Kinkade

[RR88]

Many of you have surely heard by now that Thomas Kinkade, the "painter of light", died a few days ago. I figured I'd mention him here because of his connection to fundamentalist Christians. Personally, I find his stuff awful; to me, it was too rainbow-y, cutesy, and unchallenging to be of any merit. He never seemed to develop as an artist (unless we're counting the period during which he chose to give up on actual artwork in favor of radioactive Skittle vomit as "development"), and the lighting and other elements in his work were often so unrealistic that it made his paintings difficult to look at. Full disclosure: My favorites include Caravaggio, Bronzino, Bouguereau, and Michelangelo. When it comes to gratuitous use of colors, though, I reject Kinkade in favor of Leonid Afremov...and even Conrad Ruiz!

My question is this: Would Thomas Kinkade have achieved the success he had if he hadn't tied his artwork to religion? Discuss, please.

[nomi]

He peed on Winnie the Pooh

[RR88]

He peed on Winnie the Pooh

I read about that! He did plenty of unsavory (and illegal) things.

[icecreamycakeycake]

I believe he was a genius business man.

[Artemis]

I googled images of his paintings and my eyes started hurting . . .

According to one article about him, he had a dark side. Also apparently he was given to peeing on things to 'mark his territory'.

Looks to me that he was a shrewd businessman who know what his target clientele wanted.

ETA Afremov hurts my eyes worse.

[constantgardener]

Well, I went to art college and I have never heard of him. Just did a quick google and realised why. He obviously has some technical skill, but my God, his paintings look like the sort of thing you get in a box of cheap Christmas cards. Who on earth bought them? Sounds like he was a bit of a nutter as well but then that's not unusual in the art world.

[ilovetchotchkes]

I think his art can be improved by one minor addition:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[kpmom]

I'm not knowledgeable about art at all, but I always thought his stuff wasn't much better than those velvet Elvis paintings. Some of his pieces might have worked in children's literature or something. I was always surprised adults would buy them. The market is so saturated I can't imagine the prices will ever go up. Can you imagine any other artist having stores in malls?

I can't help but think the religion tie helped his popularity enormously. I can't think of any other reason why he became so popular. Maybe he was a marketing genius?

ETA: Peed on stuff to mark his territory? Seriously?

[Witsec7]

Crap, modern motel paintings, sappy and unoriginal. Now Bierstadt knew how to paint with light, and Hopper too. I viewed Cezzanes' up close, some of the still lifes, and you could almost feel the folds in the table cloths.

riffles

[Alana Rickman]

Well, I went to art college and I have never heard of him. Just did a quick google and realised why. He obviously has some technical skill, but my God, his paintings look like the sort of thing you get in a box of cheap Christmas cards. Who on earth bought them? Sounds like he was a bit of a nutter as well but then that's not unusual in the art world.

Sadly, a shit-ton of people bought them. It's been estimated that his work hangs in 1 out of every 20 American homes (I'm pretty sure there's at least two of them in my MIL's house). A lot of people freaking love his stuff. Like someone else upthread already said, though, it all looks the same to me. It's pretty, I guess, but not very interesting.

[RR88]

I think his art can be improved by one minor addition:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Did you find that at Something Awful? That site has a slew of hilarious parodies! Someone told me he liked Kinkade's work because it spoke to the viewer's desire for fantasy. I told him that the artwork below (by Bouguereau) was plenty fantastical for yours truly:

[attachment=0]Bouguereau.jpg[/attachment]

[ilovetchotchkes]

Did you find that at Something Awful? That site has a slew of hilarious parodies! Someone told me he liked Kinkade's work because it spoke to the viewer's desire for fantasy. I told him that the artwork below (by Bouguereau) was plenty fantastical for yours truly:

\

Someone posted on facebook... :)

[RR88]

It seems that Kinkade wished to satisfy the wishes of the unique crowd of materialistic American Christians, blending religion and fairy tales (though those two categories are arguably one and the same) with dreamscapes many pined for, but few could afford. He did a series of paintings for Disney and sold copies of them (that were essentially prints with bits of paint dabbed onto them in strategic areas to make them "unique") for thousands of dollars.

[attachment=0]Bambi.jpg[/attachment]

[fluttershies]

Not going to lie, I like his Disney 'paintings' :(. His Tangled and Princess & The Frog ones are gorgeous.

I don't know how many people knew he was a Christian though - his stuff is almost tailor-made for a certain type of old lady (I bet they make great jigsaws). Sentimental cuteness will always find fans.

[keen23]

Not going to lie, I like his Disney 'paintings' :(. His Tangled and Princess & The Frog ones are gorgeous.

I don't know how many people knew he was a Christian though - his stuff is almost tailor-made for a certain type of old lady (I bet they make great jigsaws). Sentimental cuteness will always find fans.

Um, OF COURSE there are Kincade puzzles! They're actually some of my favorite "easy" puzzles to do, because the variety of colors makes them pretty quick to put together. I like to put out 1000 or 5000 piece puzzles on the dining room table and whenever someone has a few minutes they'll go over and put together a bit or sort out pieces or something. It's a stress reliever for me to take 15 minutes and just work the puzzle.

[ladypuglover]

Not going to lie, I like his Disney 'paintings' :(. His Tangled and Princess & The Frog ones are gorgeous.

I don't know how many people knew he was a Christian though - his stuff is almost tailor-made for a certain type of old lady (I bet they make great jigsaws). Sentimental cuteness will always find fans.

In the christian world we knew and it shoved down our throats until I started to hate the guy. So he can paint, great but he's no Bob Ross.

I admit to like his tree as I was always thinking/playing like this as a kid.

http://www.myron.com/eng/product/thomas ... #BC-Invite

[RR88]

Not going to lie, I like his Disney 'paintings' :(. His Tangled and Princess & The Frog ones are gorgeous.

I don't know how many people knew he was a Christian though - his stuff is almost tailor-made for a certain type of old lady (I bet they make great jigsaws). Sentimental cuteness will always find fans.

To each his own. I find his stuff vapid and vomit-inducing. His Christianity was heavily advertised, I believe. Many of his paintings were overtly religious or were sold with brass plaques quoting the Bible. According to some articles I've read, Kinkade even said that the bright orange light that emanated from every single opening in the buildings he painted was "the light of Jesus". In my experience, houses whose every window and doorway give off a strong orange glow are houses on the verge of erupting into flames...

[FloraDoraDolly]

Kinkade's paintings are pretty, but they do look like greeting cards. As far as Americana-style art is concerned, I prefer Norman Rockwell.

[ladypuglover]

Kinkade's paintings are pretty, but they do look like greeting cards. As far as Americana-style art is concerned, I prefer Norman Rockwell.

I love me some Rockwell too as he knew some folks had big ears.

[ilovetchotchkes]

I love me some Rockwell too as he knew some folks had big ears.

Rockwell's stuff is infinitely better. Its more "real" and its just... I don't know how to put it, there's humor in it.

[haveapicniclife]

Well I certainly don't wish death on anyone, but his "art" was anything but art. I have an art degree and Thomas Kinkade was the butt of many jokes. Just about everything he did was computer created anyway, I don't know if he actually ever painted anything. I have an acquaintance that has a Kinkade collection and she thinks it's worth sooo much. Uhmm...no. It's just the typical chintzy knick-knack stuff they sell everywhere.

Rockwell...very much an artist.

[fluttershies]

To each his own. I find his stuff vapid and vomit-inducing. His Christianity was heavily advertised, I believe. Many of his paintings were overtly religious or were sold with brass plaques quoting the Bible. According to some articles I've read, Kinkade even said that the bright orange light that emanated from every single opening in the buildings he painted was "the light of Jesus". In my experience, houses whose every window and doorway give off a strong orange glow are houses on the verge of erupting into flames...

It's not that I don't appreciate great art - and I know Kinkade is not great art lol - but there's nothing wrong with liking cheesy crap as well as the good stuff. I don't know, snobbery bothers me more than anything else. I doubt people who own Kinkade works particularly care about great art, and that's fine.

And apologies, I'd just never seen his work advertised with any religious quotations or even his religious works. Maybe that stuff got left out in the UK, certainly I can see it selling better in the US.

[Californiacicle]

I don't think he would have.

The man was an asshole, scam artist who painted intolerable crap. In my former life (1st husband), we had a store in a very picturesque town in a very picturesque building. He would paint it every now and again and was a total prick. He would throw his stuff where ever he wanted, usually on the flowers in the garden at the front of our store and get pissy when we needed to go in and out the door or move stuff in the front. Sorry douchebag, this is our business, not your personal playground.

One of his major galleries was behind my former MIL's store so we also had to deal with him that way. I was working there one day when he and his wife came in. She wanted to buy something, but he pitched a fit and yelled at her, wouldn't let her. She seemed so broken down, like a punished puppy.

We also would hear all the inside gossip from the people who worked at the gallery, how these paintings priced in the thousands were basically prints that had glow paint applied on them by little worker bees somewhere. The galleries would use special lighting and scripts to lure suckers to buy his pieces. Of course the "And he's such a good Christian" crap was heavily applied if people seemed to lean that way.

*barf*

He never appeared to be a "good Christian" in any of my dealings with him.

[Californiacicle]

Well I certainly don't wish death on anyone, but his "art" was anything but art. I have an art degree and Thomas Kinkade was the butt of many jokes. Just about everything he did was computer created anyway, I don't know if he actually ever painted anything. I have an acquaintance that has a Kinkade collection and she thinks it's worth sooo much. Uhmm...no. It's just the typical chintzy knick-knack stuff they sell everywhere.

Rockwell...very much an artist.

No, he could paint. I witnessed him painting a few times. It just was crap IMO.

[ADoyle90815]

I always thought Kinkade paintings looked more like greeting cards or something for hotel rooms, so I never really saw the appeal. If anything, the fact that his art is available practically everywhere in the US just shows that he was a genius at marketing, or at least had great PR people. Slapping Bible verses on some of his stuff and talking about the "light of Christ" were just ploys to get Christians to buy his art, and it seems to have worked.

Now, I've always preferred Norman Rockwell's art for Americana as his stuff was more real to me.