Thomas Kinkade, the self-appointed "Painter of Light," died last Friday. In the days since his passing, the debate that surrounded him when he was alive has grown even louder. On the one side are the art establishment, who look down their noses at Kinkade’s shopping mall galleries, mass-produced product lines, and highly saturated images of simpler times. On the other side are Kinkade’s fans, who see his work as inspiring and accessible. Was Kinkade a great democratizer of art or a charlatan businessman? Susan Orlean penned one of the most comprehensive pieces ever written on Thomas Kinkade for the New Yorker in 2001, entitled "Art for Everybody."
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Comments [6]
Apocalyptica's "Beautiful"! A revelation! Please sample it on the show!
To me, art in any format will yield new insights after repeated encounters.
What is art? Jackass @ MOMA........beautiful...
A great work of art supports a multitude of deep interpretations. It confounds, prompts and fires our imagination in ways that excite, comfort and challenge us all at once. Finally, I think it resists simple categorization.
Perspective: Kinkade fits in to the popular art of every generation. Currier and Ives hung in all middle class houses for most of the 19th century.Maxfield Parrish, Bessie Gutmann, Sawyer pictures, R. Atkinson Fox, Wallace Nutting are his 20th c. American roots. All of these popular artists used the technology of the day. Kinkade is part of the continuum of popular art that hung in cottages, farms and later suburban ranch houses.
NH antiques dealer
Local Brooklyn artist Steve Keene mass produces fun art for the masses. I own 30 or 40 pieces, purchased at prices from $2 to $10, I love his double images of subjects, as in Warhol's Marilyn.
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