Thomas Kinkade, Artist to Mass Market, Dies at 54
Lightpost Publishing
A detail from “The Forest Chapel.” Much of Thomas Kinkade’s work reflected idealized America.
By MATT FLEGENHEIMER
Published: April 7, 2012
Thomas Kinkade, the prolific painter of bucolic and idealized scenes who estimated that his mass-produced works hung in one out of 20 American homes, died on Friday at his home in Los Gatos, Calif. He was 54.
He appeared to have died of natural causes, according to a statement that his family issued to The San Jose Mercury News.
Though often disdained by the fine art establishment, Mr. Kinkade built a decorative art empire by creating sentimental paintings that were, for the most part, relatively inexpensive and resonated with the desires of homeowners who did not ordinarily buy art. He sold his work directly, through his own franchise galleries or on cable television home shopping networks, and eventually online.
Much of his work reflected Christian themes or visions of a traditional, rustic America residing in comforting solitude. The paintings — of homey cottages and rural churches and rivers flowing gently through brilliant foliage — rarely included people, which allowed the owners to project themselves into the scenes.
Mr. Kinkade referred to himself as the “painter of light,” usually with a trademark symbol, for naturalistic scenes with highlights that appeared to glow. Often his canvases were mass-produced prints to which he added small, brightly toned details. He made no apologies for commercializing the art field, comparing himself to million-sellers in, say, music and literature.
Occasionally, Mr. Kinkade presented well-known urban places, like the Rockefeller Center skating rink and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. When Gene Monahan, the longtime trainer for the Yankees, retired last year, the team gave him a Kinkade portrait of the old Yankee Stadium.
Mr. Kinkade grew up in Placerville in Northern California and was raised in relative poverty by a single mother. He said that he was drawn to art at a young age. As a young man, according to The Associated Press, Mr. Kinkade traversed the country by boxcar with another artist, James Gurney, to sketch the American landscapes that they encountered.
He studied briefly at the University of California at Berkeley and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, before moving to Hollywood to paint backgrounds for an animated film called “Fire and Ice.”
In the 1980s, Mr. Kinkade said, he became a born-again Christian. The change dovetailed with a shift in his career path. Rebelling against what he considered the elitism of modern art, Mr. Kinkade moved his focus to retail, not a traditional gallery system. He began publishing inexpensive prints of his work and, later, opened his own galleries.
“I view art as an inspirational tool,” he told The New York Times in 2001. “People who put my paintings on their walls are putting their values on their walls: faith, family, home, a simpler way of living, the beauty of nature, quiet, tranquillity, peace, joy, hope. They beckon you into this world that provides an alternative to your nightly news broadcast.”
In the late 1990s, Mr. Kinkade broadened his popular reach by licensing his name to dozens of companies, like Avon and La-Z-Boy, to produce Thomas Kinkade lines of home furnishings. But another frontier remained: building the homes themselves.
He soon began fashioning gated communities in California, with houses and grounds in the likeness of his paintings.
“When Walt looked out over his citrus grove and envisioned Disneyland, it wasn’t real to him yet,” Mr. Kinkade said, speaking as a Thomas Kinkade Community opened in Vallejo, Calif. “When he walked down Main Street it became real. So this is that moment for me.”
The homes were available then at a starting price of $425,000.
A decade ago, Mr. Kinkade’s Media Arts Group, once a publicly traded company, took in $32 million per quarter from 4,500 dealers across the country, according to The Mercury News. His paintings ranged in cost from hundreds of dollars to more than $10,000.
His works were reproduced in books and on posters, canvas prints, hand-signed lithographs and collector’s plates. He likened himself to Norman Rockwell and Walt Disney, insofar as all three “really like to make people happy,” he once said. Many of Mr. Kinkade’s paintings captured scenes from Disney.
Mr. Kinkade thought himself to be the nation’s most collected living artist, with sales for his works and associated products approaching $100 million annually.
He also published books, including “Masterworks of Light” and “The Artist’s Guide to Sketching,” which he wrote with Mr. Gurney, that became best-sellers.
After news of his death spread on Saturday, fans and critics alike remembered him on Twitter for his seemingly ubiquitous paintings that they knew from the living rooms of grandparents and the waiting rooms of doctors’ offices.
“Rest in peace, Thomas Kinkade. May your afterlife be as beautiful as your art,” one person wrote.
Another called Mr. Kinkade “a great mass-marketer,” adding, “whether or not art should be mass-marketed is another discussion.”
Yet even as he became wealthy, Mr. Kinkade said his work retained a simple, authentic aim. “People are reminded,” he said, “that it’s not all ugliness in the world.”
He was survived by his wife, Nanette, and four children.
