Thomas Kinkade

There's a Thomas Kinkade store in the mall next door to my office. When you walk past it, you see a mixture of sports paintings, simulations of Disney parks and movies, and cozy cottages. All of these images are of a piece. They represent something we long for, presented in an idealized way that takes the desirable and makes it even more desirable. Gilding the lily, you might say, almost literally, given Kinkade's use of light effects in his work. You can purchase his work at all levels of price: there's something for everyone. His success, at least in terms of popularity, was undeniable.

When Kinkade died last week, the knives were immediately drawn. Art critics have, almost universally, panned his worked. Then again, plenty of these same art critics think the world of sharks floating in formaldehyde, so I don't exactly know how good a barometer they might be. That's the problem with art. The gatekeepers are this exclusive group of critics and gallery owners who explain to the rest of us what we should like and dislike. Well, that's all well and good, and I appreciate learning from an expert where a given piece might fit in history, but I'll be the one who decides if I like it. (There's a great play on the old joke in a New Yorker cartoon of someone carefully studying a painting: "He knows a lot about art but he doesn't know what he likes.")

The point is, say what you will about Kinkade, a lot of people loved his stuff:

His images are basically devoid of emotional darkness. Whether you find that cloying or comforting is “the essential divide between people who respond to his work and people who don’t,” [art historian Alexis] Boylan says. “It all comes down to: What part of yourself do you want to see reflected when you look at a work of art?...‘Soothing’ is not how a lot of people would define a lot of the art you see in museums and galleries, but historically, a lot of art has been produced with the sole purpose of being beautiful and comforting, and giving people pleasure.”

Like him or not, he's a force to be reckoned with. So is the question of the purpose of art. Read Why Thomas Kinkade’s Art Touched So Many.