Kinkade challenged the high-brow haughtiness of the art world, grew rich in the process, and seemed to fumble around, rock-star like, with drinking and bad behavior. Liberals scoffed at the hypocrisy of yet another social-religious conservative who couldn’t live up to a decent set of moral standards, while his mass-produced images were hugely loved, especially by evangelical Christians who felt that here, finally, was an artist for them. Probably no other artist has garnered a significant write-up in both Christianity Today and The New Yorker. He called himself the “Painter of Light” and then trademarked the phrase. He includes a Christian fish (ichthus) above his signature—but he’s also alleged to have urinated on a Winnie the Pooh figure at Disneyland, among other socially unacceptable activities.
The paradox of Kinkade and his impact on culture is encapsulated in a posthumous statement by Ester Wells, director of a Thomas Kinkade Signature Gallery in Pismo Beach, CA: “It’s crazy beautiful. We’re struggling with our own emotions, yet the public is coming in and just buying art off the wall.”
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