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News & ArtsWednesday, December 1, 2010
Visual Art The Thomas Kinkade Census
Posted by Jen Graves on Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 1:23 PM
"It's estimated that his work appears in 1 in every 20 U.S. homes," NPR reports.
Estimated by who? Can this possibly be true? Look to the 19 people around you. Which of them has a Kinkade in the hallway?
1
That doesn't surprise me. What does surprise me is that an art professor wrote her master's thesis on Kinkade!
3
my mom fucking loved him. so do all my GOP relatives. to them, that's what art should be. comforting & nostalgic.
5
Are there more households with a Thomas Kinkade than there are households with an out LGBT person?
6
what I find astonishing is how many people in Seattle I know who have a framed vintage photograph reprint of the Flatiron building.
8
Someone at my work bragged about her patriotically themed Kinkade a while ago. She was very proud of it. I think she has several. And yes, she is Republican.
9
We live in the country that invented the Limited Edition Collector's Plate. Of course millions of people have Kinkade paintings in their homes.
10
I'm guessing they arrived at this number based on his sales figures and a rough idea of how many paintings a single household would own. There are artists who are just as schmaltzy and literal in the "real" art world, they just aren't rich.
11
I am proud to say that I have more art than wall space.
And in that collection there ain't a single Kinkade.
Nor will there ever be.
However, I do proudly display a Velvet Elvis.
And in that collection there ain't a single Kinkade.
Nor will there ever be.
However, I do proudly display a Velvet Elvis.
15
My folks have one. My mom hates it, but it's the only "art" my dad's purchased in 15 years, so she allowed him to hang it in the hallway (she's picked the art in the rest of the house)./
17
More of a Christian thing than a Republican thing but I understand many in this crowd don't differentiate those two groups.
18
My sister sent me a Thomas Kinkade Christmas card last year. She had to add extra glitter to make it really look good, though. Does that still count as one out of twenty?
20
My family knew Kinkade before he was famous (my father was an art dealer before the market collapsed in the 1990s), back when he was just another Sonoma County artist trying to get by. His one ambition in life was to be rich and famous, no matter what the cost. Oh, and he wasn't remotely Christian then.
After he was famous he supposedly got an ATV stuck in the middle of an Alaska river trying to sneak a prostitute, under the cover of night, back to the camp he was staying at during a hunting trip with a friend. I'm sure he just wanted her to sign his canvases for him.
After he was famous he supposedly got an ATV stuck in the middle of an Alaska river trying to sneak a prostitute, under the cover of night, back to the camp he was staying at during a hunting trip with a friend. I'm sure he just wanted her to sign his canvases for him.
23
Guitars, antique maps, chalcasoma atlas beetles, and nudes. And, some of the maps and all of the nudes where gifts from my family members. We're not a Kinkade crowd here.
But, my 90 year-old grandmother has a few in her living-room. She's the only one that I'm aware of, though.
.
But, my 90 year-old grandmother has a few in her living-room. She's the only one that I'm aware of, though.
.
24
There's a guy in my MBA classes who always tries to ass-kiss all of our professors - even the visibly liberal ones - with Ronald Reagan quotes. When he goes to the bathroom, he undoes his pants completely, and pulls the down to his ankles, even when he's using a urinal. Out of the people in this room, he gets my vote.
25
with a census-estimated 114 million households, that would mean that 5.7 million households would have some form of Kincaide work. The article includes "calendars, coffee mugs and more" in that number. For some perspective, 2006's 4th place American Idol finisher, Chris Daughtry, has sold 5.7 million albums.
26
Since calendars and coffee mugs are included in the count, I suppose I have to include the package of blank note cards someone gave me for Christmas a few years back.
I had to GIS his art to realize that, though... and my cards could be imitations. I'm too lazy to go check.
I had to GIS his art to realize that, though... and my cards could be imitations. I'm too lazy to go check.
27
Well I know one (christian and gay) couple who have a Kincaid. But it was a present from their realtor and they hung it so when the door is open you can't see it. So I don't know if that counts?
28
I find that very easy to believe. I'm not sure how many of my relatives necessarily own Kinkade's work, but many of them have tons of hideous "inspirational" posters and artwork that go along with that theme. Like it or not, that's what's popular in this country, just not necessarily in liberal, cynical Seattle.
29
See responses that I thought I'd see.... Yep, the old republican relatives love the sickeningly sweet nostalgic art. Including mine.
33
I have a Van Gogh print, a couple of Monet prints, and several originals and numbered prints by local artists I favor. No Painter Of Blight in my house. No paint-by-numbers Jesus either.
35
@13
Ironically? Who said anything about ironically?
@34
Which one do you have? I have "Elvis: Blue Hawaii"
Ironically? Who said anything about ironically?
@34
Which one do you have? I have "Elvis: Blue Hawaii"
37
My mother-in-law has one over the couch. Naturally, she's a malicious, ugly, stupid shithead, too.
40
We can't be sure all of the Kinkade works are in residential settings, though. I've seen 'em in mall bathrooms and cheap hotels. Also, you gotta know that there are a handful of little old ladies with a couple hundred Kinkade prints apiece, plus stationery, throw rugs and cats' water dishes. I feel safer knowing that the 1-in-20 estimate is a vast overstatement.
41
What is wrong with people loving what makes them happy and evokes good memories (real or imagined)? My very Christian, very Republican, very lower-middle class mother has two Thomas Kincade prints. She's just excited she can own "art."
42
All my relatives are visual artists themselves (including the grandparents when they were alive) who wouldn't be caught dead near a Kincade or even in a mall. But my family is weird that way!
43
Technically speaking Kinkade's art is quite accomplished. But that is absolutely all you can say about it, as it completely lacks any artistic soul or integrity. Its all shiny surface gloss, peel that back and there is nothing underneath. Its the exact same thing with that other assjack of the artistic world Jeff Koons. How either can be taken seriously, by anyone, as artists is utterly beyond me.
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