Kitsch painting is an international movement of classical painters founded upon a 24 September 1998 speech and philosophy by Odd Nerdrum,[1] later clarified in his book On Kitsch[2] with Jan-Ove Tuv and others.[note 1] It incorporates the techniques of the Old Masters with narrative, romanticism, and emotionally charged imagery. The movement defines Kitsch as synonymous with the ars of ancient Rome or the techne of ancient Greece. Kitsch painters embrace it as a positive term not in opposition to "art", but as its own independent superstructure. Kitsch painters assert that Kitsch is not an art movement, but a philosophical movement: a superstructure of values and philosophy which are separate from art. The Kitsch movement has been considered an indirect criticism of the contemporary art world, but according to Nerdrum and many Kitsch painters, this is not their expressed intention.