Art as Commercial Propaganda:

Mona Lisa Through the Ages Part VI

Ó Dr. Tina Yarborough, Asst. Professor of Art History & Interdisciplinary Studies

Georgia College & State University

Conclusion:

Since Warhol and Rauschenberg it can be said that the Mona Lisa has become more significant in reproduction than in reality. She has appeared on everything from the Olive Garden billboard to shower curtains. Her replication has grown to millions of Monas as this promotional ad which depicts 25 Monas in various guises, and this photograph of a Mona Lisa Kitsch collection indicate.

She has been everything from Santa Mona to Miss Piggy; her face flashes the stamp of legitimacy and approval. Her fame and value affirm the same in any product with which she is associated. As one scholar has noted, the culture industry is there to "imitate, duplicate, reproduce, and standardize whatever [we] might enjoy [because] uniqueness and rarity have become anachronous qualities…" The "law of the Inefficiency of Art" has kicked in.

In other words, we now know the Mona Lisa better through kitsch and mass culture, a fact that is perfectly illustrated by this cleverly effective advertisement using Mona Lisa’s world famous smile and the French expression for "I love" or "J’aime" written with another icon to get its message across.

This is just one more reason that kitsch as an aesthetic concept cannot be dissociated from modernity or ignored; Kitsch is democratic art; it is our "normal" art – just look in any dorm room here on campus. Kitsch has a pedagogical function in that an appreciation of mass culture and reproductive technology allows us to attain and helps us reach a higher level of aesthetic sensation.

Kitsch has NOT consumed our aesthetic experience or arrested our aesthetic judgment—it has heightened them. In other words, we do not need to see the Mona Lisa to know her, for we already do. Kitsch is obviously where we should begin any study of Leonardo’s famous painting, and now where we should end our own. As one last bit of Mona Lisa Kitsch: try this Klondike commercial.

Please submit your own KITSCH appropriation of the Mona Lisa to our unit through our discussion group. It can be in the form of an ad, or a song, or any other commodity promotion that you have seen.

Can you think of another ICON that is part of your contemporary culture?

And now for your final assignment, please post your thoughts about Kitsch.

Bibliography of Works Cited

Arnason, H.H. and Marla F. Prather. History of Modern Art. 4^th edition. NY: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1998.

Atkins, Robert. Art Speak: A Guide to Contemporary Ideas, Moements, and Buzzwords. NY: Abbeville Press, 1990.

Calinescu, Matei. Five faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism. Durham: Duke University Press, 1987.

Harris, Joseph A. "Seeking Mona Lisa." Smithsonian 30, no. 2 (May 1999): 54-66.

McMullen, Roy. Mona Lisa: The Picture and the Myth. NY: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1977.

Wernick, Andrew. Promotional Culture: Advertising, Ideology, and Symbolic Expression. London: Sage Publications, 1991.

Web Sites for Further Exploration:

Since there are so many for Mona, why don’t you explore the internet and bring in your best site and we can link it here.

Why not take your own virtual tour of the Louvre & see Mona for yourself?

http://mistral.culture.fr/louvre/louvrea.htm

This is a fun site: Mona Lisa Images for the Modern World

Ever wonder why Mona Lisa is smiling? Here’s where to go:

http://www.pipeline.com/~rabaron/MONALIST.htm

Talk about Kitsch: need a Mona print? Take a look at your choices here:

http://www.art.com/artgallery/default.asp?subject=mona+lisa&adid=YAWmonalisa

copyright © Dr. Deborah Vess 1998-2001, Georgia College & State University and the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. All rights reserved. Rights to chapters authored by contributing faculty members reserved to Georgia College & State University, to the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at GC&SU, and to the individual faculty authors.