THERE’S KITSCH AROUND THE CORNER: I didn’t become aware of the Thomas Kinkade phenomenon until lately, when I noticed that a small Kinkade litho print that my brother bought for my mother’s house. Right after that, I finally noticed the Thomas Kinkade Gallery not far from my humble abode here in Northern New Jersey. So I took a walk over to it and looked in the window at the displayed artwork. It seemed a bit . . . . formulistic, shall we say. Cloyingly sentimental, perhaps. Trying a bit too hard to evoke some longing for the good old days. Just the kind of stuff that my mother likes! (Smile)
I’ve seen this kind of art before. Growing up and dwelling much of my life in the working class suburbs, I’ve come to know the cheap stuff pretty well; the sentimental Norman Rockwell knock-offs, portraits of the sea and rustic villages, the black-velvet craze of the late 70s and early 80s, etc. I once saw two big black velvets side-by-side at an outdoor market along Route 46 in Little Ferry; one was Elvis, the other was Jesus. I’m really sorry that I didn’t get a picture of that.
The interesting thing is how Kinkade, “the painter of light”, is using cutting-edge American marketing techniques to stay above the K-Mart gallery scene (and thus keep his prices up). His stuff is as mass-produced as anything I saw in the home furnishing section of Two Guys (a classic proletariat-oriented department store chain that went under in the late 70s) back when I was a kid. And yet, the Kinkade organization is convincing a whole lot of people that these things are unique, collector’ items, heirlooms, an investment. Having an exclusive gallery in “Upper Montclair”, a rather tony suburban neighborhood noted for its artistic sensibilities, certainly doesn’t hurt.
Hey, I certainly won’t begrudge people for their tastes. I’m not exactly on the cutting-edge of artistic sensibilities. I’m a sucker for sentimentality too. It just amazes me how effectively Kinkade is making a good buck on stuff that really isn’t all that different from what you can get in the Wal Mart home furnishings section. You can find lots of “light” there too!
Anyway, here are pics of the Kinkade Gallery of Upper Montclair, with an autumn display theme. Note for the legal beagles, these shots were taken from a public sidewalk, where the US Constitution says that everything (other than perhaps a top-secret stealth bomber at an air base somehow visible from a highway) is fair game for “artistic expression” such as photography. Hey, my own “works of art” are hardly any less worthy than Kinkade’s, even if I haven’t found a way to make a buck off of them! Enjoy.
