What’s so bad about Thomas Kinkade?

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What’s so bad about Thomas Kinkade?

August 25, 2011 by Simcha Fisher

I thought you’d never ask.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

8 Responses

on August 25, 2011 at 11:17 AM | Reply CuppaJo

Holy fabulous. My bestest and I have had a running joke, for over a decade, about what total tripe (forever to be amended to “shite”) Kincade’s so-called “art” is, and you, my friend, have just made both of our days!!!
on August 25, 2011 at 9:58 PM | Reply bob cratchit

Well I asked my sister, who is a Savannah artist, what her opinion of T. Kincaide is (I had to). Her first reply was simply: “S H I T. “(sorry)
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Then she said this:
“Too mushy happy EASY brushstrokes. “The painter of light” (hint: ALL painters are painters of light–the source of value in every successful works). He hires a warehouse full of “kincaide trainee’s” to paint for him. The brushstrokes are very similar to Bob Ross and the lavendar or blue base coat is very very forgiving. No challenge. But it’s cutsie pie holier than thou feel appeals to the masses. Nobody wants cerebral imagery anymore. Gone are the revolutionary artists who didn’t need the shock value of rat pee to make their works known-Im talking about the Kahlo’s, the Kruiegers, renaissance “men and women”. Sorry but you hit a nerve. I hate Kincaide’s pastel crap and everything it stands for. You are too good for that junk. I’ll send you a list of artists to look for. (Have you ever looked at Edward Hopper’s work? He was from around those parts. Dead now but his work is haunting, melancholy–I’d rather have a warehouse full of reprints by him than any original of Kincaid’s). Heh.”
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And I have a new understanding of something. Nice post
on August 25, 2011 at 11:15 PM | Reply tonylayne

Not to start a rabbit hole, but … Anima described TK’s work as “just plain kitsch”. And it struck me that Catholic culture in the space of a thousand years produced 75-80% of the Western world’s great art; so why is it that, when you walk into a Catholic gift shop, all the statuary and artwork available for sale are kitschy crapburgers?

We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.
- on August 26, 2011 at 1:08 AM | Reply Simcha Fisher
  
  Tony, I feel sure that the Renaissance was full of crappy art and artists, too — it’s just that no one bothered to preserve it. A thousand years from now, the best of what today’s artists are producing will, I hope, be preserved, and all the Kinkade, plastic glowing Virgins, Jesus My Soccer Pal, and all will have returned to dust.
on August 26, 2011 at 8:09 AM | Reply Jamie O'hare

http://mobile.salon.com/life/feature/2010/06/19/this_week_thomas_kinkade This is all I can think of when I see his work now. Raised as a fundamentalist evangelical, I was surrounded by this stuff and saw the same Home Interiors groupings in every church family’s home. It’s schmaltzy sentimentality that appeals to the unimaginative. That said, all the artwork hanging in my house was made by the under-8 crowd!
on August 26, 2011 at 9:27 AM | Reply Link Salad | Strange Figures

[...] so bad about Thomas Kinkade? I mean, aside from his urinating on Winnie the Pooh? Simcah Fisher has a smart, significant and, as always, funny post on the problem with the “Painter of [...]
on August 27, 2011 at 10:53 AM | Reply DebbieQ

For so long I thought I must be the only person in the world who thought that the art of Thomas Kinkade was down right awful. So glad to know that I am not the only one.
on September 1, 2011 at 9:15 PM | Reply Lena

I was at the library today and saw that Thomas Kincaid co-authored some novels. Do you think I should check one out and read it?