Thomas Kinkade in some trouble.

[Archae]

I like his paintings, but if he was in any way involved in this scam, he should lose his ass financially.

Gallery Owners Win Ruling in Kinkade Case
By Kim Christensen
Times Staff Writer

February 24, 2006

An arbitration panel on Thursday awarded $860,000 to two former Thomas Kinkade Signature Gallery owners who accused the self-proclaimed "Painter of Light" and his company, Media Arts Group Inc., of fraudulently inducing them to invest in the business, and then ruining them financially.

While not singling out Kinkade in its finding of fraud, the panel ruled that the Morgan Hill, Calif.-based company and one of its executives, Richard F. Barnett, "failed to disclose material information" that would have dissuaded Karen Hazlewood and Jeffrey Spinello from investing $122,000 to open the first of their two Virginia galleries in 1999.

The arbitrators, in a 2-to-1 ruling, also found that Kinkade and other company officials used the artist's familiar Christian-oriented themes to create "a certain religious environment designed to instill a special relationship of trust" with the couple, who have since divorced.

"Media Arts through its agents Thomas Kinkade, Ken Raasch and Barnett, in particular, held itself out to be acting on a higher plain," the panel said in its written opinion, adding that the men frequently used terms such as "partner," "trust," "Christian" and "God" to convey a sense of "higher calling" to Hazlewood and Spinello.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-kinkade24feb24,1,5828082.story?ctrack=

[no name no slogan]

1. "KAREN, THIS IS GOD. BUILD AN ART GALLERY"

I swear that's what the burning bush told me

[asthmaticeog]

4. Yeah, see right there's the red flag.

God's got the Sistene Chapel all sewn up. Why would he need a pandering hack like Kincade in his corner?

[no name no slogan]

5. Yeah, you'd think with Da Vinci and Michelangelo on your team

you would be able to relegate Kincade to the benchwarmer status.

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. Kinkade's true artistic skill is in the art of the scam.

Though he has some good technical skill in painting, he's not much an artist in his painting; but in the scam, the man's a fucking prodigy.

What a business model - force the gallery owners to buy a total excess of inventory, so that you make all your money by selling to the galleries. Then, don't fucking care about the galleries - just keep making them buy shit from you to continue to exist. And if they go out of business, who cares? Someone else will start a franchise, and you've sold all your artwork anyway. And, if for some reason, your galleries aren't buying enough, then dump your excess inventory on the discount market, because, remember, you don't give a shit if the galleries go out of business, because you already have all the money you could make on the art anyway.

It's fucking genius.

[Heidi]

3. He also doesn't do all of his own work.

(Or so I'm told by other artists.) While, historically, that's not unheard of, we live now in a time when people buying original art expect it to be 100 percent created by the artist, rather than colored by assistants.

To a large extent, I agree with you, Rabrrrrrr.

[asthmaticeog]

6. You're correct, but...

... after Warhol, Kostabi, Longo et al, I think that's a pretty uninformed expectation.

[Heidi]

9. If one represents oneself

as a painter (Warhol didn't really do that), and signs the work, expectation that the artist made the work alone is not so uninformed.

I understand what you're saying, though, and it's sort of a dicey thing. I've paid people to prepare supports (canvas and panel) for me, but all of the work on top of the gesso has been my own.

[supernova]

11. You can even be a certified

Light painter, or whatever it's called.

You go around to the stores that sell Kincaide's crap and, for a fee, you add just that extra touch of painterly light® to your personal copy!

Wow! a whole TWO STROKES of REAL ACRYLIC on my Kincaide copy by a Kincaide imposter! I'm so thrilled! I mean, it cost me $200 more, but now I have a real painting!

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

7. I hate his paintings

:shrug:

[LostinVA]

8. Me too

[TimeChaser]

10. Hahahahahaha!!

That is all

[Hugin]

12. Typical.

Has Mat "Mr. Glitter" Com seen this yet?

[ThomCat]

13. I've only recently heard of this guy, and never seen his stuff.

Any examples of this work you would consider typical so I can get a sense of what this guy does?

[Hugin]

14. Here ya go...

:hide:

[supernova]

15. Explore the dreck

here:

http://www.thomaskinkade.com/magi/servlet/com.asucon.ebiz.home.web.tk.HomeServlet

[ThomCat]

16. Thanks.

It's pretty. The colors are exagerated. There's no emotion in any of it. But it's pretty.

They'd make good living room paintings if you need something to hang over the couch. But...

:shrug:

[XemaSab]

19. I had a friend point out to me

that it's a lot like German art during the Nazi period. A pure, idyllic view of a perfect world.

[grace0418]

21. To each his/her own but I would rather smear poop on my living room

wall than hang that dreck up.

I'm sorry, like I said, to each his own. But I'm an artist and I know so many incredibly talented artists who are barely making ends meet while this hack makes millions. I guess I'm a little sensitive about the subject.

[Efilroft Sul]

17. The best Thomas Kincaide painting parodies EVAH!

http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=1918
http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=1928

[tigereye]

18. here's a real artist who works with light

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/turrell/

[2bfree]

20. His stuff sucks.

Ugh.