Posted on 06/15/2010 2:13:18 AM PDT by plinyelder
The painter of light is having a dark period.
Thomas Kinkade, the Placerville native who became one of the world's wealthiest artists with his sentimental landscapes and Christian motifs, has had a string of legal troubles.
His company owes millions of dollars to art gallery owners who successfully pressed fraud claims.
Earlier this month the firm filed for bankruptcy protection from those gallery owners and hundreds of other creditors.
And on Friday, the 52-year-old Kinkade, who calls himself "the painter of light," was arrested on a DUI charge outside Carmel, where he owns a home.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
We hate him because:
he’s a confectioner, not an artist.
He’s also a scumbag He contracted with a gallery, promising exclusive rights to offer his wares. Then contracted with their competitors for half the price. Two courts have reached this conclusion.
Maybe when he gets this behind him he can turn his had to a medium he’s better suited to : butter, sugar, sprinkles..
Sooo... most artists paint like modern classical music, but this guy paints like John Rutter or John Williams. I can’t knock them. The sweetness makes me vaguely nauseous, but technique is brilliant.
I’d have to agree with all that you said. The fact that he tried to communicate “Christian” themes in the artist-era of “Piss Christ” is probably another reason for their pathological hatred, similar to their hatred of George W. Bush after he cited the name of “Jesus” when asked which philosopher most affected his life. A generic “god” answer is barely acceptable. But to use the name of “Jesus” is a sacrilege to the PC godheads.
What an inspiration!
A masterpiece!
The link says it all. Why Kinkade would encourage investors to open exclusive art galleries and then undercut them is unbelievable. Good for the Va couple to get justice. Unfortunately it took 8 years and financially ruined them along the way.
Can’t speak for anyone else, but his paintings are trite, formulaic and a little silly (you’d have to have a four-alarm fire roaring in every one of those houses to produce that orange glow in every window).
Hamburger Helper isn’t necessarily a bad product, but I don’t blame classically trained chefs for having some disdain for it. Same thing here.
plinyelder wrote: “Seems like most ‘artists’ hate him?I never could understand why?”
- - -
One of the reasons is that many of his “original paintings” are not paintings at all, but “giclees.”
Giclee is a fancy word that means a photo reproduced by a computer ink-jet printer onto canvas. Kinkade then has subcontractor painters daub a little actual paint here and there to create the illusion that it’s a real painting.
There is nothing wrong with producing and selling giclees. It’s a valid form of art. But the buyers must understand what they are paying their money for.
Unfortunately, many of the buyers of these works were not clearly informed of the actual nature of the work they had purchased. That Antique Roadshow program on TV was continually turning away people who said things like, “Whadya mean, it’s not a one-of-a-kind oil painting. I paid $800 for it! It *must* be real.”
In other words — putting aside the issue of whether Kincaide’s work is repetitious, over-sentimentalized kitsch — many painters don’t like what they consider Kincaide’s dishonest way of treating his buyers. Cheating the art-buying public tends to hurt the honest artists.
As for people who think artists hate Kincaide’s work because it is pro-Christian or pro-conservative, that is naive. There is plenty of pro-Christian art out there. Support those artists by buying their work. (Just make sure you understand what it is that you are buying).
Personally, I’m looking forward to his Prison Cell series.
Bob Ross died several years ago.... RIP
I wouldn't trust anything from him as an original in the past 15 years. Also his pervasive use of giclee's rubs me the wrong way too.
Prepare to invest $25-$50K, and as I said earlier, get an earlier work with pristine provenance.
Sac/Bee reported Kinkade’s company owes 1,000-5,000 creditors a total of $10-50 million, according to bankruptcy documents. A list of creditors more than 100 pages long was appended to the bankruptcy filing. It included a cardboard-box company in Sacramento, the state Board of Equalization and small art galleries in Folsom, Auburn and Elk Grove. At the top of the list were Karen Hazelwood and Jeff Spinello, Virginia gallery owners to whom Kinkade’s company said it owed almost $2.4 million. The debt stemmed from a fraud claim the couple won in arbitration in 2006. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the award last June.
CBS’ 60 Minutes segment said Kinkade sells more than art. There is a whole array of Kinkade-branded items on the market. “Thomas Kinkade is a multi-dimensional lifestyle brand, similar to Martha Stewart or Ralph Lauren,” says Kinkade. “You can put a Thomas Kinkade couch beneath your Thomas Kinkade painting. Next to the Thomas Kinkade couch goes the Thomas Kinkade end table. On top of that goes your collection of Thomas Kinkade books, Thomas Kinkade collectibles, Thomas Kinkade throw rugs. You can snuggle your Thomas Kinkade teddy bear.” And, he adds, “You can put all of that inside your new Thomas Kinkade home in the Thomas Kinkade subdivision.” More than 100 homes, all modeled on his cutesy, cozy cottages, have been built in Vallejo, Calif., outside San Francisco.
A masterpiece!
Or snide. Whatever.
Because he blows?
I love his paintings. Hopefully he will get the help with alcohol he needs. He can easily survive this. The embarassment won’t last. Just get up and deal with the consequences and get on with your life and NEVER make this mistake again.
Boy that guy gets around. He sure has kept himself busy since those early New Orleans Days.
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