“Kitsch is the stopover between being and oblivion.”
Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Six: The Grand March, Ch. 29
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Milan Kundera198
Czech author of Czech and French literature 1929–2023Related quotes
“The boundary between art and kitsch was negotiable, even porous.”
Alastair Reynolds book Blue Remembered Earth
Source: Blue Remembered Earth (2012), Chapter 7 (p. 162)
“My tears are only triggered by kitsch.”
Cees Nooteboom book The Following Story
The Following Story (1991)
Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Five: Lightness and Weight
“Happiness is pure kitsch; we come into the world to suffer and learn.”
Isabel Allende book La somma dei giorni
Source: La suma de los días
“You can’t have your kitsch and your good taste, too.”
Ron English (1959) American artist
Ron English's Fauxlosophy (2016)
“In the realm of totalitarian kitsch, all answers are given in advance and preclude any questions.”
Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Five: Lightness and Weight
Context: In the realm of totalitarian kitsch, all answers are given in advance and preclude any questions. It follows, then, that the true opponent of totalitarian kitsch is the person who asks questions. A question is like a knife that slices through the stage backdrop and gives us a look at what lies hidden behind it.
“The scholars and critics all called it kitsch, everyone thought I was crazy to buy them.”
Luis A. Ferré (1904–2003) American politician
Quoted in a Forbes magazine interview in 1993 http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/22/us/luis-a-ferre-dies-at-99-pushed-puerto-rican-statehood.html, on his acquisition of art pieces to create the Ponce Museum of Art, now the largest art museum in the Caribbean, and considered one of the best in the Americas.
“We can regard the gulag as a septic tank used by totalitarian kitsch to dispose of its refuse.”
Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Five: Lightness and Weight