{"id":2598,"date":"2012-07-16T09:56:58","date_gmt":"2012-07-16T13:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tmatt.net\/?p=2598"},"modified":"2012-07-16T09:56:58","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T13:56:58","slug":"the-heretical-art-of-thomas-kinkade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/07\/the-heretical-art-of-thomas-kinkade\/","title":{"rendered":"The heretical art of Thomas Kinkade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

When describing his painting \u201cCandlelight Cottage,\u201d the late Thomas Kinkade said its \u201ccandlelight has a cozy, intimate quality \u2014 especially when it\u2019s suffused in the soft mist of this fine English evening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actually, the cottage windows are glowing so brightly that the entire interior appears to be in flames.<\/p>\n

This painting, noted National Catholic Register<\/em> critic Simcha Fisher in 2011<\/a>, only makes sense as \u201ca depiction of an oncoming storm, with heavy smog in some spots and total visibility just inches away (blown by what wind, when the chimney smoke rises undisturbed?), several cordless Klieg lights, possibly a partial eclipse and that most cheerful of pastoral daydreams: a robust house fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is as lovely, she argued, as music created when \u201call of your favorite instruments play as loudly as they can at the same time. Listen, and go mad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Secular critics have long detested Kinkade\u2019s art, in part because of his great popularity among heartland evangelicals who were eager to claim the University of California at Berkeley trained painter as one of their own. Now, three months after his death at age 54 \u2014 while struggling with alcoholism, bankruptcy and a shattered marriage \u2014 some religious writers are focusing on what they see as another troubling question.<\/p>\n

The bottom line: Was Kinkade selling bad theology, as well as bad art?<\/p>\n

Believers often reject fine art and embrace \u201cmediocre substitutes just because they\u2019re labeled \u2018Christian,\u2019 \u201d noted John Stonestreet of the Chuck Colson Center, in a recent BreakPoint radio commentary<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019ve created for ourselves a kind of \u2018artistic ghetto.\u2019 \u2026 \u2018Christian art\u2019 has become a synonym for anything that\u2019s charming, quaint or makes us feel good. It often portrays a one-sided world where evil doesn\u2019t exist and only \u2018positive\u2019 and \u2018uplifting\u2019 messages are allowed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem is that this isn\u2019t the real world, which is full of sin and brokenness, as well as grace and beauty, he said, in a telephone interview. At it\u2019s core, art should be \u201ca reflection of what it means to be human,\u201d he added. Believers who create culture are \u201csupposed to look at all of creation, at all of human life, the good and the bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

This issue looms over the Kinkade debates, he said, but it also shapes arguments about music, movies, fiction and other forms of popular and high culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cSquishy songs that turn Jesus into your boyfriend are not good art,\u201d said Stonestreet. \u201cChristian romance novels are not good art. Naked little chubby angels in Christian bookstores are not good art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many debates about Kinkade have centered on his use of light, since he billed himself as the \u201cPainter of Light\u201d and said his glowing images represented God\u2019s comforting presence in the world. While the artist consistently avoided painting traditional religious scenes or symbols, he frequently said he was trying to capture the meaning of Bible verses, such as a lighthouse image that was said to represent John 8:12: \u201cI am the light of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, in painting after painting, Christian critics note that Kinkade used light in a way that was completely different than in Christian iconography or the work of master painters. For centuries, religious artists have used light as a depiction of God\u2019s presence and activity in the real world \u2014 often in the faces and forms of uniquely blessed people.<\/p>\n

Thus, the source of this light is \u201cexplicitly God Himself,\u201d noted Fisher. Yet in Kinkade\u2019s work glowing, unreal, unnatural light is found everywhere \u2014 seemingly at random. This matters because if \u201cyou follow the source of the light, you will find out where the artist thinks God is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For artists who are believers, the goal is to show God\u2019s light in the midst of the world\u2019s darkness, the work of God in the brokenness of real life.<\/p>\n

Kinkade, on the other hand, sees \u201cnothing beautiful in the world the way it is,\u201d argued Fisher. \u201cHe loves the world in the same way that a pageant mom thinks her child is just adorable \u2014 or will be, after she loses 10 pounds, dyes and curls her hair, gets implants, and makes herself almost unrecognizable with a thick layer of make-up. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cKinkade-style light \u2026 doesn\u2019t reveal, it distorts. His paintings aren\u2019t merely trivial, they\u2019re a statement of contempt for the world. His vision of the world isn\u2019t just tacky, it\u2019s anti-Incarnational.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When describing his painting \u201cCandlelight Cottage,\u201d the late Thomas Kinkade said its \u201ccandlelight has a cozy, intimate quality \u2014 especially when it\u2019s suffused in the soft mist of this fine English evening.\u201d Actually, the cottage windows are glowing so brightly that the entire interior appears to be in flames. This painting, noted National Catholic Register […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[79,277,341,1550],"class_list":["post-2598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-godbeat","tag-art","tag-culture","tag-evangelicalism","tag-worship"],"yoast_head":"\nThe heretical art of Thomas Kinkade<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When describing his painting "Candlelight Cottage," the late Thomas Kinkade said its "candlelight has a cozy, intimate quality -- especially when it's\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/07\/the-heretical-art-of-thomas-kinkade\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The heretical art of Thomas Kinkade\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When describing his painting "Candlelight Cottage," the late Thomas Kinkade said its "candlelight has a cozy, intimate quality -- especially when it's\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/07\/the-heretical-art-of-thomas-kinkade\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-16T13:56:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/07\/the-heretical-art-of-thomas-kinkade\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/07\/the-heretical-art-of-thomas-kinkade\/\",\"name\":\"The heretical art of Thomas Kinkade\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-16T13:56:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-07-16T13:56:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"When describing his painting \\\"Candlelight Cottage,\\\" the late Thomas Kinkade said its \\\"candlelight has a cozy, intimate quality -- especially when it's\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/07\/the-heretical-art-of-thomas-kinkade\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/07\/the-heretical-art-of-thomas-kinkade\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/07\/the-heretical-art-of-thomas-kinkade\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The heretical art of Thomas Kinkade\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. 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