birth of Allen Ginsberg, leading American beat-generation writer and poet. Died 5 April 1997.

3 June 1937 – Following his abdication in December 1936, former King Edward VIII of Britain, marries American divorcee, Wallis Simpson.

3 June 1968 – Andy Warhol, pop-artist, is shot by feminist Valerie Solanas, founder of the Society for Cutting Up Men (S.C.U.M.) because she felt that Warhol had too much control over her life. Warhol was seriously injured in the shooting. Doctors had to cut his chest open and massage his heart to keep him alive. Warhol survived the shooting, but suffered permanent physical effects. The shooting had a profound effect on the direction his life and art took.

3 June 1992 – Mabo Day: The High Court of Australia found in favour of Eddie Koiki Mabo who had challenged the principle of ‘terra nullius’ (or ‘uninhabited land’). Terra nullius had allowed the Commonwealth Government of Australia to legally take over and own land that had previously belonged to the indigenous people. Unfortunately, Eddie Mabo had died 3 months before the decision was handed down. The ‘Mabo Decision’ was a significant turning point in the history of Australia’s indigenous people, giving legal recognition of indigenous rights to native land title.