Thomas Kinkade's death

[Chris Lange]

Kinkade and Crewdson are on the same level, visually for me.

Can't stand either of them, as far as their work goes.

[Vaughn]

Wallace Nutting (1861 - 1941) was an American (New England area) minister, furniture-maker and photographer. His furniture-making was of copies of older styles, expertly done.

At one time he hired up to 200 "colorists" to hand-color (and I suppose darkroom assistants to print) his photographs. Very popular as wedding presents. Sometimes the colorists would also sign Nutting's name on the print. He estimated that he sold 10 million prints. Sales geared towards the middle class.

I grew up with a couple of them on our walls. Not bad pieces, I preferred the two C. Watkins we had.

Tim -- I guess it was AA's musical background that influenced his printing (the old score vs performance thing). Oren Mills Sr died in 1978 -- his company of portrait studios and church directories was sold to Lifetouch last year.

[BrianShaw]

Oren Mills Sr died in 1978 -- his company of portrait studios and church directories was sold to Lifetouch last year.

I didn't know they were sold. Last week I was thinking of starting a separate thread because I, for the third time in this lifetime, participated in a church directory. Each time it was for a fairly large church (about 4,000 registered families) and the production-line aspect is quite impressive. The resulting portraits are somewhere between OK an ddreadful if you ask me. What I found interesting this time, though, is the sales aspect of their "free chruch directory". I always left that to my wife. I only saw what we bought, and what a few other families bought. In 30 minutes I think I saw each family buy between $150 and $400 worth of their product. The salesperson's opening salvo was a $350 package. "WOW, what a racket" was my first response adn I'm happy that I could keep that within the confines of my noggin without ever moving my mouth. I really wonder how much they make from these "free chruch directory" schemes. Must be a fortune... and most families seemed very happy with their work. The mass appeal and mass marketting analogy seems similar. I was wondering how many families will be replacing the Thos. Kinkade art hanging over hteir couch with a big Olan Mills framed portrait.

[Vaughn]

I didn't know they were sold....

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2...old-lifetouch/

[BrianShaw]

Thanks, Vaughn... I'm so far behind in reading the newpaper!

[jnanian]

Ooh, good, a fight about "art"!

naaah im not fighting, i am trying to figure out what i think as i write these posts... i am kind of "conflicted" .
part of me is inspired by kinkade, how he managed to create all these scenes
that people love/loved to buy ... and part of me wonders how people could buy
the stuff he is / was selling. i guess i was off the mark comparing adams to kinkade
but sometimes one has to make an absurd comparison to figure out where you stand ...

i wonder who is going to be the next (self-)mass produced artist ..
and i wonder if whoever it will be, will have the stamina to create hundreds/thousands of paintings
and make millions from selling reproductions, and stay alive past 55.

[eclarke]

So...How many here have sold out by receiving money for things they do? Only people who get no money, food, clothing, shelter or anything else for any of their efforts at anything can truly call themselves "artists".. I put dirty words in quotation marks..They guy made a successful living..

[blansky]

I don't like AA just because of the amount of manipulation it takes to create those prints, as if they aren't prints of those negatives, but fabrications for the lust of the general public.

Interesting opinion.

Firstly I don't think he was making prints for the public, although that was done later.

The way I see it he was observing a scene and seeing or fore-seeing what he could do to "improve" it. That's part of the reason for having incredibly exposed negatives.

He was sort of a contradiction because he was part of F64 which was the antithesis to the pictorialists or romanticism he wished to replace. I think they saw their work as realism.

The irony is that his work is not really realism but maybe hyper-realism which could be described as a form of romanticism of a particular scene.

[Vaughn]

...But good expressions of what AA wanted to present. It just wasn't what AA shot.

That said, I do a bit of manipulation of my scenic landscapes, it's part of pulling in what I saw to the material I have available.

tim in san jose

Also this begs the question was AA (or you) totally color blind? B&W photography is one major step beyond what any of us see/shoot.

[ROL]

Reading many of these sour grapes posts referencing AA, I would simply suggest that it would at least be wise to spend some time actually reading about the man and his art before categorizing and judging him. There is one autobiography as well as the book "Letters...". And then spend some time in the Sierra Nevada, away from the burger joints.