Thomas Kinkade paintings: Conservative or Liberal?

[gulliver]

Thomas Kinkade paintings show a liberal ideal: simple people living a simple life, surrounded by natural, unspoiled beauty. The world of Thomas Kinkade cannot survive what is ironically called "conservatism."

Picture a pretty stone cottage in a glade next to a running stream. There are trees all around. Smoke rises from the chimney. A doe and its fawn sip water...

Enter conservatism.

To the north, upstream of the cottage, a mining company begins to blow the tops off of the mountains. The debris is allowed to roll downhill into the little stream. To the west, a corporate hog farm steadily grows its hog population. The breeze informs of this in every breath of air. A lead mine and smelting factory decides to locate downstream to the south.

The man and woman who live in the cottage lose their pension, because the company that he worked for underfunded it. The 30 acres of farmland that the couple owns has now gone to weeds, because it doesn't pay to farm 30 acres any more, thanks to consolidated agribusiness.

The doe is shot. It strayed into a huge parcel of ranch land that a corporation purchased as private hunting territory for its executives.

[NYCGirl]

1. How about just

BAD art?

[Liberal Veteran]

Let's just call it crap....

....okay?

[leesa]

2. Just bad painting, I think.

[salinen]

3. Sweet

[rusty charly]

4. kinkade's a fundie conservative

he's constantly going on about the Xtian inspiration for his paintings

my BF has done a kinkade inspired White House portrait

scroll down

http://www.alanrowland.com/_wsn/page4.html

[Longhorn]

23. Cool! Thanks for sharing that! n/t

[opihimoimoi]

5. As in life, most of our country is imparied due to exploitation..

but we yearn for the beauty so we must now rely on Art or cropped photos.

[soothsayer]

6. conservative---no soul, no feeling

Just pap crap churned out to make a buck.

[LTR]

7. Hard-core RW, and racist too!

I mean, just LOOK at this painting!



Just plain evil, IMO!

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

8. Excellent, ! I love it.

This is the kind of stuff Mad Magazine used to do!

[babzilla]

22. Painter of blight

"Painters of Blight" show at Roq la Rue in Seattle
Seattle's Roq la Rue Gallery (2316 Second Avenue) is running a two-day exhibit on Friday, July 9, and Saturday, July 10, featuring the work of two dozen artists paying tribute to Thomas Kinkade and Jack T. Chick. (Painting above is by Jim Blanchard).
As you probably know, Thomas Kinkade, the famous "Painter of Light," has made millions of dollars with his customized prints of day-glo cottages against backdrops of enchanted forests. He has a team of "Kinkade-trained Master Highlighters" who go over reproductions of his work with oil paint.

http://www.boingboing.net/2004/06/30/painters_of_blight_s.html

[Ripley]

24. That is extremely cool...

I never knew there was such a backlash to this guy...I wonder if he is aware of it! Not that he'd care...

[babzilla]

32. CAUTION Master Highlighter at work

I can't get over the concept of the "Kinkade trained Master Highlighter". Hey, Kinkade's just like Andy Warhol, but umm different.


A Master Highlighter Event is an 8-hour personal appearance by a certified Thomas Kinkade Master Highlighter. During the event, a highlighter enhances images of the gallery's choice. Pieces explode with dimension and are brought to life with a stroke of the master highlighter's brush.

This is a unique opportunity for the collector to interact with highlighters and learn more about Thomas Kinkade's art. Master Highlighters are hand-picked and have worked on Studio Proofs. They also have graduated from Thomas Kinkade 101, a class teaching the proper Master Highlighting Techniques as well as personal instructions by Thomas Kinkade. Our Master Highlighters, too, have interesting biographical information about their successes in the art world.

Hurry and find the next Master Highlighter Event here:

http://www.thomaskinkade.com/magi/servlet/com.asucon.ebiz.events.web.tk.EventsServlet?btn_action=Selected&outsideIndex=MasterHighlighterEvents#more

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

34. aaahg! Looks like something from Juxtapoz!

ROFTL! Too cool. & Jack Chick too!

[Ms. Clio]

44. Oh I wish this could hang on my wall

That is freakin hilarious.

[Warpy]

9. Calendar art

Oversaturated colors, idealized scenes of things only the very, very rich can afford, like lavish gardens surrounding isolated chichi cottages. Not only that, they're ground out by the dozens, like sausages, with an occasional daub of paint to lend them the fiction of authenticity.

Let's see, mass produced fakes showing the sheeple how they could live if they, too, had been born with fortunes, which they'll never have because they're spending thousands of dollars on PRINTS.

I'd say that's pretty conservative.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

12. oddly enough, his stuff doesnt seem that American.

Ever noticed the cottages all seem to be sort of "English".

Authentic US cottages usually would be out of wood clapboard or board & batten (like in the backround of American Gothic), or maybe brick.

I think Andrew Wyth and the regionalists did a better job of patriotic landscapes, or American landscapes.

And, yes, the colors look like some acid trip. Colors in the American landscape are bright, yes, but are cold and clear and bold, but not candy colored gauze.

[amber dog democrat]

10. How about a con artist who preys on the uneducated

and easily manipulated?

He's to art what Bowdler was to theater in England.

There needs to be a special hell for this charlitan.

Weak minded lazy lemmings flock to his kind of schlock.

[meti57b]

11. his paintings are creepy

[Peregrine]

14. and they are building a community

fashoned after his paintings.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

16. and its called "Carmel by the Sea?"

seriously...are they really?

[Mz Pip]

29. I've been to one

It's a subdivision in Vallejo CA. I think it's called the Village or something like that.

The houses don't look like his paintings, though they are a bit more ornate with little dormers and picket fences. The rooms are staged with his line of furniture and nearly every room has one of his painting/prints.

Nothing special, just another row of overpriced tract homes.

MzPip
:dem:

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

36. oddly enough this IS a California architectural genre.

Theres a tradition in Cali residential architecture for the cutsey wisteria covered "period" cottage...the "dollhouse" style. Even high-design architects have done sort of ironic "quotations" of the style.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

15. I think so too.

Thers something "off".

[K8-EEE]

13. Just Plain BAD!!! Assembly Line Style Hack

Bad, schocky Stepford "art." God I hate that guy.

[gauguin57]

17. Stepford Art!

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

If you're going to gravitate toward overly sentimental art, choose an artist with some humanity, some conscience, some wit. Like Norman Rockwell.

Kincaide's muse is Mammon!

[Ripley]

18. He is an ultimate "free marketer"...who learned how to paint

by reading "how to" magazines. His stuff is marketed as "the number one selling painter in America." So people buy his slock because "he's popular," just like any other product.

People want to buy it because they can then say they own art and they can name an American painter. How sad for the rest of us artists...

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

19. did he really?

Im surfing his website, and I can say he does have a master of technique, but his perspective is off...like this one:

http://www.thomaskinkade.com/magi/servlet/com.asucon.ebiz.catalog.web.tk.CatalogServlet?catalogAction=Product&productId=912&menuNdx=0.3

Nice use of shadows but that bright light on the snow..thats supposed to be moonlight? Too bright. And does it make sense to have this "Christopher Wren" style church in what looks like a western mountain landscape?

I also see he has his own VISA card

http://ak.bluestreak.com//adv/mbna-/^336/^72786/bagi-180x120-093002-a00000060p.gif

[Ripley]

21. I was being fascetious...

Actually I think people should buy whatever they want in art if it makes them happy. It just irritates me that peopl will flock into his mall stores and plunk down 500$ for a giclee and when I try to sell my artwork they try to "haggle" down the price. Yeah, I know, it's the nature of the artworld.

But he has approached this as an MBA degreed person and it reduces art to just another commodity. I mean Wyland has "mall" stores, too, but he also does a huge amount of charity whale mural paintings to help keep our oceans clean and safe for wildlife.

Kinkade's art is the "Big eyed Children" of our times. Every suburban home should have one over their couch... :puke:

[Warpy]

25. Acutally, I do have sort of a Kinkade

I found a paint by numbers painting for ten bucks at a thrift shop, and it absolutely has to be the inspriation for most of his schlock.

I thought having a beautifully framed, Thomas Kinkade paint by numbers said it all, so I bought it. It's hanging in the only appripriate setting, the bathroom.

If I ever stop laughing, I'll be left with a frame that's worth much more than ten bucks.

[Ripley]

28. LOL...funny!

I swear his stuff looks like a "lesson" from that magazine...what's it called "The Artist's something"...it's a how-to.

[Boomer]

20. You miss the obvious

>> People want to buy it because they can then say they own art and they can name an American painter. <<

A lot of people just have really bad taste in art. Probably the same crowd that thinks Danielle Steele is a giant literary figure.

[LittleApple81]

35. The "700 Club" of painting... the sacchariness is sickening

and absolutely astounding... It would be cheaper to get the calendar from your friendly insurance company or gas station and putting some Christmas light around it.

[Ms. Clio]

26. I'm forwarding this to a Kinkade-loving conservative I know n/t

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

27. He used to work for Ralph Bakshi? No way!

According to his bio he did bacckround art for Ralph Bakshi..the animator who did Cook World, Wizards, and Fritz the Cat.

ROFTL!

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

30. Robert Girrard?

Kinkaids stuff is really heavy-handed, bombastic and I'd even say ideological.

But his early artitiic identity as "Robert Girrard" (neo-impressionist) he had a lighter touch.

Not great art, but not so overwrought, either.

[jdsmith]

31. Heavens. Not just "conservative," but (literally) mind-numbing

He presents us with the notion that there is an ideal America out there and that we all have access to it (if only for the moments we can spend gazing at the paintings above our sofas). Thus, we can despise anyone who dwells on the problems in our country: why don;t they just chill and cough up the bucks for a Kincade as well. Lacking any irony whatsoever, these things are Band-Aids for the conscience.

[TexasSissy]

33. That is so close to the truth that it is scary.

[indigobusiness]

37. Conservative crap art...

bummer for all, and Art is slimed.

[Armstead]

38. He drew for Ralph Bakshi...Ha, ha

First I should admit that I kinda like some of his paintings. Call me trite, but I enjoy things that take me back to idyllic visions and feelings from my youth.

But more importtant than my bad taste is this little tidbit in his autobiography. For those unfamiliar with the name, Bakshi was the animator who made the movie Fritz the Cat, Am,erican Pop and other classics of left-wing depravity.


"...The popularity of the book landed the two fledgling artists a job at Ralph Bakshi Studios, creating background art for the animated feature film Fire and Ice. Soon, Thom started exploring light and imaginative worlds with abandon. It was during this period that he acquired his moniker as the The Painter of Light.
After completing his work on the Bakshi film, Kinkade began his career as a painter, selling his originals in galleries throughout California."

[GiovanniC]

39. He Is One of the Most Egotistical No-Talent People I Know Of

His paintings are bland and repetitive. They're made on an assembly line, mass-produced.

The guy isn't an artist for art's sake, he's an artist for the sake of treasure. And there are plenty of people who are willing to shell it out to him. He's expanding into the typical stuff... mugs, calendars, coffee table books -- to be expected. But also there's Thomas Kinkade furnature and even Thomas Kinkade houses.

The guy is trying to make his name a brand, and he's succeeded mostly, but I can't imagine da Vinci or Manet selling their wares in bulk on QVC.

And he's so arrogant... he brags about his "talent" and then trashes on Picasso. He has basically said that he thinks that he (Thomas Kinkade) will be known as THE artist of the 20/21st century.

[Cobalt Violet]

40. McPaintings!!!

[edhopper]

41. Before you think I am defending him..

let me say that I hate his paintings. I am a working landscape painter and I find his work as garish as most others here.
But he is not untalented. I know some artist that were in Art school with him and he was a stellar student. If you have seen any of his simple plein air work you can see his ability. He is a skilled artist. What he has done with his skill is abhorrent. He is a good artist making "bad art".

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

42. Yes, I think he does "know better".

I was surfing his site and saw some of his neoimpressionist paintings, which had a different look & feel to them then the dayglo churches and cottages.

[delete_bush]

43. the more they spend on this crap

the less remaining to contribute to the chimp.