Defend the indefensible - Thomas Kinkade

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I think n/a and anthony are otm upthread regarding how great Kinkade is as a conceptual artist. I mean, I've been in one of his stores and it made me want to eat a bullet, but, here in the saftey of my home, he seems like the coolest thing evah. He is like some sort of bad delillo-esqe near-future satire of american society. If we did read about him in a book, it would probably seem too absurd and we'd think it was crap -- and yet is totally real!

I think my parents like him.

Also, all you rockwell hatas are crazy, he is the best (NB: I know nothing about painting whatsover).

― stewart downes (sdownes), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 22:24 (twenty years ago)

http://www.stevekeene.com/home.html

The antidote.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 22:33 (twenty years ago)

He's got nothing on Komar and Melamid:

http://www.diacenter.org/km/usa/most700.jpg

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 22:37 (twenty years ago)

http://polar.negation.net/~synnex/minivan.jpg

― ~~~~ DODONGO DISLIKES SMOKE ~~~~ (ex machina), Thursday, 15 September 2005 00:52 (twenty years ago)

I AM THERE FOR YOU OYSTER-EAR GIRL! JUST LET ME SHOO THIS BIRD THAT CRAPS LIGHTNING BOLTS OFF MY CRESCENT MOON NECK TATTOO!

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Thursday, 15 September 2005 01:06 (twenty years ago)

Seriously I wish I had an audiofile of the art auctioneer from "Fine Art Wholesalers" describing that Josephine Wall piece with a total poker face, I mean twenty minutes prior he had been moving Peter Max originals and then THIS THING. Keep in mind that this is all occurring on a huge boat in the middle of the ocean with free champagne available, and that the art auctioneer has this great Pan-Euro accent going on.

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 15 September 2005 13:00 (twenty years ago)

― simian (dymaxia), Thursday, 15 September 2005 13:04 (twenty years ago)

Norman Rockwell is much less sentimental, believe it or not. He doesn't use the same vocabulary, the same light and forms that Kincade uses.

― simian (dymaxia), Thursday, 15 September 2005 13:06 (twenty years ago)

that Disney painting...it reminds me of Bierstadt!

― simian (dymaxia), Thursday, 15 September 2005 13:07 (twenty years ago)

And when you stretch it to fill your desktop it becomes Seurat on PCP.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Thursday, 15 September 2005 13:21 (twenty years ago)

You wouldn't hang one of those things on your wall, unless you want to be cheeky, but don't they tell you a lot about a certain American sensibility? I tend to be very libertarian about these things - if people are buying this stuff, we have to take it seriously
Maybe it's a good thing.
If the American psyche has this much pastel flowery seashelly unicorniness then maybe there's hope. A white unicorn would never assist in the maiming of Iraqi kids or the abandonment of flood victims!
We need to find a way for these people to EXTERNALIZE THEIR INTERNAL UNICORNS!!!

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Thursday, 15 September 2005 13:40 (twenty years ago)

we need Kinkades airbrushed onto sweatshirts at mall kiosks.

this goes along with the artic wolves, waterfalls, unicorns, the creepy ghost of Dale Earnhardt, white tigers, etc.

― kingfish superman ice cream (kingfish 2.0), Thursday, 15 September 2005 13:54 (twenty years ago)

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00013EVJ2.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Nothing in this painting is 'from life', not even the air.

That's not a judgement, btw.

― simian (dymaxia), Thursday, 15 September 2005 16:15 (twenty years ago)

It's from the AFTERLIFE!!! It's HEAVEN!!! To bad none of us will go there, on account of MOCKING THE KINKADISTS.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Thursday, 15 September 2005 18:39 (twenty years ago)

TS: Adolf Hitler the artist vs. Thomas Kinkade the artist

― Maxwell von Bismarck (maxwell von bismarck), Thursday, 15 September 2005 19:18 (twenty years ago)

"A white unicorn would never assist in the maiming of Iraqi kids or the abandonment of flood victims!"

A bird that craps lightning probably would, though.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Thursday, 15 September 2005 22:22 (twenty years ago)

An entry from Donald Urquhart's Top Ten in this month's Artforum:

7. THOMAS KINKADE Top print-selling U.S. artist Thomas Kinkade ("Painter of Light") paints the American dream deluxe in jaw-dropping color. Thankfully absent from his rustic scenes are poverty, hunger, disease, and horror—we get enough of that elsewhere. Here, American hometown life of the good old days is rendered painstakingly pretty, illuminated with a gaslight-and-sunset glow, and I believe you can even add customized highlighting (should you prefer) when you buy a print. Like Kathleen Turner's character says in John Waters's Serial Mom, "Life doesn't have to be ugly."

― dr gary busey (dr g), Friday, 16 September 2005 03:26 (twenty years ago)

painstakingly pretty,

two words that probably don't go too well together...

― kingfish superman ice cream (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 16 September 2005 04:52 (twenty years ago)

illuminated with a gaslight-and-sunset glow,

yeah, those houses look like they're on fire.

― simian (dymaxia), Friday, 16 September 2005 15:48 (twenty years ago)

he's got a good racket going. no other defense. shit's ugly as fuck and could never look cool on a t shirt.

― AaronK (AaronK), Friday, 16 September 2005 16:03 (twenty years ago)

five months pass...

Thomas Kinkade - the Pisser of Pooh-Bear.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Monday, 6 March 2006 22:17 (twenty years ago)

In sworn testimony and interviews, they recount incidents in which an allegedly drunken Kinkade heckled illusionists Siegfried & Roy in Las Vegas, cursed a former employee's wife who came to his aid when he fell off a barstool, and palmed a startled woman's breasts at a signing party in South Bend, Ind.

And then there is Kinkade's proclivity for "ritual territory marking," as he called it, which allegedly manifested itself in the late 1990s outside the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.

"This one's for you, Walt," the artist quipped late one night as he urinated on a Winnie the Pooh figure, said Terry Sheppard, a former vice president for Kinkade's company, in an interview.

― latebloomer: keeping his reputation for an intense on-set presence (latebloomer), Monday, 6 March 2006 22:27 (twenty years ago)

WHERE THE TITTAYS AT?!!?

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Monday, 6 March 2006 22:31 (twenty years ago)

eek

― latebloomer: keeping his reputation for an intense on-set presence (latebloomer), Monday, 6 March 2006 22:40 (twenty years ago)

Kinkade? Josephine Wall? Amateurs...
I give you the (sadly) late C John Taylor!

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Monday, 6 March 2006 22:53 (twenty years ago)

At least Taylor attempts something besides landscapes, even just for that he's better.

― Rotgutt (Rotgutt), Monday, 6 March 2006 23:53 (twenty years ago)

I can understand if your granny likes this shite, but what bothers me is the fact that some young people are into him (young meaning under 35). I have met 2 guys who were arbiters of taste in many ways, but who had TK prints and a TK COFFEE TABLE BOOK!

They had these things not for any kitsch value, but because it was pretty stuff. While their appreciation of good food seemed geniune and refined, their concept of art was based in its being a commodity, another decorative aspect of their home, like wall paper.

Bleh.

― unclejessjess, Monday, 6 March 2006 23:59 (twenty years ago)

I would not put Taylor in the same class as Kinkade. Taylor's paintings are pretty bad all around, but they are at least showing some interest in thinking about starting to be curious about trying something challenging for a viewer. TK is about carefully avoiding engaging a viewer's brain.

― unclejessjess, Tuesday, 7 March 2006 00:02 (twenty years ago)

"something challenging for a viewer"

http://www.highlandarts.co.uk/cjohntaylor/paintings/girlsth.jpg

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 00:07 (twenty years ago)

I know what you mean though. I've actually been to his art gallery (in fact there are about five or six shops around Scotland selling the stuff) and some of the paintings do have a curious edge. And he did poetry as well.

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 00:09 (twenty years ago)

Anyone who wastes time hating on this charming artist needs to reassess his priorities in life (& probably they definition of kool while they at it).

I think his style is really neat & i would for sure want to live in one of them villagez.

― UL® (blastocyst), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 00:22 (twenty years ago)

Who are we talking about now - Kincade or Taylor?

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 01:17 (twenty years ago)

― UL® (blastocyst), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 01:57 (twenty years ago)

http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=1928

Lovely parodies. Metafilter had TK as a subject today. Weird?

― unclejessjess (unclejessjess), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 03:28 (twenty years ago)

apparently next year a collection of academic essays about TK will be published by duke

― anthony easton (anthony), Thursday, 9 March 2006 10:56 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

More trouble in the Kinkade camp.
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1739383,00.html

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Sunday, 26 March 2006 00:50 (twenty years ago)

"You've got to remember, I'm the idol to these women who were there. They sell my work every day, you know. They're enamoured with any attention I would give them."

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Sunday, 26 March 2006 00:52 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

i called the office of kincaide and company last week, cause i wanted some deer paintings for a show im curating, and he has only shown in one gallery, and it was a semi ironic california retrospective, its impossible to get his work in a gallery setting...the woman i spoke to seemed kind and genuine, but still slightly off

― anthony easton (anthony), Monday, 19 June 2006 10:54 (nineteen years ago)

two months pass...

Entertainment.

The FBI is investigating allegations that self-styled "Painter of Light" Thomas Kinkade and some of his top executives fraudulently induced investors to open galleries and then ruined them financially, former dealers contacted by agents said.

Investigators are focusing on issues raised in civil litigation by at least six former Thomas Kinkade Signature Gallery owners, people who have been contacted by the FBI said. Among other things, the ex-owners alleged in arbitration claims that the artist known for his dreamily luminous landscapes and street scenes used his Christian faith to persuade them to invest in the independently owned stores, which must sell Kinkade's work exclusively.

Oh please let this go to court, please please please...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 03:29 (nineteen years ago)

used his Christian faith to persuade them

this is an odd bit of writing. "The power of Christ compels you!"

― kingfish high command (kingfish 2.0), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 05:56 (nineteen years ago)

i'll defend this great man

http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~bmauer/PARTFAM1.JPG

― timmy tannin (pompous), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 06:15 (nineteen years ago)

great thread! i love thomas kinkade. as in, i love the idea. we spent a good three hours discussing him in a philosophy of art seminar course once.

He is like some sort of bad delillo-esqe near-future satire of american society.
this is a good comment.

i'm sad to hear that the empire is crumbling because it changes the context. there's incredible schadenfreude, naturally, and i don't begrudge such a horribly smug man this wonderful comeuppance, but his continued success is an important part of what he is and represents. i guess i'm generally sad about the end of the myth. thomas kinkaide, ~~painter of light~~ big jerk.

― derrick (derrick), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 06:26 (nineteen years ago)

T minus 5 minutes until the "Thomas Kinkaide, painter of indictments/fraud/whatever" wanna-be-clever headlines appear.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 16:11 (nineteen years ago)

that new yorker article is priceless. those "highlighters" are certainly scam artists of the highest degree. and they go to classes to learn about kinkade himself. what a bunch of douches.

― t0dd swiss (immobilisme), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 02:25 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

http://www.grandcentralartcenter.com/gcacImages/mainGallery/kincade/u10_98983_001truck.jpg

― and what (ooo), Saturday, 28 October 2006 21:42 (nineteen years ago)

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 28 October 2006 23:30 (nineteen years ago)

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 28 October 2006 23:32 (nineteen years ago)

Just pokin' around in the Leanin' Tree site.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 28 October 2006 23:33 (nineteen years ago)

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 28 October 2006 23:34 (nineteen years ago)

When Ron York and his wife, Linda, moved into their new home last summer, they had no idea that hundreds of people would stop their cars to look and take photographs.
"All of the attention has caught us off guard," York said. "We didn't set out to build a show house, but we consider it a compliment that people consider it interesting."
York has been the general contractor on small apartment projects and single-family homes throughout Whatcom County for more than 15 years. When the Yorks decided to build a home for themselves, they bought six acres on east Axton Road.
They built a 3,100-square-foot stone house with a thatched roof, a swooping roofline, cobblestone pavers for the driveway, and garage doors decorated with handles and strap hinges to give the illusion of opening out like carriage doors.
Question: What inspired the design?
Answer: I've always wanted to build a stone house, and Linda has always wanted a thatched roof. We both loved the painter Thomas Kinkade. We were looking at one of his paintings one day and we thought it would be great to live in a place like that. It's so homey and inviting.
Q: Was it hard to figure out how to build it?

A: We hired Mark Ouellette, a Lynden-based building designer. We supplied him with a number of Thomas Kinkade pictures and a sketch of the floor plan on a piece of notebook paper. It took about three months of trading ideas back and forth because it was an unusual design. We got so much help that we really appreciated from so many people along the way. I'm not a custom-home builder - this is my first - and I understand the value of listening to people's ideas. I worked with some contractors who were used to working on million-dollar homes, and they came with a wealth of ideas that I was able to tap into. We built this house to last a couple hundred years.

― gear (gear), Sunday, 29 October 2006 01:54 (nineteen years ago)

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