Thomas Kinkade is the world's richest living painter AND America's most collected living artist. the self-dubbed "painter of light" employs saturated pastels to render a style merging impressionist and American scene painting. a devout Christian, Kinkade often portrays biblical scenes making his work extremely popular among evangelical Christians and even more creepy to the general public. Kinkade sells his paintings at shopping malls, on QVC, or via mail orders (a former customer warns that "he charges by the hour and charges extra if you want a deer in the front yard.") It is estimated that 1 in 20 Americans own some form of Kinkade's work. not only is it unfortunate that 1 in 20 Americans have bad taste (these things are beyond dopey!), but 1 in 20 Americans has supported a man with alcoholic tendencies who frequents strip clubs and has "a long history of cursing and heckling other artists and performers." one night at Disney World, Kinkade was caught peeing on a Disney figure after a night on the town uttering, "This one's for you, Walt." while he's often the target of criticism among art snobs, we can't really deny the fact that he's probably the ultimate pop artist...
i think Joan Didion put it best: "A Kinkade painting was typically rendered in slightly surreal pastels. It typically featured a cottage or a house of such insistent coziness as to seem actually sinister, suggestive of a trap designed to attract Hansel and Gretel. Every window was lit, to lurid effect, as if the interior of the structure might be on fire."
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Thursday, February 19, 2009
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