THOMAS KINKADE END OF A PERFECT DAY FREE

His images offer daydream relief from real, serious social and cultural stresses.

THOMAS KINKADE END OF A PERFECT DAY FREE

His fantasy alternative existence consists of a tranquil domestic setting in a timeless but nonindustrial world free of social and psychological tensions. Kinkade’s own work may be popular because it is uplifting and painless, but it is not without content. Consistently running through the art that has most influenced Kinkade is a search for relief from the pressures and shortcomings of modern life. He has reshaped and updated the tradition of Romantic landscape painting in particular and consistent ways to create his nostalgic, sentimental confections. Kinkade’s images are consistent with popular preferences in art, but what’s more his work is deliberately based on a relevant, respectable artistic heritage. The exhibit considers works by Kinkade along side paintings by Thomas Hill (1829-1908) and Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), two artists he greatly admires, as well as America’s Most Wanted, a 1993 landscape print by Vitaly Komar (born 1934) and Alex Melamid (born 1945), that aims to distill into a single work the artistic preferences of a random sample of American adults.

In other words, whether his work is good or not, it is telling. While an appreciative audience of millions is not a sure sign of aesthetic quality or profundity, the wide appeal of Kinkade’s art indicates that he has tapped into powerful personal and cultural longings. It is easy to dismiss the work of Thomas Kinkade as kitsch and brush aside his popular success as only a marketing phenomenon, but to do so ignores his sincere zeal and the deep resonance his pictures have with huge numbers of people. The exhibit is currently on view through August 9, 2009.

MIDDLEBURY, VERMONT – The Middlebury College Museum of Art presents Making Sense of Thomas Kinkade, an exhibition about the enormously successful but controversial contemporary landscape painter.

Thomas kinkade end of a perfect day