From my initial research into taste and aesthetics, I started to consider the almost 'tacky' aesthetic surrounding commercialized high arts, particularly through the placement of high art images on objects of everyday use. Peter Ward discusses this in the book Kitsch in Sync, studying the place of high art in domestic spaces and commercial outlets. This connection that commercialism has with the deterioration of status opens up some interesting paths for analysis.
The main issue raised by Ward is; Is it better to give in to commercialism or art hierarchy?
KEY QUOTES AND INITIAL ANALYSIS
- "The act of hanging a particular picture on a wall [...] to make some sort of statement about where they stand in the world in terms of taste and status"
Ward proposes the question; What does your art say about you? suggesting that liking art and owning art, does not go without a restrictive and impersonal control, almost as if we cannot have autonomous taste.
- "Tretchi committed the cardinal sin of commercializing his work and selling it to the masses."
It is interesting that an artist of popularity and critical acclaim was happy to give in to the tacky consumerist art world rather that the pretentious hierarchies of gallery based 'high art'. It may be interesting to consider the inevitability of Sontag's 'structures of power', since the artist seems to operate a liminal space between conforming to 'high art' powers and consumerist powers.
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