I was unaware that the famous "Fountain" by Duchamp was proposed to an exhibition that required, for exposition, that the work should conform to given measures, should be made from a range of pre-defined materials and should be signed. When i read the story, I suddenly realized (contrary to my former interpretation http://castorphans.blogspot.com/2008/06/letteratura.html) that Duchamp was simply saying: "your art is a pissoir; in fact my pissoir complies with the standards you demanded for your exhibit."
In other words, Duchamp, that is sometimes considered the beginner of contemporary glorification of kitsch, was in fact launching an attack to the kitch of academic art.
Anyway, from "Fountain" on, the debate of contemporary art has been fundamentally wether to denonce kitsch (for instance the movement of Arte Povera, or, among critics, Daverio; or to accept its forms and to do art in this framework (for instance Koons, Damien Hirst, or, among the critics, Bonomi).
Anyway, kitch has a long history, dating back at least from XVII century; I have just read a wonderful little book (F. Gualdoni, Kitsch, SkiraMiniArtBooks) that presents a round-up of many shamefully kitsch works: many are nonetheless true masterpieces (for instance the painting by Lorenzo Lotto with Love pissing on Venus).
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