A short defense of Thomas Kinkade
2008-11-21 16:05:28.670771+01 by
Dan Lyke
1 comments
It is easy to rag on Thomas Kinkade, it is more difficult to mock Thomas Kinkade and be humorous. We can call his branding strategy for affiliated products "dreck", and ridicule his guidelines to artists working on his branded properties as "Thomas Kincade's 16 guidelines for making stuff suck", but...
I'm the first person to giggle over Sad Kermit, I like my art edgy and unsettling, but I why don't get there's this tremendous social outpouring to mock the comfortable, to ridicule those who seek that sense of peace and calm that paintings of cozy little well lit cottages give them. I guess this is an extension of my realization that Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins and that ilk aren't teachers, they're cheerleaders, and why do we cynically denigrate them in that role?
[ related topics:
Humor Sociology Art & Culture
]
comments in descending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2008-11-22 14:00:40.4289+01 by:
stevesh
[edit history]
The difference, I think, is that Ziglar and Robbins *know* they're cheerleaders, while Kincaide, unbelievably, thinks he's an artist.
The shame is, that between hacks like Kincade and poseurs like Serrano, the art world is full of very talented people most of us will never hear of.
We will not edit your comments. However, we may delete your
comments, or cause them to be hidden behind another link, if we feel
they detract from the conversation. Commercial plugs are fine,
if they are relevant to the conversation, and if you don't
try to pretend to be a consumer. Annoying endorsements will be deleted
if you're lucky, if you're not a whole bunch of people smarter and
more articulate than you will ridicule you, and we will leave
such ridicule in place.