What is the difference between a work of art and a daub?

You can find daub almost everywhere. All of souvenirs, statuettes, mascots, china dolls, mass-painted landscapes, etc.. We bring bags of such "works" from our journeys. Then they fill up our shelves and we get used to that. In general - a daub is just an easy, pretentious, sentimental art that uses unoriginal means of expression. You should already get the difference between a work of art and a daub. A work of art (as we mentioned at the beginning of this chapter) is something original, creative and unrepeatable.

However, art is a permanent contradiction - it gets out of any definitions. From sixties (at the beginning of pop-art) a daub - paradoxically - has got recognized as a work of art. Andy Warhol caused that. His works, mixed with a daub and led up to a taste of the masses got recognized as a work of art.

Jeff Koons is one of the artists who use a daub consciously. At the photo below you can see his work entitled "Michael Jackson and soap bubbles".



JEFF KOONS
Michael Jackson and soap bubbles
1988

A kitsch picture of this well-known singer staring (with his monkey) at non-existing soap bubbles can be treated as a top of bad taste. The effect is intensified by golden colour, flowers, all made of porcelain and with fair-time tradition. The composition is well-balanced. The artist consciously emphasised the resemblance between the Jackson`s face and the animal`s muzzle. He also used a lot of other means to get the planned effect but in other way than a form. It seems as if Jeff Koons wanted to defend his kitsch work against possession by art what happened to almost all of pop-artists.