Call for abstracts: Edited volume: God loves kitsch!
Co-editors: Sarah Richter, PhD and Laura Elizabeth Shea, PhD
What kind of art does god like? Such a question begs another – which god? In the case of the Christian God of modern America, the answer would be kitsch, of course!
Religion in the United States is intimately entwined with kitsch, from the chapel in Carthage, Missouri, adorned with murals reminiscent of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel but featuring Precious Moments figurines, to readily available votive candles depicting celebrities as saints. Despite lacking the Benjaminian “aura” of a relic or in-situ painting or sculpture, religious kitsch possesses a unique ability to invest mass-produced objects with spiritual significance on a large-scale.
In 1939, Clement Greenberg scorned kitsch as low-quality, mass-produced visual material divorced from true aesthetics and the goals of art, primarily driven by economic and social factors. By following this line of thought, kitsch, like religion, has been boxed out of serious consideration in modern and contemporary art despite its undeniable presence. James Elkins has observed that that while the art world welcomes “’religious art’ by people who hate religion… there is no place for artists who express straightforward, ordinary, religious faith.”[1] More current work by Erika Doss has shown how art history has ignored or tamped down the religious inspirations that undergirded the work of several highly influential modern artists.[2] In response, this volume aims to take both kitsch and its religious makers and users seriously, delving into the intersections of kitsch, spirituality, culture, and politics in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
We are interested in critically analyzing how the divine is portrayed, commercialized, and consumed through a broad lens of kitsch, prompting questions such as:
· How does kitsch facilitate and/or supplement spiritual devotion?
· When is kitsch a serious agent of power and influence?
· Can kitsch ever act as a critique of religious or institutional establishments?
· How has kitsch been racialized, regionalized, and/or weaponized?
· Which religious ideas are expressed through kitsch, and when does kitsch mis-represent religious ideas?
· How are syncretic religious traditions expressed through kitsch?
· What is kitsch’s role as a source of joy and communal celebration?
· Which items become beloved by many, and who makes them?
· Is there a place for kitsch in art history?
We welcome papers that engage with an expansive view of kitsch, considering mass produced items and handmade religious objects that are repeatedly displayed, re-worked, or include visual associations and/or tropes from religious kitsch. While the volume’s focus will be on Christian-inspired art made in and/or circulated in the United States, we welcome comparative approaches that address additional regions and religious beliefs.
Please submit a 200-word bio, 300–400-word abstract, and 1-2 images for a future 5,000 – 7,000-word essay to GodLovesKitsch@gmail.com by June 30.
[1] James Elkins, On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art (Routledge, 2004): 115.
[2] Erika Doss, Spiritual Moderns (The University of Chicago Press, 2023).
Laura Elizabeth Shea, PhD
Associate Professor, Art History
Fine Arts
100 Saint Anselm Drive
Manchester, NH 03102-1310
LShea@anselm.edu
