Defend the indefensible - Thomas Kinkade

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Vomitous.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 04:56 (7 years ago) Permalink

I think my mother hates him more than she hates the president
Mine too! AND Currin also is Marked for Death by Mom. We've had endless debates over it. I just think it's kicky that an "artist" OF ANY KIND can make himself a household word. As if any of Kinkade's fans are going to buy my mother's weird paintings instead, in the event that the P of L is assassinated and all his paintings burned. I'm sure they're flame-retardant. Those people are never ever ever gonna go for anything else. The paintings reinforce their pot-of-gold-at-the-end-of-the-rainbow delusions. "Honey, this is our little cottage!!!" Fine. I just can't get worked up about it.
But I actually want that Disneyland painting! I guess I could replicate it, in a fashion. Actually, everyone on this thread should paint a Thomas Kinkade painting!!!
C'mon, folks! Get cracking!

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 13:02 (7 years ago) Permalink

Sniffle - I don't have a place to do oil painting right now. Maybe I could do it in prismacolor.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 13:38 (7 years ago) Permalink

I think a lot of the people who like Kinkade would probably consider Warhol just a homo junkie scumbag.

Kinkade yaoi, now there's a whole new market. I like the Disneyland picture, I confess, partly because it's the best giggly kitsch ever, partly because it really does exhibit what "Disneyland" signifies to many Americans in the 20th/1st century, partly because it looks like an Alma-Tadema painting (whom I love for his giggly kitsch).

― Paul Ess (Paul Ess), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 13:46 (7 years ago) Permalink

To hate the Disneyland picture is to hate LIFE!!!!
Maybe I could do it in prismacolor.
I think a wide variety of media should be encouraged. It's funny, I did a series of paintings of little shacks, most of them nightscapes, with lots of multicolored stars and smudges and reflections, and sometimes even flowers. They don't look like Kinkades, my painting is a little too brutish. I could push them into Kinkadism if I just took a little more care, but I'm a slob. Beth Parker, Painter of Blight.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 13:50 (7 years ago) Permalink

Aaaaaaaaah! Thomas Kinkade on QVC is one of the most terrifying and entertaining ways of spending an hour you could wish for.

― Mädchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 13:53 (7 years ago) Permalink

Serious question: what is BAD about Kinkade?

I admire Kinkade on a conceptual level, on the level where what he's doing becomes pure modern art. You may argue that this is accidental, that's he's not self-aware, but I don't see how it COULDN'T be self-aware. He's the bastard son of PT Barnum and Andy Warhol. And actually Warhol is the perfec comparison: an emphasis on flash over depth, the use of multiple prints that are only different enough to make them "unique," the creation of a place that identifies with his artistic vision (TS: Hiddenbrooke vs. the Factory), etc.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 14:15 (7 years ago) Permalink

For me it's the gooey sentiment and the smug 'I'm special'-ness that seem to permeate his (and his fans') worldview that make him so bad and hated. Although as I mentioned upthread, I'm suspicious that he's cynically pulling one over on his customer base.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 14:21 (7 years ago) Permalink

How is he pulling one over on his customers? Most likely, they are looking for: a) art that they enjoy looking at, and/or b) art that is an "investment." They presumably are getting both when they buy a Kinkade piece.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 14:59 (7 years ago) Permalink

I love him in a Salute to PT Barnum kind of way. I wish I had that idea first.

― when something smacks of something (dave225.3), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 15:10 (7 years ago) Permalink

n/a -

Well, I meant in the sense that he's just 'giving the suckers what they want' and not neccesarily painting what he'd like to do most. You know, that he wants most is their money, not to paint gloopy scenes of candle-lit cottages in snowy forests.

But on the subject of b) I doubt very much that his paintings will continue to be good investments. There are simply too many of them and they're too much alike. What we've got here is a speculative bubble based on fiendishly clever marketing.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 15:11 (7 years ago) Permalink

Kinkade doesn't seem to have much in common w/ Warhol at all (ie i think we're still waiting for Kinkaid's death row or car crash pics)

― Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 15:16 (7 years ago) Permalink

It's beanie babies for the "art" world. I find TK disgusting. It's taking manufactured art to a new level & it feeds on consumer consumption. although, if they're stupid enough to buy it, so be it. TK has never come off as genuine to me & I presume that a lot of his fans think he is. I also hate idyllic life in easter colors.

I don't think that the Warhol comparison is totally fair. Warhol was smarter about his art in a different way. TK comes off as a business more than an artist. He uses gimmicks to increase value & sell more crap. Warhol seems to me more like a running commentary.

― kelsey (kelstarry), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 15:20 (7 years ago) Permalink

All the xtian kitsch and patriotic schtick that's marketed under his brand is more insidious than the large-scale paintings, IMO. So his stuff is fluffy and froufrou and twee and mass-produced - his followers want that, for now. Not much different from R.C. Gorman, or Bev Doolittle, or Patrick Nagel. But the onslaught of furniture, shower curtains, calendars, knick-knacks, screensavers, etc. all in the name of making his "vision" affordable for the masses is a bit much.

― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 15:29 (7 years ago) Permalink

How come no one understands "DEFEND THE INDEFENSIBLE" threads but me?

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 15:35 (7 years ago) Permalink

Note that a Patrick Nagel/Kinkade collaboration would be the end-all/be-all.

also, my parents buy the Kinkade.

and they buy books advertised on the radio.

― kingfish superman ice cream (kingfish 2.0), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 15:38 (7 years ago) Permalink

He has a luxurious moustache?

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 15:40 (7 years ago) Permalink

nick, i think everyone "gets" it, but naturally things get derailed.

― kelsey (kelstarry), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 15:40 (7 years ago) Permalink

OK BEAT THIS MOTHERFUCKERS, FROM THE THOMAS KINKADE OFFICIAL BIO:

It was while growing up in the small town of Placerville, California that these important values were nurtured. It was also during this time that Kinkade began to explore the world around him. He spent a summer on a sketching tour with a college friend, producing the best-selling instructional book, The Artist's Guide to Sketching. The success of the book landed the two young artists at Ralph Bakshi Studios to create background art for the animated feature film Fire and Ice. It was also during this time that Kinkade began to explore light and imaginative worlds with abandon.

HE WORKED FOR THE DUDE WHO MADE THE NOTORIOUS X-RATED ANIMATED FILM "FRITZ THE CAT"!

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 15:42 (7 years ago) Permalink

I think this pretty much backs up the whole "it's a scam/conceptual art piece" angle.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 15:43 (7 years ago) Permalink

But he could have been the next Boris Vallejo!

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 15:45 (7 years ago) Permalink

That Disneyland picture is my desktop now.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 17:37 (7 years ago) Permalink

I think a better thread title would be "Defend the indefensible - Thomas Kinkade fans." Kinkcade drives me crazy, but his followers eat up his limited edition swill with all the fervor of Scientologists.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 17:52 (7 years ago) Permalink

And leave nothing for the rest of us!!!

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 18:38 (7 years ago) Permalink

he makes it easier to buy christmas presents for my grandma. if he did a series of border collies on little farms, i'd probably buy about 20 and save them to give to my grandma every christmas and birthday for the next 10 years.

― colette (a2lette), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 08:39 (7 years ago) Permalink

kincaide embodies a v. explicit christian utopia that occurs for most of the 20th century, the end of that kind of womb like totemic belief in buccolic arcadias as a saving grace (cf joan didion article about him in her california book ca 2003.)

i dont like his work aesthetically or poltically but then i am not supposed to, art historians and art critcs have taken a vow against sentiment and against romance, and that vow kind of saddens me--i waonder what happens when we can again make solid arguements about the poltical and social implications of sentiment.

warhol is a non starter here, because warhol always positioned himself in the critical mainstream, his work is beloved by art critics because of its disavowal of sentiment, his pyschosexual ruthlessness is an anthema (sp) to kincaide.

kincaide isnt as interesting as he was 10 years ago, even his fans think that is work has become played out, and the 9/11 peice is the worst kind of patrotic kitsch, and i find him interesting conceptually (the lack of people, the "i come to the garden alone jesus shit, the sheer money, the extension of an artists aura, the mobile assitant and studio, the ahistorical nature of his work, the pyschogeographic sense of place, the cultivating of audience, etc)

i also find his constructions much closer to lets say poussin, then to rockwell (rockwell is harder, more political, more concerned with the everyday life of people).

poussin is v. interesting to compare him to b/c of the political simliarities to their time and place, and the back to the garden arcadian shit that they have so much in common.

kincaide is against most of what i stand for as a critic but most of what i stand for as a critic is so outside of the mainstream, and academics dont seem to fucking realise that, it behooves us to play his game for a while, in the same way it behooves us to listen to whatever is on the top of the pops.

― anthony, Wednesday, 14 September 2005 09:29 (7 years ago) Permalink

and currin is a bad painter, b/c his irony is so thick and he is being praised for doing something well that he does badly.

currin is way for high end motherfuckers to say, oh i love craft and painting and the tradition and all of that, w/o engaging in it. the ugly, almost misogynst/homophobic paintings are really a way of constructing oppostion, they are self negating.

― anthony, Wednesday, 14 September 2005 09:32 (7 years ago) Permalink

The success of the book landed the two young artists at Ralph Bakshi Studios to create background art for the animated feature film Fire and Ice.

wow my kinkade/fantasy art connection is validated

― amon (eman), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 11:13 (7 years ago) Permalink

I worked in nurseries/garden centers for years, met a lot of landscapers and also lots of regular home gardeners. Many landscapers disdain impatiens, a foolproof annual that never ceases flowering. Too common. Also wax begonias, mums, all of these plants that make the average little old lady gardener VERY HAPPY. So what exactly is the problem? If you don't want common, plant a fucking venus flytrap. Just don't begrudge the little old ladies (and those come in all ages and sexes) their common flowers.
Thomas Kinkade: The Wax Begonia of the Art World.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 13:00 (7 years ago) Permalink

What's youse guys problem with a little kitsch?

― Maxwell von Bismarck (maxwell von bismarck), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 13:02 (7 years ago) Permalink

We don't like kitsch until it's at least 20 years old. So wait another 10 years and we'll all be wearing ringer tees with Kincade prints in neon puff paint on the front.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 13:06 (7 years ago) Permalink

yeah but don't you want to be doing it first?

― Maxwell von Bismarck (maxwell von bismarck), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 13:06 (7 years ago) Permalink

Over dinner last night I was chastised for my comparison of Kinkade to Rockwell, and must admit I was wrong. Though Rockwell's stuff is sentimental, he didn't idealize the warts and he's an excellent illustrator. Kinkade started as a background painter and he's not gone beyond that.

― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 13:29 (7 years ago) Permalink

I saw n/a last night & he made a point of telling me how much he LOVES and ADORES tk!

― kelsey (kelstarry), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 13:33 (7 years ago) Permalink

Ha ha.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 13:38 (7 years ago) Permalink

Kelsey told me she wants to make sweet love to Kinkade and have a million babies with him.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 13:40 (7 years ago) Permalink

well, yeah. but only if my babies look like anne geddes' babies & have tiny paintstrokes on their forehead so i can sell them for more money.

― kelsey (kelstarry), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 13:49 (7 years ago) Permalink

pyschogeographic

ok, i'm gunna need help with this one

― kingfish superman ice cream (kingfish 2.0), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 14:12 (7 years ago) Permalink

Where can I see the "9/11 piece"?

― Maxwell von Bismarck (maxwell von bismarck), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 15:51 (7 years ago) Permalink

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 15:54 (7 years ago) Permalink

Psychogeography

How emotions and behavior are affected by the geographic environment, apparently.

― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 16:03 (7 years ago) Permalink

You guys are worried about Thomas Kinkade? Dudes, I give you Josephine Wall.

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 14 September 2005 16:47 (7 years ago) Permalink

How emotions and behavior are affected by the geographic environment, apparently.

oh, ok. at least the term makes sense now...

― kingfish superman ice cream (kingfish 2.0), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 16:50 (7 years ago) Permalink

calexico album covers are so the indie version of this.

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 16:52 (7 years ago) Permalink

what was the other band that did nothing but van-art covers?

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 16:55 (7 years ago) Permalink

Led Zeppelin?

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 17:11 (7 years ago) Permalink

great new yorker article from 2001 back by susan orlean

― my name is john. i reside in chicago. (frankE), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 17:15 (7 years ago) Permalink

er... i dunno what i actually meant to type there, but the link works

― my name is john. i reside in chicago. (frankE), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 17:18 (7 years ago) Permalink

According to that article, when you call they answer "Thanks for sharing the light." Has anyone tried this?

― Maxwell von Bismarck (maxwell von bismarck), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 18:49 (7 years ago) Permalink

"It's his love language for her."

Ugh.

Has anyone actually seen one of the original paintings? Is there even anywhere that his originals are on display? I'm wonder what scale he works in ... if the originals are much larger than the prints.

― CUSTOS PASSANTINO (dr g), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 19:01 (7 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 412 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

i like to think susan orlean is hounding his estate right now

― goole, Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:57 (1 year ago) Permalink

O'Toole kept living

Hardcore lolz here, Abbbottt. You're a treasure.

I actually showed Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage in class and O'Toole's performance inspired a student to diagnose a new ailment: Humpty Dumpty Dementia.

But did you know there's another Kinkade movie? It's called Christmas Lodge and seems a correction of Cottage. If you look at the IMDb and Amazon reviews of the latter, then you'll discover that many Kinkadians were upset at all the swears and an attempted dad/son crotch grab. Lodge contains amped Jesus content and no swears. Also no respected actors to keep on living after their star turns here. Can you dig it?

― Kevin John Bozelka, Sunday, 15 April 2012 00:33 (1 year ago) Permalink

I haven't seen TKCC (as the kids call it) but LOL @ Chris Elliot's wig in the trailer

― I cannot host as my wife hates Walker (latebloomer), Sunday, 15 April 2012 00:39 (1 year ago) Permalink

Sorry, I just now noticed the request to comment.

I don't think the Kinkade industry has anything to do with art or technique; I think it has to do with selling an elaborate, porned out certificate of happiness and achievement to what is left of the middle class.

― Dan Lacey, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 04:40 (1 year ago) Permalink

dude will you make me one of those certificates? will pay up to $59.95+s&h

― raw feel vegan (silby), Wednesday, 25 April 2012 04:41 (1 year ago) Permalink

I have one on ebay for $100. If you purchase it, I will add a squirrel in the foreground so adhered in syrup it can't move.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261002696878?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_3464wt_883

― Dan Lacey, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 04:44 (1 year ago) Permalink

― I wish to be DINOSAUR SOLDIER again...and for EVERY WEAPON (Austerity Ponies), Wednesday, 25 April 2012 13:22 (1 year ago) Permalink

Wld kill to see Peter O'Toole entreat Lacey to PAINT THE PANCAKES, DAN!

― Dale, dale, dale (Abbbottt), Wednesday, 25 April 2012 14:03 (1 year ago) Permalink

― I wish to be DINOSAUR SOLDIER again...and for EVERY WEAPON (Austerity Ponies), Wednesday, 25 April 2012 14:08 (1 year ago) Permalink

Thomas Kinkade Cause Of Death: Painter Died Of Drug And Alcohol Overdose, Coroner Rules

― Kevin John Bozelka, Tuesday, 8 May 2012 15:16 (1 year ago) Permalink

But, you know, for god.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 8 May 2012 15:22 (1 year ago) Permalink

anyway there's that benjamin essay art in the age of mechanical reproduction which I don't remember anything about, there are all those 'artists' cities in china where you can pay somebody like $50 to paint anything you want including a van gogh, it's pretty interesting, would post more about if I had a more coherent theory of art

― swaghand (dayo), Monday, April 9, 2012 11:43 PM (2 days ago)

im p sure i read abt some artbros paying these guys to do ersatz miros and ingreses and then the westerners added magic touches of their own, kinda like kinkade via chapmans

tho i might have imagined this

― The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Wednesday, April 11, 2012 4:13 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There's a John Baldessari piece I remember from the Met retrospective where he basically hired a few sort of ordinary landscape-type painters who sold their paintings at a local fair and got them to paint from photographs he had taken. The result was very well-painted and very contemporary-looking paintings -- of course Baldessari had chosen the composition, but the technique was as good as anything you'd expect to see from the latest hot young painter.

― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 15:24 (1 year ago) Permalink

Description and example here:

http://www.thelmagazine.com/newyork/achieving-pure-baldessari-at-the-met/Content?oid=1794006

― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 15:27 (1 year ago) Permalink

v cool. Done in 1969.

― a la bouquet marmoset (Austerity Ponies), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 15:35 (1 year ago) Permalink

― dayo, Thursday, 17 May 2012 19:32 (1 year ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

Thomas Kinkade's real home, currently held hostage by girlfriend. If you like real estate drama...

― โตเกียวเหมียวเหมียว aka Italo Night at Some Gay Club (Mount Cleaners), Monday, 20 August 2012 17:05 (8 months ago) Permalink

awesome

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 20 August 2012 17:09 (8 months ago) Permalink

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