Thomas Kinkade, one of nation's most popular painters, dies in Los Gatos

[dmallind]

145. There ARE a lot of blithering idiots

Can you link to any of these "scam" ads where I or any literate person would not be able to tell we were buying reproductions?

Anything goes... but not Kinkade because he was just an illustrator? Is that an old dichotomy or a new one? Are realistic images not representational any more? Non-representational does not exist any more?

Funny - I get called artsy and elitist too in other art forms - I made no value statements about artsy types or elitists and am surely not angry with them. Some things are better aesthetically than others and some can tell the difference better than most. There is however both pretentiousness and real aesthetic discrimination in those groups - often in the same individual. I even agree with their typical assessment of Kinkade, as stated. The numerous hoaxes with chimps et al have shown their sensibilities to be fallible of course. Mine are too obviously, but I'm not claiming expertise here. I'm pretty damned sure I could spot a chimp's attempt at Dvorak's Cello Concerto compared to Rostropovich's though.