As kitsch as kitsch can

Alex Coolman

The curious and entertaining intersection of kitsch and art is

something that has become more visible in recent months in Orange County.

First there was the show of Edgar Leeteg’s velvet paintings at the

Huntington Beach Art Center in February. Now Laguna Beach artist Mike

Tauber is bringing a show of more than 34 paint-by-numbers canvases to

Newport Beach City Hall.

The paintings, which Tauber collected from thrift stores and furniture

vendors over the last several years, range from the arguably beautiful to

the undeniably hideous. They serve -- says Tauber, who will give a

lecture on the subject in November -- to illustrate a peculiarly American

approach to art.

Paint-by-numbers kits were developed in the late 1940s and early 1950s

by the Palmer Paint Co. of Detroit. They emerged, Tauber said, at a

moment when mainstream Americans were excited about the possibility of

dabbling in something vaguely artistic.

“They symbolize a cultural time,” Tauber said. “It was the postwar

boom. It was luxurious and prestigious to be able to go and paint. That’s

when the homes had basements and workbenches. Everyone was doing these

kinds of hands-on crafts.”

After an initially unsuccessful debut, paint-by-numbers kits soared in

popularity through the fifties. Tauber said millions of kits were sold in

1954, the apogee of the vogue. A few years later, the trend petered out.

“They kind of went into a decline in the ‘60s,” Tauber said. “The

concept got a little bit tired.”

Paint-by-numbers canvases were never particularly daring, Tauber said.

They fell almost without exception into the five tidy categories of

seascapes, landscapes, people, animals and still lifes. What the works

lacked in vitality, though, they sometimes made up in garishness, taking

full advantage of the period’s enthusiasm for pastel pinks, fuchsias and

lime greens.

“Many of them are absolutely hideous, and it’s unbelievable that they

even sold any of these things. Some of the pallets are just absolutely

disgusting, with repulsive, terrible subject matter,” Tauber said. “Of

course, some of those are the most collectible ones.”

Then too there were the “High Art” paint-by-numbers kits, canvases of

carefully delineated Mona Lisas and fill-in the blanks Winslow Homer

landscapes for the dabbler who wanted to know, sort of, what it was like

to paint something truly enduring.

Other works lacked even the zest of bad taste to distinguish them. But

such canvases are remarkable, Tauber argues, precisely because they are

so unremarkable -- because, in fact, they challenge the idea of

originality that is usually considered essential to the creation of art.

“There was a lot of criticism from artists,” Tauber said. “Because

what a tacky thing, to call this art when all it was was coloring in

shapes. Some people despise it because of that. It’s like cheating.”

For Tauber, who will give a lecture titled “Paint by Numbers: Kitsch

or Collectible?” on Nov. 4 at the Newport Beach’s Central Library, the

tension between the idea of personal artistry and mass production makes

the paintings challenging in their banality.

“Each one is individually done even though they’re based on the mass

idea,” Tauber said. Whether that simple fact makes paint-by-numbers the

highest of kitsch or the most challenging of art isn’t a question he

feels compelled to answer.

WHAT: Paint-by-numbers exhibit and lecture

WHERE: Exhibit: Newport Beach City Hall, 3300 Newport Blvd. Lecture:

Newport Beach Central Library, 1000 Avocado.

WHEN: The exhibit runs Monday through Nov. 3. The lecture is Nov. 4 at 7

p.m.

HOW MUCH: Both events are free

TELEPHONE: City Hall: (949) 644-3309, Central Library: (949) 717-3800