Greenberg Avant Garde

Greenberg Avant Garde

The author introduces the article by talking about two poems by Eddie Guest and Elliot. The two poets perceive that human cultural traditions are often taken for granted. He examines the existing relationship between socio-historic contexts of aesthetic and normal experience.

 As society shrinks to a global community, writers and artists find it difficult to communicate or justify their stance to the audience. Today, people question authority, style and tradition, thus making it harder for writers to predict the audience's response. The author backs his arguments with examples from Roman Empire including Beaux-arts, painting and Roman sculpture (Greenberg 6). He further claims that ancient historic figures like Braque, Brancusi and Klee were inspired by the workplace medium. It implies that abstracts cannot be accidental or arbitrary unless there is an aesthetic validity of the subject matter. If art and literature were to be regarded as imitations of reality as Aristotle thought, every other discipline will fall short of originality. 

The writer observes that modern poetry is abstract and pure if it is compared to classical poetry. However, he fails to provide a strong proof that the culture of the avant-garde is subject to imitation. Avant-Garde is still a necessity in the modern times because it is a pillar of literature and art. 

On the other hand, Kitsch is an apparition conceived in the West and entails the art of chronotypes, illustrations, and advertisement. This cultural phenomenon is mostly taken for granted because it results from European industrial revolution. It was even made worse by the introduction of writing and reading to the public and peasants. Still, Kitsch garner more profit when contrasted to avant-garde.  Therefore, Kitsch pressurizes ambitious artists and writers to alter their work to meet its requirements. Unlike avant-garde, Kitsch is not restricted to large cities. Instead, it has spread far and wide hence eliminating and replacing the folk cultures that are dominant.

Advertising through Artworks

Commercials and advertisement agencies utilize artwork to capture the targeted customers’ attention. Varnedoe et al state that as early as 19^th century, corporations embraced use or art in advertisements.  However, the concept did not gain traction until the early 1940s in America when Rockwell Norman and other artists created an Orange Crush artistic advert. The author argues that artistic forms such as abstract expressionism are fashionable hence an enduring form of ‘low’ and ‘high’ advert art.

Fusing business and art results in profitability for both the artists and the corporations involved. Art captures emotional reactions of the audience. Thus, it is a perfect force to convince a market segment to purchase a product that is new in the market. Art is a force able to captivate the public attention, besides disseminating detailed information on the advertised products. Business entities that embrace artistic advertisement and commercials mostly experience positive outcome and a return on investment.

The use of art in commercials and advertisement reached its peak during the mid 20^th century (Kirk, Varnedoe and Adam 342). The American economy was booming at the time. The motor-vehicle industry was at its best in terms of innovation and mass production. Therefore, the marketers of many car manufacturing organizations acquired the skills of the best artists to create adverts and commercials. There was a stiff competition and rivalry between firms in terms of accessing a wider market segment, thus, competition in advertising was rampant. Creativity played a pivotal role in wooing buyers. As such, large corporations like Coca Cola poured a sizeable amount of resources towards ‘high' and ‘low' advertisements.

References

 Greenberg, Clement. Avantgarde und Kitsch. na, 1939: 3-21.Print.

Kirk, Varnedoe, and Adam Gopnik. "High and low: Modern art and popular culture." New York: Museum of Modern Art (1990): 311-388.Print.