Margaret Keane's art was and is an example of the misrepresented art style, "kitsch art."
Many people assume that 'kitsch" art is tacky and superficial. Odd Nerdrum, a Norwegian painter, strongly disagreed and argued that he "…made it his life goal to elevate kitsch from being an insult to a badge of honor"(Citizen Keane, Preface, xii).
Kitsch is the counterpart and antithesis of modernism.
While modernism especially in the 1950s and 1960s catered to the overly intellectual and philosophical art critics, kitsch was considered the low brow, simple, old-fashioned, sentimental art style that won the hearts of the everyday man or woman.
Kitsch art may have exposed ordinary themes, but Margaret Keane's work in particular was unique in its mysterious way of penetrating its viewers and prompting them to experience a deep emotional moment.
