Thomas Kinkade, 'Painter of Light,' dies at 54
Thomas Kinkade, one of America's most popular painters, died Friday at his California home.
The 54-year-old "Painter of Light," is believed to have died from natural causes, his family said in a statement, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
"Thom provided a wonderful life for his family," his wife Nanette said. "We are shocked and saddened by his death."
The exact cause of death was unknown. Kinkade's family is planning a private funeral service, the San Jose newspaper reports.
Kinkade painted more than 1,000 works, including nature, cityscapes, and holiday art. His paintings, sold in shops across the country, can be found in one of every 20 homes in America, according to the Mercury News.
Some of the art in his recent 2012 Spring Collection are of bridges and cottage homes. Though most of his paintings are relatively affordable, some cost as much as $10,000. [...]
Follow the link for more paintings. A lot of "Art Experts" looked down their noses at him, but so what? "Art Experts" often like and praise Crap anyway. Kinkade also made over 53 million from his art, so apparently he had fans, regardless of what Expert Idiots think.
Thomas Kinkade dead: 'Painter of Light' had many fans, but few critics were among them
[...] Yet some of the qualities that made Kinkade's art popular and accessible to everyday consumers also led to its criticism from art experts.
"I think the reason you probably aren't going to find his work in many museums, if any, is that there really wasn't anything very innovative about what he was doing...," said Michael Darling, chief curator of Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art. "I really think that he didn't bring anything new to art."
Kinkade was also criticized for selling reproductions of his works, not the originals.
"That was something that drove the art world crazy," Vallance said. "You were never really buying the real thing, you were buying something made by a machine."
In the 2004 catalog to his California show, Kinkade offered an answer to his critics, saying he didn't look down upon any type of art.
"As to the myriads of products that have been developed from my paintings, I can only state that I have always had the attitude that art in whatever format it is accessible to people is good..." he wrote. "All forms of art reproduction have meaning to some body of people."
But Alexis Boylan, who edited a 2011 book of essays, "Thomas Kinkade: The Artist in the Mall," said Kinkade presented his art as value-driven and contrasted it with rap music and other forms of art that he was less fond of.
"He saw his art as antagonistic towards other forms of artistic expression," she said. "He was very antagonistic towards modern and contemporary art."
Amid the success, though, Kinkade had run into personal difficulties in recent years. [...]
I wish he'd had a longer life. I was a big fan. He will be remembered in his work.
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