{"id":478,"date":"2005-05-01T13:41:12","date_gmt":"2005-05-01T20:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hub.wsu.edu\/andersen\/?p=478"},"modified":"2019-06-14T14:00:08","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T21:00:08","slug":"thomas-kinkade-making-more-than-just-a-light-profit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hub.wsu.edu\/andersen\/2005\/05\/01\/thomas-kinkade-making-more-than-just-a-light-profit\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Kinkade: Making more than just a \u2018light\u2019 profit"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Inga Zornes<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the past twenty years, soft hued, glowing paintings of hope and comfort have amassed a fortune for the enigmatic artist Thomas Kinkade. The forty-seven year old claims he represents the forefront of a new artistic trend\u2014\u201ca populist movement that takes images people understand and creates an iconography for our era\u201d (Decarlo B51). But as Kinkade\u2019s digital reproductions of idyllic settings make millions of dollars, art critics such as University of Missouri art professor Brooke Cameron brush him off as only offering \u201ca warm, fuzzy buzz for people\u201d (Chronicle of Higher Education B4). Along with Saturday Evening Post illustrator Norman Rockwell, Kinkade\u2019s works are labeled as \u2018kitsch,\u2019 a term coined by Clement Greenberg in 1939 to refer to vulgar and popular art with great mass appeal. Critique of Kinkade\u2019s artwork and business tactics frequently clash with his ardent sales pitch that his art is important and uplifting to real people. In fact, a further conflict arises as the self-proclaimed Christian \u2018painter of light\u2019 builds a multi-million dollar empire and seemingly ignores the biblical teaching that a person cannot serve both God and Money. These paradoxes lay the framework to further examine Kinkade as an artist and businessman who defies the elite art establishment with his fame and fortune. <\/p>\n

Undeniable commercial success <\/strong>
\nVincent Van Gogh wrote to his mother in 1890, \u201cIn a painter\u2019s life, it is generally the case that success is the worst thing of all\u201d (Davis 1). More than a century later, Kinkade excels at proving Van Gogh\u2019s statement false. Rising above a poor, single-parent home situation, Kinkade immersed himself in art traditions at Berkeley and the Art Center College of Design. Soon, though, he veered into the landscape paintings of the plein air tradition. People liked what they saw in these gentle depictions of cottages, gardens, gates, lighthouses, and rainy city streets, so Kinkade stuck with this artistic approach. Paintings, or more recently, digital reproductions with \u2018highlight\u2019 touches, are just the beginning. Today\u2019s Kinkade trinkets include nightlights, pocket watches, plush teddy bears, wall tapestries and clocks. In 1990, when Media Arts Group was founded, Kinkade became the first painter on the New York Stock Exchange. Los Angeles Times writer Patti Davis comments that no one has taken marketing and merchandising to the lengths that Kinkade has. In the California Kinkade-inspired gated community, one wonders what can top a Kinkade home starting at $425,000.<\/p>\n

Those who can actually afford such houses comprise only part of Kinkade\u2019s customer base. Ironically, these upper class Kinkade fans do not typically visit art museums, despite the usual museum attendee characteristics of higher income and more education (Freeland 93). On the other hand, these more wealthy customers are not bashful to indulging their Kinkade fetish by adorning their homes with dozens of his paintings. Of course, even if a person cannot afford a framed print of Sweetheart Cottage or Garden of Prayer (which range from around $100 to thousands of dollars), there are always Kinkade greeting cards, keychains and screensavers. Conveniently, his works are displayed in special Thomas Kinkade galleries in malls and also pushed on the QVC home shopping channel. He targets the part of the population which may not engage in \u2018high\u2019 art, and puts a wholesome spin on his brand by emphasizing his status as a born-again Christian, a family-oriented promoter of values, and as an admirer of American artist Norman Rockwell.<\/p>\n

In a Kinkade coffeetable book, Paintings of Radiant Light, he explains that as a young artist, he realized how few people actually went to galleries. Therefore, Kinkade sought a way to mimic Rockwell\u2019s \u2018gallery\u2019 entering millions of homes through the Saturday Evening Post. If Kinkade\u2019s modern version of reaching such masses means the digital reproductions and trinkets, he seems to have succeeded. According to Media Arts Group in 2001, one in every twenty American homes has a Kinkade work displayed. Kinkade stays in touch with his most devoted customers through newsletters and the Thomas Kinkade Collectors\u2019 Society. Currently on his official website, an audio webcast with his voice promotes new paintings for 2005 such as The Guiding Light\u2014\u201cwe\u2019re pushing the level of detail to new heights\u201d and Stillwater Cottage\u2014\u201cI know it might sound immodest to say this but I think it\u2019s probably the best cottage I\u2019ve done.\u201c Citing a feeling of commonality with Rockwell and even Walt Disney, Kinkade insists that regardless of the monetary profits, \u201cI really like to make people happy\u201d (Kreiter 39). <\/p>\n

Kitsch and the museum factor<\/strong>
\nAccording to many in the elite artworld, works by both Kinkade and Rockwell deserve the label of kitsch. After Rockwell\u2019s death in 1978, though, the perception of his art changed from simply an illustration to what Kinkade describes as belonging \u201cin that category of art that lasts\u201d (Kreiter 38). Recently, Rockwell was given retrospectives at the High Museum in Atlanta and Guggenheim in New York. While Kinkade stresses his similar focus on art for the average person, it is doubtful that his iconoclastic paintings will secure him a museum spot, owing to his commercial rather than artistic success. At least presently, Kinkade will have to continue dreaming of acceptance by museums, as he does in the painting Paris, City of Lights, part of his more urban-focused \u2018Cities of Light\u2019 series. In this particular work, he includes a street post with an advertisement for a sold-out Kinkade exhibit at the Louvre.
\nSuch art institutions as the Louvre and modern art museums, plus journalists and professors in the field of art, comprise what Kinkade calls the critical Establishment. San Francisco Chronicle art critic Kenneth Baker makes a good point, though, asking, \u201cDo we want what we call \u2018art\u2019 to serve this social function of quelling our anxiety in an almost pharmaceutical fashion?\u201d (The Chronicle of Higher Education B4). Baker\u2019s comments on Kinkade art are kinder than University of Missouri art professor Brooke Cameron\u2019s prediction:<\/p>\n

When all is said and done, no one\u2019s going to remember Thomas Kinkade as an artistic innovator. They may remember him as a businessman. He\u2019s selling something that\u2019s very comfortable. There\u2019s no poetry in there\u2014it\u2019s kitsch. He\u2019s sort of a male Martha Stewart. (Ibid)<\/p>\n

Kinkade\u2019s art falls short in front of Michael Zakien\u2019s statement that serious art must engage or challenge. On the other hand, throughout magazine and newspaper interviews Kinkade insists he pays little attention to such critics. He claims that his painting is a ministry that thrives on divine inspiration. <\/p>\n

Art + Faith = Money?<\/strong>
\nMarkedly dissimilar from Pablo Picasso or Andy Warhol, perhaps it is Kinkade\u2019s self-perception as a divinely inspired artist which puts him at odds with the Establishment, which he called \u201cvery anti-Christian and anti-moral\u201d in an interview with The New American. Even so, the dichotomy between Kinkade\u2019s professed Christian faith and his commercial emphasis raises some doubts. In an interview with the New York Times, Kinkade expressed his belief that art\u2019s purpose is to provide inspiration and reassurance, instead of questioning assumptions or challenging the status quo. Thanks to the millions of people who buy this supposed inspiration and reassurance, Kinkade has become a very wealthy artist.<\/p>\n

Kinkade touts his Christian faith as the reason behind his artistic creativity. Still, the array of Kinkade merchandise, including his art prints with accompanying Bible verses, seems to suck in buyers looking for fulfillment through \u2018wholesome\u2019 objects. Such gimmicks encourage materialism, the exact opposite of the Biblical teaching, \u201cDo not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal\u2026For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also\u201d (Matthew 5:16, 21). Of course, gestures like donating a portion of the profit from the painting Hometown Pride to Habitat for Humanity make for good Kinkade publicity. At the heart of the matter, though, is Kinkade\u2019s seemingly comfortable position at the height of wealth and prestige. This, above all else, makes him appears more successful at serving the master of Money rather than God, as emphasized in Luke 16:13. <\/p>\n

The test of time <\/strong>
\nIn sum, Kinkade knows exactly what sells to whom, and keeps inventing new products to do exactly that. He has successfully championed an art-based lifestyle brand for those who can afford it, despite his claim that his art aims to connect with the \u2018everyday\u2019 person. Although Kinkade receives little praise from the art establishment, he continues to walk the path marked by the kitsch-coated footsteps of Rockwell. Time will reveal the true reception of Kinkade, and also will determine whether his paintings and other merchandise remain \u2018treasures on earth\u2019 or fade into tired, sentimental items fit for a garage sale. Kinkade\u2019s faith-money complex remains murky, though many still embrace him as an artistic Christian leader. With commercialism at the heart of his success, there is little doubt that this artistic businessman is happily watching his profits increase. Kinkade enjoys the admiration and money of his customers, and undoubtedly has plans to take his \u2018crusade of light \u2018 even further in the future. <\/p>\n

SOURCES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Davis, Patti. \u201cRich Man, Poor Man: Critics call him the Artist of Life, but Thomas Kinkade is intent on producing art
\nthat\u2019s \u2018accessible,\u2019 creating paintings that soothe\u2014and sell like hotcakes.\u201d Los Angeles Times 26 July
\n2000: A1.<\/p>\n

Decarlo, Tessa. \u201cLandscapes by the Carload: Art or Kitsch?\u201d New York Times 7 November 1999: B51.<\/p>\n

Della Cava, Marco. \u201cThomas Kinkade: Profit of Light; Painter\/QVC regular says he\u2019s divinely inspired to mass-
\nproduce works and expand his empire.\u201d USA Today 12 March 2002: D1.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite Elitist Gripes, He\u2019s America\u2019s Most Popular Artist.\u201d The Chronicle of Higher Education 22 February 2002: B4.<\/p>\n

Doherty, Stephan, and Thomas Kinkade. The Artist in Nature: Thomas Kinkade and the Plein Air Tradition. New York:
\nWatson-Guptill Publications, 2002.<\/p>\n

Freeland, Cynthia. But Is It Art? Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.<\/p>\n

Jasper, William. \u201cA Beacon in the Night.\u201d The New American 17 December 2001. http:\/\/www.thenewamerican.com.
\nRetrieved 26 May 2005. <\/p>\n

Kinkade, Thomas. \u201cMessage from Thom.\u201d Audio Webcast. http:\/\/www.thomaskinkade.com. Retrieved 29 May 2005.<\/p>\n

Kinkade, Thomas, and Philippa Reed. Paintings of Radiant Light. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1995.<\/p>\n

Kreiter, Ted. \u201cThomas Kinkade\u2019s American dream.\u201d The Saturday Evening Post March\/April 2003: 38-43.<\/p>\n

Leland, John. \u201cSubdivided and Licensed, There\u2019s No Place Like Art.\u201d New York Times 4 October 2001: F1. <\/p>\n

\n

by Inga Zornes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Major: Music Education
\nExpected graduation: 2007
\nHometown: Wenatchee, WA<\/p>\n

This paper challenged me to evaluate numerous perspectives about the artist Thomas Kinkade, and to form my own conclusions about his artwork and commercial success. My family has a Kinkade hanging in our living room so I initially thought I would write the essay in support of his work. After researching thoroughly (a process I actually enjoy immensely), I was able to better understand the divisions in the artworld and identify the overt contradictions in Kinkade’s faith-money complex. Studying Kinkade reinforced my view that the artworld, especially in the systems of painting and music, is heavily swayed by money and commercialism. Still, as an optimistic musician, I have not lost all faith in the arts’ power to both challenge and to express deeply what words cannot, regardless of the profit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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