Posted on 04/06/2012 8:34:22 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Thomas Kinkade, the "Painter of Light" and one of most popular artists in America, died suddenly Friday at his Los Gatos home. He was 54.
His family said in a statement that his death appeared to be from natural causes.
"Thom provided a wonderful life for his family,'' his wife, Nanette, said in a statement. "We are shocked and saddened by his death.''
His paintings are hanging in an estimated 1 of every 20 homes in the United States. Fans cite the warm, familiar feeling of his mass-produced works of art, while it has become fashionable for art critics to dismiss his pieces as tacky. In any event, his prints of idyllic cottages and bucolic garden gates helped establish a brand -- famed for their painted high lights -- not commonly seen in the art world.
"I'm a warrior for light," Kinkade told the Mercury News in 2002, alluding not just to his technical skill at creating light on canvas but to the medieval practice of using light to symbolize the divine. "With whatever talent and resources I have, I'm trying to bring light to penetrate the darkness many people feel."
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Art is to you what it is to you.
I can assure you that there is a great deal of renowned fine art that does not fit this description.
Goya, for instance. Some of his works can be downright terrifying in the subject matter and detail. But the vibrancy of the color, the skill and the vision, the balance and composition, not to mention the outrage of the moment recorded so compellingly, you just can’t look away, it’s magnetic.
That’s art.
“viva la difference.. “
Agreed. Aesthetics are at the end of the day -very- personal and subjective. The man supported himself and his family, he certainly did not bother to play to his critics, and he brought many people a lot of satisfaction and inspiration. Not a bad record at all.
Given that one of the real morsels of artistic goodness for *me* is a grisly R. E. Howard tale with Frank Frazetta cover art, I am not going to sneer at Kincaide’s enthusiasts.
:-)
I agree, but I perceive you're not making many friends here by pointing that out.
Kinkade, by the way, affords us a salutary lesson in how to jerk the chains of the hoi polloi. You simply find out what it is they cleave to, and give it a voice. Rush Limbaugh does it magnificently. His critics think that it's the people who are following his lead, but in actuality it's the other way around. His brilliance lies in being a master of articulating what the average person can only feel.
Yea, god forbid an artist becoming or wants to become successful huh?
So, if an artist does become successful do the rest of you call him a sell out?
This art crap reminds me of the black community.
Awesome.
Hey, Is that my sock?!
There is NOTHING worse than scraping paint.
It’s a never ending task.
the more you scrape the more you scrape....
Argh
I painted houses as a teen and still have house painting nightmares to this day....
actually the painting was the easy part.
it was the scraping.....The SCRAPING!!!
It’s funny how almost every picture from the article refers Kinkade as “Thomas Kinkade, the mass market painter”
Like it is not the dream of every artist to be “Mass Market”.
losers
Pffff.....
You are talking about the fools that bought a Kinkade as an investment.
How about the other millions that just liked the look of his paintings?
I know i sure do, there is about a hundred i wish i lived in.
We are not all art investors, sometimes people, believe it or not just buys a painting that they believe will look good in their den or living room.
nothing more ponygirl.
Nice
If things had turned out differently, you might have had the chance. I worked as a surveyor on a development on Lake Couer d’Alene where each lot and home was to be made to look like a Kinkade painting. But, the developers ran out of money and ended up stiffing a lot of people, us included...
Whatever, I never paid for more than a calendar.
Maxfield Parrish is one of my favorites. I love his work.
Why don’t you post up one of your paintings so we can compare?
"Into the World Came a Soul Called Ida"
"The Picture of Dorian Gray"
"The Door" ("Also titled "That Which I Should Have Done I Did Not Do")
"Self Portrait"
I once read about that development.
The houses were slated to be sold in the multi-million $$$$ range.
I remember seeing a pic of a few of the grinning developers and asking myself if even they could afford to live in one of those houses they planned on building.
apparently not....
It think i just might have to check out this Ivan Albright.
Looks pretty cool
If you are ever in Chicago check out the Art Institute. They have a good Albright exhibit, including my favorite, “The Door.”
I kept a full, life-size print of that one on my wall all the way through college and for quite a while afterward.
My first ex-wife didn’t like it one little bit.
Or when it comes to mass-market art, Alfons Mucha: 
. Granted, Art Nouveau is not for everyone, and yes, art is highly subjective. I'm even fond of the works of Masumune Shirow, the manga artist from Japan, which is most certainly mass-market. Nonetheless, RIP to Mr. Kinkade.
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