What does Kitsch mean in Art?

Art History: What are the social and ideological backgrounds behind "kitsch"?

• When do the earliest evidences of this tendency date back to? What triggered it? Can Andy Warhol's work be considered kitsch? How is the line between kitsch and Art placed?

• Answer:

  The classic essay on this question is Clement Greenberg's "Avant-Garde and Kitsch", from 1939.  It is reproduced here, and bears careful reading: http://www.sharecom.ca/greenberg/kitsch.html If we apply Greenberg's ideas to Pop, I think the key passage is: "If the avant-garde imitates the processes of art, kitsch, we now see, imitates its effects."  So - Warhol's pop art is not kitsch, but operates by confusing the categories of fine art and kitsch in a very self-aware manner and can be considered "camp" among other things. Kitsch of course is alive and well, as is art that uses it for source material.