Posted on 02/27/2006 8:21:04 AM PST by Republicanprofessor
An arbitration panel on Thursday awarded $860,000 to two former Thomas Kinkade Signature Gallery owners who accused the self-proclaimed "Painter of Light" and his company, Media Arts Group Inc., of fraudulently inducing them to invest in the business — and then ruining them financially.
While not singling out Kinkade in its finding of fraud, the panel ruled that the Morgan Hill, Calif.-based company and one of its executives, Richard F. Barnett, "failed to disclose material information" that would have dissuaded Karen Hazlewood and Jeffrey Spinello from investing $122,000 to open the first of their two Virginia galleries in 1999.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Art ping.
Let Sam Cree, Woofie or me know if you want on or off this ping list.
Art ping.
Not a rhetorical question...I really want to know!
My family has not bought any of his stuff since...
I've never cared for his work at all. I think it looks cheap.
There are people who go nuts over the stuff. I have a problem with anyone who prints runs of many thousands, and then divides a run into separate "editions" at varying prices. I was once told that the only difference between two editions of a TK print was a mark on the back.
They're vastly overpriced greeting cards.
LOL!!!
Dear Republicanprofessor,
My wife calls it "sofa art." It's what you expect to see hanging above the sofa in the waiting room at the doctor's office. LOL.
I kinda think it's like the Muzak of art: Inoffensive if you're not paying close attention.
sitetest
I doubt that. They may have pretended to a higher PLANE, but as should be abundantly plain, Thomas Kinkaide is no more a businessman than he is an artist.
I do like the way he incorporates light and various pale colors into some dark paintings. However, I do not like his stuff enough to buy any of it. I agree with another poster who says his work is too much like a greeting card.
I don't care for it, but there appears to be a huge market for it.
Most of his work strikes me as being trite and humorless. In addition, most of his appeal seems to be related to marketing stunts, much in the same way Beanie Babies are/were. At least they were engaging and inexpensive.
But I may be missing something.
My wife is a ceramic artist dealing mostly in large (and heavy) wall sculptures. TK is one of her pet peeves, so I call her "The Sculptor of Weight".
So overrated its not funny.
He's sold over 10 million prints so they obviously appeal to many people. I have no problem with them. Some people have a problem with the religious overtones. They are very well done for the style they are painted in, but my tastes run to other styles.
Darn right. My ex used to love his stuff - paid $400, $600 bucks for prints back in the early 1990s....about 8 years later we tried to resell a couple of extras....only to find out that there was no market for it....well *DUH*
I told his people that it looked like their boss had found a "legal way to print money"....they were not amused....6 months later his company filed for bankruptcy and they laid off a bunch of people (I guess they couldn't get marketing rights to print his stuff on toilet paper rolls)
Don't get me wrong - his art is nice - but his method of marketing it and creating this "buzz" was about as self-serving as it gets....Mr. Kincade loves his large collection of classic autos that he displayed on one of his 'sales videos'....I'm sure he doesn't think about that when he puts his "John 3:16" mark on every painting he does.....does he?
Art?!
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