Vintage View: Deliberate bad taste

KITSCH is often described as a deliberate attempt at bad taste, a slap in the face for respectable, classic ‘acceptable’ forms in just about anything around the house.

Other commentators call it an exercise in ‘reverse snobbery.’

Kitsch is a laugh too loud in shape, subject and colour, an ornament so saccharine cute that you develop a dental cavity, or something so naively formed and finished, (it only appears to be), that it makes you want to rush out and buy a few tubs of Playdoh and have a go.