# RIP Thomas Kinkade **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 7, 2012, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058 "2012-04-07T03:21:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![4d3fect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/4d3fect/32/9728_2.png) [@4d3fect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4d3fect)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/121 "2012-04-08T23:40:45Z")
I can’t imagine he painted ALL of those. The word FACTORY does come to mind, though. ---
**Author:** ![Clarisse\_McClellan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Clarisse\_McClellan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clarisse_McClellan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/122 "2012-04-09T01:25:22Z")
You gotta admit, [this](http://3weirdsisters.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/chthulu-thomas-kinkade-lighthouse1.jpg) one is awesome. ---
**Author:** ![moejoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@moejoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moejoe)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/123 "2012-04-09T01:56:56Z")
I don’t understand all the drama around this guy. He was technically skilled, but didn’t have much in the way of creative imagination. Someone like that is _supposed_ to sell out because that’s the only measure of success available to them. I have to hand it to anyone who can take basic crafting skills and turn them into mortgage payments. Also I love all the outrage about the assistants doing all the work after which he swans in and signs his name. Warhol did the same thing, and plenty of people called him a no talent hack as well. How much does a Mickey Mouse print go for now-a-days? ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/124 "2012-04-09T04:04:07Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Vermeer was forgotten ntil 160 years after his death-maybe Kinkaid will be recognized some day. When Idiocracy comes to pass, Kinkade will _be_ Vermeer. Or as close to that level as anyone will still be able to comprehend. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/125 "2012-04-09T04:12:53Z")
'Batin to Kinkade! ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/126 "2012-04-09T06:17:38Z")
His paintings had electro_lights!_ ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/127 "2012-04-09T11:55:50Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > His paintings had electro_lights!_ Good one! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/128 "2012-04-09T13:42:21Z")
> [@moejoe](#): > > I don’t understand all the drama around this guy. He was technically skilled, but didn’t have much in the way of creative imagination. Someone like that is _supposed_ to sell out because that’s the only measure of success available to them. I have to hand it to anyone who can take basic crafting skills and turn them into mortgage payments. I agree, but take Jimmy Buffett for example. He wrote some good songs a few decades ago, built an image of safe escapist fantasy around them, and has milked it for all he could ever since. He has slapped his name on restaurants and booze and novels and endless merchandise. He has done the same concert for probably 30 years, a fun if unchallenging evening with soaring ticket prices in which the musical heavy lifting is done by others. He’s the very definition of someone who took a middling talent and built an empire on it. But here’s the difference–the first person to tell you that he’s a middling talent would be Jimmy Buffett himself. I got to see him be interviewed at Bonnaroo a couple of years ago, and the interviewer kept trying to get him to say something profound about his music or his influence and Jimmy kept brushing it off. “Look,” he said, “I started playing music to meet chicks. I never even dreamed about the rest of this.” He takes great pains to not represent himself as some great profound artist. Kinkade, on the other hand, represented himself as one of the greatest artists of our time, talking up the deep and profound nature of his work that was being cranked out by a factory of Oompa-Loompas and presented as a high-yield investment. It’s hard to say whether he knew it was all bullshit or he really believed it, but either way his mouth wrote checks that his art couldn’t even come close to cashing. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/129 "2012-04-09T13:47:01Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > His paintings had electro_lights!_ They’re what art critics _crrraaavvve!_ ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/130 "2012-04-09T14:25:02Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Vermeer was forgotten ntil 160 years after his death-maybe Kinkaid will be recognized some day. > Of course, paintings of cottages?-maybe something else. Keep telling yourself that you will be recognized 200 years from now for your erudite tastes. 😉 Sure, it _ **might** _ happen. Odds are against it. The problem with this particular analogy is that Vermeer achieved some moderate amount of critical (if not commercial) success in his own lifetime before being forgotten after his death. Even then, it was through the work of other dedicated art critics/historians to “rediscover” a forgotten artist. Kincaid would make for a better analogy if the critics blasted Vermeer’s work from the start, rather than think him at least a decent painter. I didn’t care much for Kincaid and usually I don’t care if other people like glurge. But the man himself was a complete waste of space. He was a public drunk, obnoxious to women, publicly obnoxious in general, probably cheated the people who sold his art, and liked to literally mark his territory with his urine. That sort of behavior _might_ be tolerable if he actually painted something worth preserving. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/131 "2012-04-09T15:10:44Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Hey, Maxfield Parrish was derided as a “commercial” painter, in his time. > Howver, in the past 30 years, Parrish has been recognized as a very talented painter, whose works are now well regarded. > Vermeer was forgotten ntil 160 years after his death-maybe Kinkaid will be recognized some day. > Of course, paintings of cottages?-maybe something else. **Kirk:** You mean the profanity? **Spock:** Yes. **Kirk:** That’s simply the way they talk here. Nobody pays any attention to you unless you swear every other word. You’ll find it in all the literature of the period. **Spock:** For example? **Kirk:** _(thinks a moment)_ Oh, the complete works of Jacqueline Susann, the novels of Harold Robbins… **Spock:** Ah… the giants. * * * ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/132 "2012-04-09T15:30:01Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > I think this illustrates what I don’t like about his stuff > > [typical Kinkade](http://www.artofthesouth.com/Thomas_Kinkade/chicagowinteratthewatertower.php) That’s a good example. The colors are all wrong in so many ways. It’s like you’re looking at a scene that’s lit by gigantic artificial lighting coming from somewhere behind you. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/133 "2012-04-09T15:35:46Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > That’s a good example. The colors are all wrong in so many ways. It’s like you’re looking at a scene that’s lit by gigantic artificial lighting coming from somewhere behind you. Well, who said the Impressionists painted realism? Or take a Mark Rothco painting-was he a great artist. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/134 "2012-04-09T15:42:43Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > That’s a good example. The colors are all wrong in so many ways. It’s like you’re looking at a scene that’s lit by gigantic artificial lighting coming from somewhere behind you. You haven’t seen the glowing radioactive cesspool next to the water tower? There was some talk about the EPA cleaning it up, but it was soooo pretty at night. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/135 "2012-04-09T15:47:59Z")
Even if he had never painted a stroke, he’d annoy me for being an immensely rich man who died of “natural causes” only three years older than me. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/136 "2012-04-09T16:43:46Z")
> [@fessie](#): > > I believe that was the guy who preceded Bob Ross, and I can’t remember his name either. But he did basically the same stuff as Happy Bob. Bill Alexander Patton Oswalt does a great bit about him. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/137 "2012-04-09T17:55:52Z")
I know it’s “kitshy” but we have one of those lighted wall hangings we use at Christmas time. D&R Quasi ---
**Author:** ![kath94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@kath94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kath94)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/138 "2012-04-09T19:53:15Z")
I’ll admit it. I own a couple of “prints.” I happen to love San Francisco, and my husband is obsessed with cable cars and lighthouses. Guess what’s depicted in our Kinkades? They’re prints, and probably cost us a lot more than they’re worth, and will most likely not hold any value. So there. But they look okay on the wall. Just for fun we ducked into a Kinkade gallery in Solvang a few years ago. We overheard an elderly couple complaining that they already “own too many Kinkades.” That’s our go-to answer now, too! Anyway, I just think Kinkade was overexposed, which led to so much derision. They’re not bad to the art-ignorant (me included) and they’re accessible. So there. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/139 "2012-04-09T21:15:46Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Well, who said the Impressionists painted realism? Or take a Mark Rothco painting-was he a great artist. Rothko might have been the Painter of Sound. I’ve gone into a quiet gallery with a Rothko in it, stood a few yards away and been conscious of an almost perceptible vibrating frequency. His paintings _hum._ ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058/140 "2012-04-09T21:29:37Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Hey, Maxfield Parrish was derided as a “commercial” painter, in his time. > Howver, in the past 30 years, Parrish has been recognized as a very talented painter, whose works are now well regarded. > Vermeer was forgotten ntil 160 years after his death-maybe Kinkaid will be recognized some day. > Of course, paintings of cottages?-maybe something else. The first time I saw Parrish (in a coffee table book around age 20) I loved him. The first time I saw a Vermeer, (in an encyclopedia entry on painting) I thought i was very nice. I’ve always enjoyed Rockwell, Frazetta, and have respect for Leroy Neiman. I have respect for “starving artist” art. The first time I consciously registered a Kinkaid, I was amazed that this was the famous guy I’d heard mentioned for 15 years. He was no better than most Starving Artists. His talent was neither large nor unique. I completely believe that there will never bea “rediscovery” of Thomas Kinkaid. In 50 years, young people will not find his stuff amazing. I’ll also say --without cite-- that there are no artistically knowledgeable people who think that Kinkaid is anything special, apart from his marketing ability. I would not say that about any of the other artists I’ve mentioned here. According to Wikipedia Vermeer was elected head of his local artists guild. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-thomas-kinkade/618058.md?page=8)