# Most despised (visual) artists **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 28, 2002, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287 "2002-12-28T02:52:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/1 "2002-12-28T02:52:59Z")
Ok, the Byrne-Jones thread in GQ was the impetus for this thread (although B-J is not the primary object of my wrath). We occasionally have ‘favorite artists’ threads-- how about the least favorite? At the top of my personal list, disregarding Tom Kinkaide and the like, is 1. WILLIAM HOLMAN HUNT! AGH!! I’m generally not keen on the Pre-Raph brotherhood, but my annoyance with such works as [the Hireling Shepherd](http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hunt/hunt_hireling_shepherd.jpg.html) and, especially, [the Awakening Conscience](http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hunt/hunt_conscience.jpg.html) rages with the unspeakable intensity of a “Dante’s Inferno” jalapeno pizza in one’s gut (from Bear’s in Bloomington, of course). If you know what I mean. 2. Edward Hicks, for similar reasons. That frikking “Peaceable Kingdom” painting just irks me. There’s a start. . . ---
**Author:** ![Splanky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@Splanky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Splanky)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/2 "2002-12-28T03:05:47Z")
_Any_ post-modern ‘artist’. I think most people agree with me. ---
**Author:** ![scablet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@scablet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scablet)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/3 "2002-12-28T03:32:43Z")
Thomas Kinkade, if he even counts. Just the ghought of one of those smarmy, soft-edged, charmingly rustic cottages encrusted in flowers with a babbling brook nearby, all surrounded in an atmospheric early morning mist… _shudder_ ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/4 "2002-12-28T04:01:15Z")
Patrick Nagel The 80’s Thomas Kinkaide. [Remember?](http://www.tbfa.com/nagel/html/lifetime.html) ---
**Author:** ![Epigramcracker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5e9695/32.png) [@Epigramcracker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epigramcracker)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/5 "2002-12-28T04:08:54Z")
thomas kinkaide should be cooked with his own turkey and buried with a paintbrush at his heart. to put it mildly. sniff. i love the preraphaelites. j. w. waterhouse is one of my favorites. to each his own though. ^o^ ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/6 "2002-12-28T04:22:38Z")
Waterhouse rocks. _The Lady of Shallott_—very cool. That Bacon feller from England—ugh. No thanks. Utterly repulsive. ---
**Author:** ![Forbin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@Forbin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Forbin)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/7 "2002-12-28T05:16:34Z")
Thomas Kinkade, naturally. Artist? I don’t think so! My (possibly) controversial choice- Norman Rockwell. I don’t think he ever had anything important to paint. No passion. No conflict. Boring! Maxfiel Parrish doesn’t thrill me either. He isn’t awful though. TK and NR are awful! ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/8 "2002-12-28T05:26:49Z")
Bacon, as in Francis Bacon? Too bad. I think he’s one of the most important and influential artists of the 20th century, if we’re thinking of the same person. As for post-modern “artists,” **Splanky** , it’s easy to snicker at this genre. Most, if not all, of the modern artists were excellent draftsmen as well. Pollack gets a lot of flak from the casual observer, but have you ever seen his “normal” sketches? The guy could pencil a realistic likeness like anyone you’ve seen. And I’ve found most modern artists to be the same. It’s easy to look at a canvas and say “oh, a 4-year-old could do that.” I mean, Christ, I had a friend of mine say that while looking at a Kandinsky. A Kandinsky!? I would give my left arm to produce anything approaching a Kandinsky. Anyhow, this is an opinion thread, so we’re all bound to differ. As for artists I can’t stand, I can’t think of any. Never been terribly hot on Dali, myself, but wouldn’t say I despise him. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/9 "2002-12-28T05:33:24Z")
Hey, just checked out the Thomas Kinkade stuff. Never heard of him before. Is he considered a serious artist? I mean, the technique is okay, but it’s all so damn kitsch to me. I would also put forth Anne Geddes with her cute baby photography for “most despised visual artist.” So I take back my statement that there are no artists I can’t stand… ---
**Author:** ![kjbrasda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/74df32/32.png) [@kjbrasda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjbrasda)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/10 "2002-12-28T05:56:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Forbin \* > \*\*Thomas Kinkade, naturally. Artist? I don’t think so! > > My (possibly) controversial choice- Norman Rockwell. > I don’t think he ever had anything important to paint. No passion. No conflict. Boring! > > Maxfiel Parrish doesn’t thrill me either. He isn’t awful though. TK and NR are awful! \*\* Well, Norman Rockwell wasn’t really considered an artist by his contemporaries either. He was an ‘illustrator’. i.e. someone who turned out quick drawings for magazines and product packaging. (yeah, i know “those are 'quick drawings??”) ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/11 "2002-12-28T06:11:38Z")
No. No. No. You are misjudging Norman Rockwell woefully. Sure, he did the cloyingly sweet _Saturday Evening Post_ covers. And sure, if you want to get technical, he was an “illustrator” and therefore not a _real_ artist. (Just like when Prokofiev and Aaron Copland scored movies so those aren’t “real” music either. Not!) Some examples of Rockwell’s socially significant work are: [_The Problem We All Live With_](http://www.nrm.org/eyeopener/eye_problem.html) and [_Murder in Mississippi_](http://www.towerhill.org/SJhtml/Jewett,%20Chris/Rockwell.html) (look at the middle of the page for this painting—the others are great too). > [@](#): > > _kjbrasda wrote:_ > Well, Norman Rockwell wasn’t really considered an artist by his contemporaries either. He was an ‘illustrator’. i.e. someone who turned out quick drawings for magazines and product packaging. (yeah, i know “those are 'quick drawings??”) He was an illustrator, sure. But he was a damned good artist too. His “quick drawings” (i.e. oil paintings) required a lot of work, and study. He had an incredible technical skill, for drawing, color, composition, etc. And he had some good concepts (see above). But yes, of course, a lot of his work was _very_ commercial and corny and not really that “significant”. (Though some of it is pretty amusing and clever.) As for my opinion on the most reviled visual artist: another vote for Thomas Kinkade. “The Painter of Light”? No, the “Painter of _Blight_”, more like it. (Thanks to my friend Randy for that name! 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/12 "2002-12-28T06:22:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Forbin \* > **My (possibly) controversial choice- Norman Rockwell. > I don’t think he ever had anything important to paint. No passion. No conflict. Boring!** I can’t let that go without pointing out that I find [passion](http://www.objectivistcenter.org/graphics/freedomofspeech.jpg), [conflict](http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/rockwell/images/problem_lg.jpg), and [important](http://www.poster.net/rockwell-norman/rockwell-norman-do-unto-others-2803114.jpg) themes in the work of Norman Rockwell. Rockwell did illustrations, but he also did some great paintings, and he has come to be more appreciated as time goes by. Artists are despised in cycles – today’s golden boy may be tomorrow’s hack, and vice versa. The truly despised of course are the ones who never get anyone to look at their paintings, because they are so bad. And on preview I see that **yosemitebabe** has beaten me to it. It’s good to see Rockwell getting the recognition he deserves. Who knows, someday we may see a reassessment of Kinkade (with luck none of us will be around to see it). ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/13 "2002-12-28T06:24:57Z")
SpoilerVirgin: Bless your heart! You linked to some paintings that I had forgotten about. ---
**Author:** ![scablet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@scablet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scablet)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/14 "2002-12-28T06:28:55Z")
It warms my heart to see such an outpouring of hatred for that man. I could write a term paper on why Thomas Kinkade needs to die. Here, have an exceprt from his [equally abhorrent webpage](http://www.thomaskinkade.com) : > [@](#): > > An astonishing transformation takes place when Thomas Kinkade’s ideas and memories are transferred from the man’s mind to his paintbrush and then finally to the canvas itself. The results of this astounding process are clearly evident every time you look at a Thomas Kinkade painting. Wow, he takes images from his mind and transfers them to canvas?! This is truly an _astounding process_! I’ve simply got to tell all my painter-friends about that one! Think he’s got a patent? ---
**Author:** ![scablet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@scablet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scablet)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/15 "2002-12-28T06:30:08Z")
an ‘excerpt,’ even. My typing is hindered by Kinkade-rage. GOD DAMN that little chipmunk-faced man. ---
**Author:** ![Avalonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Avalonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avalonian)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/16 "2002-12-28T06:36:25Z")
For me, it’s **Andy Warhol**. I simply cannot stand that man’s masturbatory, self-important style of “art.” I don’t even call it that, to be honest, but since so many others do I call him my most-despised visual artist. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/17 "2002-12-28T06:40:50Z")
Kinkade has a few paintings of Yosemite National Park that aren’t _too_ bad (not great, not really understanding Yosemite, but not _horrible_). However, [this painting of Yosemite Valley](http://www.thomaskinkade.com/htmlroot/tk/images/catalog/product/yoseva_f0.jpg) is an atrocity. Too many clouds and “busy busy busy” with all his little whispy details. Blech. I know this view of Yosemite intimately, and I’ve _never_ seen it look like that. He just doesn’t get it. He has to taint everything with his “Kinkade” touch. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/18 "2002-12-28T07:06:33Z")
**yosemitebabe** – check out my new [calendar](http://www.browntrout.com/calendars/product.asp?MGID=-1&IID=3532) for 2003. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/19 "2002-12-28T07:08:58Z")
SpoilerVirgin: this is too weird! That’s _exactly_ the same calendar that I have. (And there are more than a few Yosemite calendars to pick from!) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2002, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287/20 "2002-12-28T07:18:33Z")
I’ll also defend Rockwell. It’s utter snobbery to look down upon him simply because he painted “stories”; many other “artists” did, too. In addition, the dichotomy between “illustrators” and “artists” is bogus. It’s just a means to look down upon those who do representational art. And the speed at which an artist works means absolutely nothing. It’s well worthwhile to visit the Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA. Seeing the originals of his work gives you a much better idea of what he was doing. OTOH, the reputations of Leroy Neiman and Peter Max are pretty low these days. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-despised-visual-artists/145287.md?page=2)