The obvious answer to this question is awe-inspiring success in marketing their "art" and "literature". Another more nuanced answer might emerge if we step back from a knee-jerk reaction to the kitsch of Kinkade's postcard-pretty world and the pop-mysticism and conspiracy ambiance of Brown's DaVinci Code. What they share is bad theology and bad art.
In the case of the Painter of Light® -- who claims to paint "a world in which the Fall of Man never occurred" – we see a saccharine vision of Americana that evokes a land many wish existed – a Disney-fied America like that in The Truman Show or Pleasantville. But the Bedford Falls of Capra's It's a Wonderful Life has always been shadowed by its Pottersville – that mendacious banker-built world of greed and panic for our own postage stamp of security. Dan Brown offers us a vision at the other end of the same stick – a world of double-entendre and secret knowledge… in a word, world as illusion and sinister subtext.
You would think at first glance these two visions are incommensurable. Think again. Both the saccharine and the sinister exaggerate in order to sell their wares. In Kinkade's case what is sold is nostalgia for an imagined rear view middle-class paradise; in Brown's it is Jungian mysterium tremendum that claims to have the inside scoop on the secret Jesus that orthodox Christianity has always suppressed. (Suppressed in order to subjugate women, Jews, and every other victim you can imagine.) Kinkade gives us a pablum Christianity-lite and Brown gives us a Ubermench Jesus who fathered a line of geniuses. Brown's Jesus has nothing to do with those who went to the gallows, the pyre, and the Colosseum, paying with their lives to preserve orthodox Christian faith.* This Jesus is more a Jungian archetype who balances evil and good in himself, reaching individuation and blazing the path for all who desire to be gods. (Decidedly more Nietzsche-an than Jewish or Christian).
There are three things that have sold this book in my opinion: the author's storytelling ability, the credulity of the mass market, and the protests of Christians. The box office of infamous Hollywood movies is always enhanced by protests and picketing. The movie comes out soon, but the fact that the book is being read is actually encouraging to me…I only wish that it was genuine literature and not this sort of travesty. Reading is rapidly becoming a lost art. The virtual world of the internet, personal computers, and home-entertainment centers threatens every day to preempt the more thoughtful modes of being and thinking and doing.
But what sells, sells.
I believe it was P.T. Barnum who once quipped, "The sucker is the huskster's lawful prey." Anyone who buys Kinkade or Brown is that lawful prey. The devil hasn't forgotten how to masquerade as a painter of lite or as a freemason with a skeleton-key to secret illumination. "Ye shall be as gods…"
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Bruce Herman is is currently a Professor of Art at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, where he serves as Chairman of the Visual Arts department and is Director of The Gallery at Barrington Center for the Arts. Professor Herman lectures widely and has had work published in many books, journals, and popular magazines.
His artwork has been exhibited in over 50 exhibitions in eleven major cities including Boston, New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, St. Paul, and Phoenix. His work has been shown in five different countries, including England, Italy, Russia, Canada, and Israel.
Herman's paintings, prints, and drawings explore the perennial human dilemma - the longing for transcendence and the paradoxical reality of human mortality with all its melancholy, hope, and comic/tragic truth. Herman also frequently draws upon the Bible for images and inspiration, finding in it an inexhaustible
reservoir of beauty and meaning.
His work is housed in many public and private collections including the Vatican Museum of Modern Religious Art in Rome; the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts; and the Armand Hammer Museum at the University of California in Los Angeles.
*Tertullian, (b.AD130 d. approx. AD210/220) one of the early Church thinkers reportedly said that "the blood of martyrs is seed of the Church." The martyrs he had in mind never sacrificed others' lives like the modern-day suicide bombers, but rather laid down their own in non-violent witness to the truth of a Jesus who eschewed worldly power and demonstrated unconditional love and self-emptying charity.
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Comments: 24
Unfortunately, the near truths in both works has a heavy imprint on--how should I say it--the "less discerning mind". I have woman friends who swoon over Kincade (I just nod, don't want to insult) and debate how the Church may have purposely deceived (I shake my head no, go read a book "DaVinci Code, Decoded"). Thanks for the enlightened remarks. Christie
Carl, Too bad your goofing would infringe on copyright laws. Those altered pieces would sell like hotcakes. I'd buy one.
So much for my ability to discuss art! now? Where ARE my finger paints!!
I read that book when it was new, a one evening read, fun fluff. I could not believe how HUGE it became and how it was taken so seriously, I would say, none of these ideas are new to a friend, who was enthralled and receive a blank stare. As for Kincade, I have to avert my eyes.
This is excellent, I would never have thought of connecting them, but you are right on.
Carl S, I understand your motivation.
Well said, Sir!
Dan Brown is a reasonably competent writer who started a wave, and he's riding it.
Both of these men are wealthy beyond most of our dreams.
Once again, the dumbing down of our culture. What sells is what's good. NOT.
Good article.
I know gallery owners who admire Kincade only because of his marketing efforts. They also say it gives real galleries a bad reputation because the general uneducated portion of the public learns to believe that all art should be Thomas' prices. They also learn to believe that his 'work' is real 'art'.
Dan Brown does not claim to be nobel prize winning literature. But he defitely writes to entertain and evoke the reader to look around more. Better than Agatha Christie and as good as a legal thriller.
Kinkade - hey I like the looks of the headlights in the rain and the idyll settings. Cozy unreal and fun. I feel the same about Norman Rockwell.
I also like Livio de Marchi , Jim Warren, Wyland and local artists.
the book. Hmmm.