Thomas Kinkade

Alexis L. Boylan (Ed.)

Description

Often featuring lighthouses, bridges, or quaint country homes, Thomas Kinkade's soft-focus landscapes have permeated American visual culture during the past twenty years, appearing on everything from Bibles to bedsheets to credit cards. Kinkade sells his work through his shopping-mall galleries, QVC, the Internet, and Christian stores. He is quite possibly the most collected artist in the United States. While many art-world and academic critics have dismissed him as a passing fad or marketing phenomenon, the contributors to this collection do not. Instead, they explore his work and its impact on contemporary art as part of the broader history of American visual culture. They consider Kinkade's imagery and career in relation to nineteenth-century Currier and Ives prints and Andres Serrano's Piss Christ, the collectibles market and the fine-art market, the Thomas Kinkade Museum and Cultural Center, and "The Village at Hiddenbrooke," a California housing development inspired by Kinkade's paintings. The conceptual artist Jeffrey Vallance, the curator of the first major museum exhibition of Kinkade's art and collectibles, recounts his experiences organizing that show. All of the contributors draw on art history, visual culture, and cultural studies as they seek to understand Kinkade's significance for both art and audiences. Along the way, they delve into questions about beauty, class, kitsch, religion, and taste in contemporary art.Contributors. Julia Alderson, Alexis L. Boylan , Anna Brzyski, Seth Feman, Monica Kjellman-Chapin, Micki McElya, Karal Ann Marling, David Morgan, Christopher Pearson, Andrea Wolk Rager, Jeffrey Vallance

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 17 février 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822393399
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

omas Kinkade

omas Kinkade

THE ARTI ST I N THE MALL

E D I T E D BY A L E X I S L . B OY L A N

Duke University Press Durham and London 2011

© 2011 DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America on acid-Free paper ♾ Designed by Amy Ruth Buchanan Typeset in Bembo by Tseng ïnFormation Systems, ïnc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book.

 vii  ix

1

 29

 54

 81

107

124

143

165

ïllustrations Acknowledgments

ïntroduction

ALE X I S L. B OY LAN

Thomas Kinkade and the History of Protestant Visual Culture in America

DAVI D M ORGAN

Contents

Painter of the Right: Thomas Kinkade’s Political Art

M I C KI M C E LYA

God in the Retails: Thomas Kinkade and Market Piety SE T H FE M AN

Brand-Name Living From the Painter of Light

KARA L ANN M ARLI NG

Purchasing Paradise: Nostalgic Longing and the Painter of Light

AND RE A WO LK RAGE R

Repetition, Exclusion, and the Urbanism of Nostalgia: The Architecture of Thomas Kinkade

C H RI STOPH E R E . M . P E ARSO N

“A Temple Next Door”: The Thomas Kinkade Museum and Cultural Center

J U LI A ALD E RSON

191

206

238

259 275 277

Thomas Kinkade’s Heaven on Earth

J E FFRE Y VALL ANC E

ManuFacturing “Masterpieces” For the Market: Thomas Kinkade and the Rhetoric of High Art

M ONI C A KJ E LL M AN- C H AP I N

Art Ethics: Thomas Kinkade and Contemporary Art

ANN A B RZ YSKI

Bibliography Contributors ïndex

Figures

Illustrations

B OY L A N igure 1. Thomas Kinkade,e Good Shepherd’s Cottage(2001) 20

M O RG A N igure 1. George H. Durrie,Home to anksgiving(1867) 32 igure 2. Augustus Kollner,e Happy Family33(ca. 1850) igure 3.e Great Commission35, May 12, 1901 igure 4. Baird Terrazzo,e Good Shepherd(ca. 1970) 37 igure 5. Warner Sallman,e Head of Christ(1940) 39 igure 6. Warner Sallman,e Lord Is My Shepherd(1943) 40 igure 7. Thomas Kinkade,e Prince of Peace(1999) 44 igure 8. Thomas Kinkade,Home for the Holidays(1991) 49

M C E LYA igure 1. Thomas Kinkade,Flags Over the Capital(1991) 72 igure 2. Thomas Kinkade,Symbols of Freedom(2004) 74 igure 3. Norman Rockwell,Four Freedoms(1943) 75 igure 4. Thomas Kinkade,Hometown Pride(2002) 77

M A R L I N G igure 1. Thomas Kinkade Springtime Splendor Teacup and Saucer (1998) 111 igure 2. Thomas Kinkade,St. icholas Circle(1993) 119

WO L K R AG E R igure 1. Thomas Kinkade,ew York snow on Seventh Avenue, 1932 (1989) 134

P E A R S O N igure 1. A street at the Village at Hiddenbrooke (2001) 155 igure 2. A home at the Village at Hiddenbrooke (2001) 155

VA L L A N C E igure 1. Thomas Kinkade and Jerey Vallance (2004) 192 igure 2. Kinkade Chapel (2004) 192 igure 3.Bridge of Faithand Kinkade miniature ceramic villages (ighttime WinterandDaytime Summer) (2004) 196

K J E L L M A N - C H A P I N igure 1. Thomas Kinkade,Bloomsbury Café(1995) 226

Color plates (after page 126)

Plate 1. Je Koons,Pink Panther(1988) Plate 2. Thomas Kinkade,Sweetheart Cottage III(1994) Plate 3. Thomas Kinkade,Rock of Salvation(2001) Plate 4. Thomas Kinkade,Hometown Morning(2000) Plate 5. Thomas Kinkade,Courage(2004) Plate 6. Andres Serrano,Immersions (Piss Christ)(1987) Plate 7. Thomas Kinkade,Holiday Memoriesmusic box (1997) Plate 8. Thomas Kinkade,Hometown Memories I(1995) Plate 9. Thomas Kinkade,Main Street Matinee(1995) Plate 10. Thomas Kinkade,Paris: City of Lights(1993) Plate 11. Main Gallery, Thomas Kinkade: Heaven on Earth (2004) Plate 12. Thomas Kinkade and Jerey Vallance (2004) Plate 13. Thomas Kinkade,Seaside Village(2000)

Acknowledgments

This book has been a long time in the making, and along the way many debts have been accrued on my part. To begin with, ï would like to thank the original panel of speakers From a session on Thomas Kinkade at the College Art Association conFerence in 2004: Monica Kjellman-Chapin, Michael Clapper, Patrick Luber, Chris Pearson, and Andrea Wolk Rager. Their smart and perceptive presentations, Followed by the enthusiastic audience response, encouraged my need to expand the conversation. The authors who subsequently joined this project have likewise brought in- sight and energy, and ï appreciate their scholarship and patience with the process. ïn terms of transitioning this material into its published Form, Matthew Marshall, Duke University Press, the outside readers, Mandy Ear- ley, and Ken Wissoker have been instrumental. Ken’s patience, steady hand, and good advice were proFoundly meaningFul. A word of gratitude must also go to the Thomas Kinkade Company, in particular Mary Gerbic, Linda Mariano, Robert C. Murray, and Rosalba Quezada, each of whom helped to ensure that Kinkade’s illustrations were included. Two paragraphs in my introductory essay previously appeared in print in “Stop Using Kitsch as a Weapon: Kitsch and Racism,”Rethinking Marxism22, no. 1 (2010): 42–55.  Numerous colleagues and Friends deserve special notice: Matthew Bai- gell, aith Barrett, Emily Bivens, Gina Bloom, Catherine Hollis, Beauvais Lyons, Michael Orr, and Alan Wallach. All read draFts, oered suggestions and encouragement, or simply listened. Additionally, ï would like to thank my colleagues and students at Lawrence University, the School of Art, University of Tennessee, and the University of Connecticut For their sup- port. inally, ï want to recognize my Family: my parents and their spouses; my brothers, Gabriel and Nicko; and my partner, Micki, and her Family. Nothing would get done without your love and good humor. Thank you.