from the LA Times CULTURE MONSTER
Thomas Kinkade, power artist
3:30 PM, October 16, 2008
The other day, Britain’s ArtReview magazine issued its Power 100 list, a ranking of artists, dealers, collectors and assorted others who ostensibly “run the art world.” While most attention focuses on who is at the top — artist Damien Hirst, dealer Larry Gagosian and Museum of Modern Art associate director Kathy Halbreich came in at Nos. 1, 2 and 3 — way more interesting is who brings up the rear.
Number 100 on the list is Sacramento-born Thomas Kinkade, 50, self-described “Painter of Light,” whose treacle-plenty pictures of bucolic bliss have been cranked out by the hundreds over the years.
A joke from across the pond? Or a simple sign of the inescapable silliness of all such lists?
Either way, Kinkade seems to nicely bracket the Power 100.
— Christopher Knight
Photo credit: Los Angeles Times