Thomas Kinkade

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For the American admiral, see Thomas C. Kinkaid.

Thomas Kinkade (born January 19, 1958 in Sacramento, California) is an American painter most widely known for his mass-produced prints. He is marketed as "Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light," a trademark owned by Media Arts Group, Inc. (a public company in which Kinkade is a primary investor),<ref name=loudpaper> Karl Loescher. Merchandising takes Command: Thomas Kinkade and the Future of Architecture. Loud Paper. Retrieved on 2006-10-20.</ref> despite that "painter of light" was earlier associated with 19th century painter Joseph Mallord William Turner.

Kinkade is, according to his website, America's most-collected living artist.<ref name=collected> About Thomas Kinkade. thomaskinkade.com. Retrieved on 2006-03-26.</ref> Relatedly, he has been criticized for the extent to which he has commercialized his art (for example, selling his prints on the QVC home shopping network). Others have complained that his paintings are merely kitsch without substance.<ref name=dreck> Writer of Dreck^TM. Salon.com. Retrieved on 2006-05-08.</ref>

There is a Thomas Kinkade-themed community of homes, "The Village at Hiddenbrooke", outside of Vallejo, California.<ref name=hiddenbrooke> Brown, Janelle. "Ticky-tacky houses from "The Painter of Light"", Salon.com, 2002-03-18. Retrieved on 2006-03-26.</ref>

1 Early years
2 Artistic themes and style
3 Business
- 3.1 Criticism of business practices
4 Personal conduct
5 In Popular Culture
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Early years

Kinkade grew up in the small town of Placerville, California, graduated from high school in 1976, and attended the University of California, Berkeley and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He married his childhood sweetheart Nanette in 1982.

Some of the people who mentored and taught him long before college were Charles Bell and Glenn Wessels. Wessels encouraged Kinkade to go to the University of California at Berkeley, which Kinkade did. Two years into college Kinkade dropped out.

He spent a summer on a sketching tour with a college friend, well-known illustrator James Gurney, producing a popular instructional book, The Artist's Guide to Sketching. The success of the book landed the two young artists at Ralph Bakshi Studios creating background art for the 1983 animated feature film Fire and Ice. While working on the film, Kinkade began to explore the depiction of light and of imagined worlds. After the film, Kinkade earned his living as a painter, selling his originals in galleries throughout California.

[edit] Artistic themes and style

His prints and paintings are distinguished by their glowing highlights and vibrant pastel colors. Rendered in an impressionist style cross-pollinated with American Scene Painting values, his works often portray bucolic, idyllic settings such as gardens, streams, stone cottages, and Main Streets. He has also depicted various Christian themes including the Christian cross and churches.

Kinkade says he is placing emphasis on the value of simple pleasures and that his intent is to communicate inspirational, life-affirming messages through his work. A self-described "devout Christian" (all of his children have the middle name "Christian"<ref name=nndb> Thomas Kinkade profile. Notable Names Database. Retrieved on 2006-03-26.</ref>), Kinkade has said he gains his inspiration from his religious beliefs and that his work is intended to contain a larger moral dimension. Many pictures contain specific chapter-and-verse allusions to certain Bible passages.

Curator Mike McGee has written

Looking just at the paintings themselves it is obvious that they are technically competent. Kinkade’s genius, however, is in his capacity to identify and fulfill the needs and desires of his target audience — he cites his mother as a key influence and archetypal audience — and to couple this with savvy marketing… If Kinkade’s art is principally about ideas, and I think it is, it could be suggested that he is a Conceptual artist. All he would have to do to solidify this position would be to make an announcement that the beliefs he has expounded are just Duchampian posturing to achieve his successes. But this will never happen. Kinkade earnestly believes in his faith in God and his personal agenda as an artist.<ref name=Grand> Grand Central Art Center </ref>

Artist and Guggenheim Fellow Jeffrey Vallance has spoken about Kinkade's devout religious themes and their reception in the art world.

This is another area that the contemporary art world has a hard time with, that I find interesting. He expresses what he believes and puts that in his art. That is not the trend in the high-art world at the moment, the idea that you can express things spiritually and be taken seriously… It is always difficult to present serious religious ideas in an art context. That is why I like Kinkade. It is a difficult thing to do.<ref name=Vallance> Vallance at Grand Central Art Center </ref>

Essayist Joan Didion is a representative critic of Kinkade's style:

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.<ref name=didion> Didion, Joan (2003). Where I Was From. Westminster: Knopf, 73.</ref>

She goes on to compare the "Kinkade Glow" to the luminism of 19th-century painter Albert Bierstadt, who sentimentalized the infamous Donner Pass in his Donner Lake from the Summit.<ref name=donner> Donner Lake from the Summit and other paintings of the Hudson River School</ref> Didion worries that Kinkade's own treatment of the Sierra Nevada likewise mocks the tragedy of the Yosemite's Sierra Miwok Indians in The Mountains Declare His Glory.

[edit] Business

Kinkade’s success started in the 1990’s, when he and his friend Kenneth Raasch started Media Arts Group. Their main goal was to get Kinkade work. Eight years later the company was listed in Forbes as a top ten business to watch. When Kinkade was on QVC, he sold over 2 million dollars worth of products in one hour.

His works are sold by mail order and in dedicated retail outlets as high-quality prints, often using texturizing techniques on real canvas to make the surface of the finished prints mimic the raised surface of the original painting. Some of the prints also feature light effects that are painted onto the print surface by hand by "skilled craftsmen", touches which add to the illusion of light and the resemblance to an original work of art. Kinkade's images are also used extensively on other merchandise such as calendars and greeting cards.

Reproductions of his paintings can also be found in almost any place that sells artwork. Licensing with Hallmark and other corporations have made it possible for his paintings to be anywhere from greeting cards to La-Z-Boys.

Kinkade is reported to have earned $53 million for his artistic work in the period 1997 to May 2005.<ref name=53m> 1997 to May 2005 earnings</ref>

[edit] Criticism of business practices

Kinkade's company, Media Arts Group Inc., has been accused of unfair dealings with owners of Thomas Kinkade Signature Gallery franchises. In 2006, an arbitration board awarded Karen Hazlewood and Jeffrey Spinello $860,000 due to Kinkade's company "[failing] to disclose material information" that would have discouraged them from investing in the gallery.<ref name=LAT2006_02_24> Christensen, Kim. "Gallery Owners Win Ruling in Kinkade Case", Los Angeles Times, 2006-02-24. Retrieved on 2006-02-24.—abstract, subscription required for full article</ref> The plaintiffs and other former gallery owners have also leveled accusations of being pressured to open additional galleries that were financially unviable, being forced to take on expensive, unsalable inventory, and being undercut by discount outlets whose prices they were not allowed to match.

Kinkade has denied the accusations and Media Arts Group has successfully defended itself in previous suits by other former gallery owners. Kinkade himself was not singled out in the finding of fraud by the arbitration board.<ref name=LAT2006_02_24> </ref>

In August 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported that the FBI was investigating these issues, with agents from offices across the country conducting interviews.<ref name=LAT2006_08_29> Christensen, Kim. "Painter Said to Be Focus of FBI Probe", Los Angeles Times, 2006-08-29. Retrieved on 2006-08-29.—abstract, subscription required for full article</ref>

[edit] Personal conduct

Kinkade has been involved with a number of charitable and philanthropic organizations. In 1992 he was awarded the World Children's Center Humanitarian Award and in 1994 received the Eugene Freedman Humanitarian Award from the National Association of Limited Edition Dealers.<ref name="official_biography"> Official biography</ref> In 1993 he was chosen to be the national spokesman of the Make-a-Wish Foundation.<ref name=companysite> Charity involvement</ref>

However, as reported in the Los Angeles Times and other media outlets, Kinkade also is alleged by former colleagues, employees, and even collectors of his work to have a long history of cursing and heckling other artists and performers, and is alleged to have openly groped a woman's breasts at a South Bend, Indiana sales event. He also is rumored to have a proclivity for ritual territory marking through urination.<ref name=LAT2006_03_05> Christensen, Kim. "Dark Portrait of a 'Painter of Light'", Los Angeles Times, 2006-03-05. Retrieved on 2006-03-26.—abstract, subscription required for full article </ref> Kinkade responded to the Times' allegations with an apology,<ref name=LAT2006_03_09> Christensen, Kim. "Kinkade Defends Self but Says 'Sorry'", Los Angeles Times, 2006-03-09. Retrieved on 2006-03-26.—abstract, subscription required for full article </ref> attributing his misconduct to a period of stress in his life.

In 2006 John Dandois, Media Arts Group executive, recounted a story that on one occasion ("about six years ago") Kinkade became drunk at a Siegfried and Roy magic show in Las Vegas and began shouting "Codpiece! Codpiece!" at the performers. Eventually he was calmed by his mother.<ref name=LAT2006_03_05> </ref> Dandois also said of Kinkade, "Thom would be fine, he would be drinking, and then all of a sudden, you couldn't tell where the boundary was, and then he became very incoherent, and he would start cussing and doing a lot of weird stuff."<ref name=LAT2006_03_05> </ref>

[edit] In Popular Culture

Kinkade's pieces are extremely popular in the United States among evangelical Christians. In Kinkade's own words,

There's been million-seller books and million-seller CDs. But there hasn't been, until now, million-seller art. We have found a way to bring to millions of people, an art that they can understand.<ref name="CBS"> 60 Minutes interview</ref>

In early 2006, Joel Kilpatrick released his book A Field Guide to Evangelicals and Their Habitat. A light-hearted cultural criticism done in the handbook format similar to The Official Preppy Handbook of the 1980s, the book says that evangelicals tend to favor a particular home decor style centered around Thomas Kinkade paintings (the bigger, the better) and Precious Moments figurines.