The pile-on on Thomas Kinkaide - it's not about the art -

[Atman]

48. I agree with pretty much everything you said.

My points were different, though I still agree that his stuff is horrible. But you know what, I went to see a Gauguin exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Art a few years ago. It was the first time I've seen most of his works full-scale. That is, they were not shrunk down to fit in a text book, postcard or poster. Any artist knows that when you reduce a work down like that, and color correct it, the work "tightens up," and often times looks much better than the original. Many of these originals were huge, and benefited greatly from the sizing to veritable miniatures. I have to say, I was shocked at how dull, lifeless, and downright BAD I found many of Gauguin's works, and if I hadn't know who I was viewing, I'd have thought many were downright amateurish.

Of course, there are other parallels between Kinkade and Gauguin, in that they both were pretty much shitty people. At least Gauguin had the benefit of syphilis for his excuses!