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

[marions ghost]

149. No, it was not his actual work. The reproductions were cleverly disguised

by being retouched by his cadre of "highlighters" --and his sales galleries deliberately misled buyers by hyping the Kinkade mystique. Buyers who didn't really know how to compare this stuff to real original art were lured into buying what they thought was a status symbol. They also thought Kinkade was a fine Christian who wouldn't lie and cheat you. They believed that the paintings were being created "especially for them."

There was one of Kinkade's galleries in my town and I let someone try to sell me a painting--I saw how they operated. It was similar to being inducted into a cult. They used the phrase "unique works of art" to describe the reproductions that are touched up by the highlighters. These paintings are about as unique as Beanie babies. The techniques they use are similar to those used in Chinese factories that copy old masters. But those factories are not trying to sell them to consumers as anything other than knock-offs. I suspect that it is not even true that all of the real paintings (sold as originals for very high prices) were actually done by Kinkade himself. His stuff was pathetically easy to copy because it is so formulaic. There are probably Chinese factories now doing "original" Kinkades in case anybody still wants to buy one (but those probably won't have his DNA in it).

There are a lot of analogies--it's like buying Enron stock. Or maybe the roofer who charges you for the high priced shingles and substitutes the cheap ones. We've all been scammed in one way or another, and this is how I see it, rather than as "art snobbery." I don't fault people for their taste, I fault them for being suckers. But the marketing was so underhanded & corrupt that I'd cut the buyers some slack--they were sold a pig in a poke. As far as jealousy--it's not jealousy, just anger that (especially in this recession) it is hard to get any support, funding, or sales for the visual arts at all, ie. for artists who don't sell their souls to the devil. People go around defending Kinkade and not supporting honest art. That's the source of anger.

I don't think anyone could ever do this particular scheme again on the scale that Kinkade did. He was in the right place at the right time for awhile. Of course now the products with his images are everywhere and it's just a commodity business. His legacy is in providing the world with an enormous supply of kitsch, which I don't have a problem with--IF it's not conflated to be more than it is. Some kitsch eventually gets to be collectible, although the way Kinkades glutted the world that won't happen anytime soon.

I see the Kinkade thing as a sociological phenomenon primarily. It's not about noble "art for the masses" vs elitism--that's just part of the mythology surrounding The Painter of Light.

Anyway thanx for your comments--