For those who can't get enough of artist Thomas Kinkade!

[BlackVelvetElvis]

Found this little day-brightener in my local paper this morning: I like to think Mr. Thompson is being kind.

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_RelishArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031776002695

<snip>
Jeffrey Thompson, an instructor in art history at Wake Forest University, said that, in certain respects, Kinkade stands outside of the world of art history. Art by such artists as Edward Hopper tells viewers something about the culture in which it was created. Kinkade's work does not.

"He has hit upon a kind of style or themes that people like to buy, and he doesn't deviate from that," Thompson said. "That is what - to my imagination - makes his work interesting but also what removes him from important discussions about the state of art today."

Enough people like his work that Kinkade feels comfortable describing himself as the "America's most-collected living artist." Kinkade company officials estimate that his art hangs in 10 million homes. More than 100 independently owned "signature" galleries have opened across the country - including one at Hanes Mall. The signature galleries are devoted exclusively to his art, along with such authorized products such as puzzles, plates and nightlights.

On any given day, works in the Hanes Mall gallery might include a picture depicting a country church beside a stream, a lighthouse with the sea crashing below, and a city street filled with vintage automobiles and people who appear to be enjoying life.

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. The words "Thomas Kinkade" and "artist"...

should NOT be used in the same sentence, unless the intent is ironic.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

2. I should have put the word artist in quotations.

or used the word "hack".

[KG]

5. he seems to be more of a 'craftsman' or 'painter' than an artist.

creating a mass produced commodity, rather than a statement.

but, 'artist' can be a subjective term.

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. Even "craftsman" is too complimentary for him.

His "art" is BAD. Sloppy, sentimental garbage that's not even very well painted. The fact that the man has sold hundreds of millions of dollars in prints is simply verification of H.L. Mencken's famously caustic observation that "no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public". The man is a third-rate hack who in a just world would only be able to get work illustrating greeting cards for some subsidiary of Hallmark that specialises in treacle.

[KG]

7. heh. don't hold back there, bro.....

:)

[Ediacara]

26. The paintings come out of a factory

He paints the original, then the prints are lithographed onto canvas and "filled in" by an army of painters to give the print a texture making it appear like an original. Why anyone would pay more than $10 for something produced in that manner confuses the hell out of me...

[Liberal Veteran]

3. I'm not a big fan of art as made by artists wearing rose-tinted glasses.

The paintings are pretty, but that's about all I can say about them.

[KoKo]

4. Well...if it gives some folks "comfort" then what can one say. I wonder

about artists who can afford to set up shop in high priced mall space and feature their works on easels in storefronts where they bill themselves as a "Painter of Light," sort of trashing the great painter Carravagio, but, hey...one has to make money in this world to live.

Let him enjoy himself but to knock off one of the truly great artists, does sort of make him seem "trashy." :shrug: If one compares him to the "true" painter of light, then his "mall front works" seem to be very commercialized. But many people like him..You gotta buy what you like, so WTH..??


Darkness and Light: Caravaggio and his world
... NGV International is open until 9pm every Wednesday evening until 26 May for special
late night viewings of Darkness & Light: Caravaggio & his World and Guy ...
www.ngv.vic.gov.au/caravaggio/ - 11k - Cached - Similar pages

[phaseolus]

8. "The Painter of Trite"

The stuff is fine, if you like "cutesy". Looks okay above a nice new couch in someone's suburban house, I suppose. In the same way those damned Nagel posters looked okay above couches in early-80s bachelor pads. (That stuff wasn't actually art, either...)

(oh, and those lithographs of paintings of the Kramer character from 'Seinfeld'??? Not art. :evilgrin: )

[Lex]

35. Ahahahaha! The painter of trite!

My SO reacts to Kinkade the same way she does to Precious Moments figurines. Like this: :eyes:

[chaska]

9. Well, I don't care what ya'll say, I like Kinkade...

Looks real nice in the bottom of my bird cage.

[supernova]

10. High Kitsch

is what I call it.

Kincaid appeals to people who don't know that much about art, even a superficial understanding of the Great Masters.

He's "art" for people who don't like art.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

16. I'm not sure if I can call it "high kitsch"..not just yet.

My idea of kitschy art are the classics: black velvet anything, "Dogs Playing Poker", anything with sad clowns or children with huge weepy eyes.

[AlCzervik]

11. I live in northern California and you can't swing a dead cat

without hitting one of his...uuuuhum...galleries. My husband calls his stuff FART Fake+Art=FART. When you start licensing your stuff to Franklin mint and shopping networks you officially suck. Down south from me inland there is a subdivision that is based on his stuff and you can furnish your new Kincaide home with his furniture line from thomasville.

[LTR]

12. I preferred the "Something Awful" approach

When they defaced Kincade paintings:

http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=1928
http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=1918






And most appropriate of all:

[supernova]

13. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Those are great! Dinosaurs do make everything better! :D

[BlackVelvetElvis]

14. LOL!

Those are great! I had to right click and open the image in a new window for them to show up-or just visit the site.
I should try a few of those...

[LTR]

17. Looks better with Cthulhu!

[Lorien]

20. Lol! The orca

reminiscent of another crap "artist"; Wyland. Ashamed to say I did a limited edition print with him once (what a piece of garbage-they didn't pay me enough to sign it, thank God).

That Bob Ross image is a bit much, though.

[mitchum]

15. He's no Nagel

[flamingyouth]

18. I've actually met him

He's a pretentious, tiresome prick. I'm sorry, I was holding back here.:evilgrin:

[soothsayer]

19. He's an ok artist turned hack

But a cash cow, oh yes.

[lumpy]

21. I like sugar in my tea

and syrup on my pancakes.

[LynneSin]

22. I'd rather have someone slap paint on their ass and paint on the canvas

than to buy that crap that Kinkade makes

[DS1]

23. I'm just here to say that I second whatever Rabrrrrrr

has to say about this :evilgrin:

[BlackVelvetElvis]

24. I think we know what that would be!

I posted this for him, you know.

[Rabrrrrrr]

29. LOL!! Thanks for the pre-emptive support!

I'm sorry I'm not finding this thread until today...

But I'm tired, so no brilliant long-winded rant against Kinkade this time because his art just sucks. And I can't even begin to properly insult the intellilgence of the jarheads the author interviewed for this article. Yeah, it's so important to make sure that you are buying art from a painter who's Christian values are the same as yours. :puke:

I like what someone else said earlier about Kinkade as 'craftsman' or 'painter', not artist. Though I wouldn't use craftsman, since a craftsman, to me, is an artist. Unless the poster meant "someone who does country style arts and crafts stuff for flea markets", in which case, yes, 'craftsman' is appropriate.

[Ediacara]

25. I worked next to a Thomas Kinkade Gallery

for three years. I never really understood what bothered me about his art (except for the cheesey uber-Christian all white themes) until about a year in it hit me like a ton of bricks.

He calls himself the painter of light. That's the problem! Light comes from all directions at once! There are NO shadows in Kinkade's work, so it looks 100% unrealistic.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

27. I worked with someone who...

received four of his "works" as a gift -- she was quick to point out that these were REAL, pianted Kinkades, not prints.

I had to break the news to her that they were photographs of Kinkade's works printed onto "canvas" that had paint globs of highlights brushed sporadically onto them. :)

His shit is no different than the stuff you find over your bed in a cheap motel.

[JCRobinhood]

28. Brilliant!

We just LOVE his work! I can't decide whether to put the gingerbread house nestled in the hundred acre wood OR the sea gulls floating gently on the ocean breeze about the bed.

...your thoughts?

[Ediacara]

30. LOL!

Welcome to DU!

[BlackVelvetElvis]

37. Welcome to DU, my friend!!!!

I say do both! Hey, here's an idea...why don't you completely redecorate the new house Kincaid-style. Here's a dollar, go buy yourself some flourescent paint!

[Heddi]

31. He's creepy! He mixes his blood into the paint so

that there is "certifiable DNA proof" that one of his paintings is actually his (why anyone would go through the trouble of faking one of the absolute worst 'paintings' by one of the worst 'painters' is beyond me).

I read that in People magazine. Supposedly, he was loosing BILLIONS and BILLIONS of dollars from people buying Fakes that he decied to mix his blood with the paint he uses (or the paint his painting slaves use?) so that if there were ever a debate as to whether one of his pictures is really his, DNA testing could supposedly be done on the paint to prove it's his. It's also allowed him to charge astronomical prices for his 'real' paintings because they're 'authentic' (authentic peices of shit)

Of course, that's assuming that most people are stupid enough to believe that DNA can live forever in paint (it can't) and that DNA would NEVER degrade to an unuseable state by being subjected to atmosphere, humidity, light, smoke, etc.....

I wonder if anyone's actually TRIED to do DNA testing from one of his paintings? My guess is that they would come up with NOTHING because there's no way that the DNA would stay viable for testing for an extended period of time

[Rabrrrrrr]

32. Holy cow! So he's just like the anti-Christ Gene Simmons

and other members of KISS who had their blood put into the printing of the first KISS comic book. :-)

Interesting company that Mr. Kinkade keeps.

He really puts his blood in the paint, eh? That's just creepy when it isn't done for artistic purposes.

[Heddi]

33. Yeah! He really does it!

I found myself in the unfortunate situation of being in a Dr's office which only carried PEOPLE, US, and IN STYLE magazines. So I read through People, and came across the article about Mr. Kinkade. Interested as to why a "magazine" (term used lightly) would devote column space to an "artist" (term used even more lightly) as Monsieur Kinkade, I read on. Found out he's suing billions of people for reproducing his work illegally and causing him to loose gazillions of dollars in the process.

I, too, though it was strange to mix blood into ones paintings. I wonder if Senor Kinkade has ever heard about Bloodborne pathogens (AIDS, Hepatitis, etc)? I wonder if Meester Kinkade has taken certain precautions to avoid his devout following from obtaining a nasty case of S.Aureus or some other nasty bacteria from his bloody bloody paintings.

Also---blood tends to stink when dry. Stinky pictures in more than one way, eh?

[Rabrrrrrr]

34. If he did a painting with JUST his blood, he'd finally have art

and I'd be willing to buy it.

But blood in the paint, just to verify authenticity - crackpotish.

Though I can't blame for going after counterfeiters. He has a right not to have his shit (and I mean, in this sense, shit) stolen from him.

And yes, it is interesting that an entertainment magazine would showcase an artist. But not surprising when realizes the artist in focus is Kinkade, who is, let's face it, nothing more than a cheap (though pricey) entertainer, entertaining to our basest instincts and tastes.

[Heddi]

36. WHen I lived in SC, there were Thomas Kinkade galleries EVERYWHERE

and they were usually located in the same stripmall that sold overpriced press-board furniture with a Cherry veneer and called it "Louis XX" or some-such nonsense.

I knew people who decorated their homes, happily, with Thomas Kinkade and Thomasville bullshit crap furniture. Usually, their houses were decorated in Magnolia Blossoms or Creeping Ivy, and the women of the house watched too much DIscovery Channel Daytime Shows and felt that just because the craft store made stencils and paint, then they were obliged to use them, and use them as much as possible, in every room in their house.

Just tacky tacky, imo. That's just not my style. I guess I can't complain about anyone who LIKES white geese with blue & white polkadot bows around their necks and little signs hanging from their feet that say "home is where the heart is" or "Kiss the Cook", but come on...be a bit more original.

[Rabrrrrrr]

38. "Country Duck" decor makes me ill

and of course, it's all over in the midwest, including my sister's home and those of many other relatives.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

39. I thought that went out of style in the late '80's.

It's the mullet of home decor!

[Rabrrrrrr]

40. Yeah, well, so did a lot of other things

But sadly, there are still far, far, far too many adherents.

homeinteriors.com and preciousmoments.com still exist.

And as you say, the stenciling orgasm is still a daily nightmare for thousands of artists whose families insist on it. I was just in a house a few hours ago that had stenciling all over as well as many other things that leave me feeling violated and dirty. Like faux-country ugly-wood furniture with dusty blue fabric seat cushions and... well, I can't go on. It's too painful to remember.