Thomas Kinkade: Kitschy and Kinky
Thomas Kinkade, the painter of mega-kitschy religiously themed and militantly bourgeois schlock, tchotchkes and knickknacks bearing his imprimatur, may be a freakin' dirty bastard.
Besides making saccharine paintings, and defrauding and duping investors, he stands accused of peeing on Winnie the Pooh, groping a fan's breasts, and mocking Sigfried and Roy's stage show by shouting out "Codpiece! Codpiece!"
Brings a different meaning to "Sunset on Lamplight Lane" and "Living Waters - Golfer's Paradise, Hole One" adorning your biddy's wall, doesn't it?
Dark Portrait of a 'Painter of Light' - 'Christian-themed artist Thomas Kinkade is accused of ruthless tactics and seamy personal conduct' [LA Times] (Thanks to Thomas!)
Post a comment
Comments:
You can't spell Kinkade without kink! (and there's no 'i' in it either)
Peeing on Pooh. Precious.
God, I hate those "paintings." Maudlin pap for the nouveaux riches. Sadly, there are even some educated people in my own extended family who go for this oh-so-precious stuff. Barf. It figures Kinkaid is a weirdo.
My brother's girlfriend says that she wouldn't date any man whose family owned one. Ha!
I graduated with a BA in Art History (yes, i'll wait till the laughter stops). My professional assessment is that Thomas Kinkade is the Painter of Suck.
Charlottesville's "The Hook" ran a great expose on Kinkade several years ago, which included mention that Kinkade signed his paintings with his own blood:
http://www.readthehook.com/stories/2003/09/10/newsDimmingL...
What a freak!
There's also a guy in Berkeley who makes Kinkade parodies: http://www.josart.net/kin-.html
Anyway, I am sticking with H. L. Mencken's views on Kinkade types: "The truth is, as every one knows, that the great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable. No virtuous man -- that is, virtuous in the Y.M.C.A. sense -- has ever painted a picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing, or a book worth reading, and it is highly improbable that the thing has ever been done by a virtuous woman.
-- H. L. Mencken, Prejudices (1919).