Thomas Kinkade died
in early April at age 54.
You may know his work? 'Sentimental
scenes of country gardens and pastoral landscapes in dewy morning light that
were beloved by many but criticized by the art establishment.’
Reviled by the art establishment, a kitschster without rival, mall-art....
I don’t
like Kinkade’s work- at all. However, I almost didn’t like it before I had even seen a single image due to classroom joke’s and derogatory references.( I also didn’t understand
the references to Bob Ross either ). I would usually snort and nod in agreement
and then write the name down so that I could look the person up that night on
the internet. I hate the idea of disliking someone and their work intensely
without, in Aussie terminology, giving them a fair go. Like a good critique.
So I looked him up on the internet....
He was practically a local, born and raised in Placerville, CA.
He studied at the University of California at Berkeley and the Art Centre College of Design in Pasadena. When he
was young he traveled by boxcar from California
to New York
with fellow artist, James Gurney, sketching the landscape along the way which
they had published in 1982- “The Artist Guide to Sketching”. I looked it up and
it seems it has become a bit of a collectible since his death. Amazon has it
ranging from $499 to $950!
The sketch book helped him land
him a job creating background art for the animated film, ‘Fire and Ice' by by Ralph Bakshi and and Frank Frazetta. Bakshi wrote ‘Thomas Kinkade
was for me at his very young age already a brilliant painter…. I gave him
the job of painting backgrounds for my movie. He nailed it, which really
was impossible for anyone else with no experience – but not for
him.’
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| Kinkade left, Gurney right |
Paul Chadwick, an
old roommate from the Art Centre College also
wrote recently “His frontier scenes, in the manner of John Stobart and
his Bierstadt influenced Yosemite paintings, were great. Anybody repelled
by his shining, cute cottages should reserve final judgment until they’ve seen
these…the guy could paint....”.
I can’t find images of these paintings. However, he did paint under the ‘brush’ name of Robert Girrard (1984- 1989) for awhile, in order to to experiment with impressionism.
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| Robert Girrard piece |
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| Robert Girrard |
 |
| early self portrait |
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| early work called 'Two Cats' |
In the 1980s Kinkade became a born-again Christian. The change
coincided with a shift in his career path- he moved his focus to retail, not on
the traditional gallery system. He sold his work through a franchise
of galleries, cable television home shopping networks, and eventually online. He
made no apologies for commercializing the art.
Apparently a Kinkade picture hangs in one out of 20
American homes. His images are reproduced in books, on posters,
canvas prints, hand-signed lithographs, collector’s plates, postcards, calendars, coffee
mugs, puzzles, snoglobes, home furnishings and, the pièce de résistance, a
gated community in Vallejo!
Sales for his works and
associated products were reported to have reached $100 million
annually.
So why was (and is) he so popular?????
Perhaps the most succinct summation I have
found was from the Daily Beast- 'He captures, with chilling accuracy, a
strangely American combination of blinkered nostalgia, blind complacency, and a
ferocious resistance to change. And then he packages and sells that vision
within a no-holds-barred consumerist culture that you wouldn’t think compatible
with pictures of commerce-free townships twinkling by snow light.'
In the past couple of years Kinkade has had dubious business dealings, galleries have declared bankruptcy and people have gone unpaid.
Knowing more does not change the fact that I find his work insipid....
I do wonder though, if I hit upon a 'winning formula' would I pursue it so formidably?
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