Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/12/thomas-kinkade-studios-presents-the-mandalorian.html
…
4 Likes
I was thinking this was going to be a parody, but no, it’s just another grift piggybacking on a popular trend. Welcome to 2021, I guess.
20 Likes
i’ve known one kinkade cultist. they’ve spent a huge amount of their discretionary income on those treacly, assembly line works. i mean, i understand that many renaissance painters learned to paint in factory operations similar to the kincade studios but it’s hard for me to imagine a kincade becoming worth as much as a boticelli or a raphael within their lifetimes, or possibly ever.
if they had put that money into a decent mutual fund or even a middling annuity they’d be so much better set for their retirement.
10 Likes
umm, THIS IS NOT THE WAY.
10 Likes
Hm. People seem to be getting a little worked up over a pop culture painting…
11 Likes
Last time I was in my grandfather’s house (about a decade ago), he took me on a tour of every Kinkade there. They had a different one in every room, and he explained them to me like he was some fine art connoisseur. I got a call from my dad a few years ago, when they were moving grandpa into the nursing home. Grandpa told him the paintings were good and special so we should sell them and make some money. My dad was skeptical … and I just laughed.
I guess there was something strangely sweet about the earnest naivety though.
16 Likes
expect, it is.
there was a point in the 90s when kinkades were being sold as some kind of an investment vehicle. it was around the same time as kincade was amping up his factory-style process of hiring artists to do backgrounds and landscapes or buildings and then he would put the few finishing strokes on them to make them “his”. he died in 2012 from an overindulgence in alcohol and benzos.
9 Likes
I predict that a hundred years from now people will travel all over the globe to be able to gaze directly at a Kinkade painting at the Louvre.
1 Like
First: why are we shitting on this stuff? Sure, it may not be for YOU, but someone likes it or it wouldn’t be so popular. Let’s just… stop doing that. Yah? Okay? Right.
Second: I’ve personally never wanted a Kinkade painting before now, but I do like a couple of these. A bit pricier than I’d spend, though, and I’ve already invested my Mandalorian funds into lego sets.
7 Likes
Right? I mean, wasn’t there a story not too long ago, about these kinds of paintings but with added pop culture references?
also, have we forgotten that Star Wars is now a Disney property?
7 Likes
Well, the thing with kitsch is that it can be popular and people will always shit on it. Why? Because it’s kitsch. Mere popularity is usually a poor indicator of quality and while I don’t care if people buy this garbage (it’s their money), I reserve my right to mock it. Everybody wins.
5 Likes
So much this!
Art, music, food, movies, teen girl lit… why does everyone feel they have to be smug and superior and trash things other people enjoy? Especially the Boing Boing crowd, where I am sure there are quite a few people who were dumped on for their choices in music, movies, science fiction, rpgs, and anime before their preferences became mainstream and mainstream adjacent?
Let’s celebrate our differences, and accept that we can and do find joy in many different things.
6 Likes
Transformative Pop Kitsch versus Direct Pop Kitsch? I feel like there’s an art history dissertation somewhere in there.
7 Likes
Probably! 
I’d read it.
9 Likes
I’m not going to claim any life-long perfection on these topics, because lord knows I done dunked on stuff plenty of times in my past. Its just that in recent years I’ve realized what a douche I sounded like. I’m trying to be better about it.
There ARE popular things I will totally trash, though, but those are things that have other negative consequences and outcomes for individuals and/or society. Like football. The cost of stadiums being born by society at large rather than the club of rich billionaires who field these profitable teams makes me happy to dunk on the United States’ most popular sport. Not to mention said same billionaires are the ones funding politicians who deny people the healthcare and educational opportunities they deserve to have better lives.
But art I don’t like? Nah… I’ll read my comics while douche canoes like Bill Maher mock me for being an adult who likes superheroes. Fuck THAT guy! (in fact, his comments may be the reason I shifted my stance on mocking things that don’t appeal to me)
4 Likes
I have a Kinkade hanging on my wall that I inherited from my grandmother and it’s exactly like you describe - a Rockwell-esque street scene with a few dabbed on highlights by Kinkade himself bought sometime in the late 80’s/early 90’s. Comes with a “certificate of authenticity” and everything.
It’s not a bad little painting and looks nice hanging over my dining room bureau. Grandma liked it a lot so it has more sentimental value to me than anything else.
7 Likes
They won’t, but dare to dream, I guess.
1 Like
Considering his original “forest cabin” paintings are all about fantasy anyway, this is appropriate.
2 Likes
Same here, I’ve been both dunker and dunkee, and I’ve probably dunked on something on the BBS, making me a hypocrite, too. But I try to keep an open mind and try not to put down others for their preferences, knowing many are not interested in my own.
I couldn’t agree more about football, or any professional sport. A sports team isn’t particular good economics for the cities in which they are located. Someone likes the sport? Good for them! But don’t ask me to subsidize a billionaire’s stadium, or believe the players “earned” their multi-million dollar contracts or adulation. (My views on rabid “superfans” really make me a hypocrite, so I keep them to myself.)
1 Like
