Art For Everybody

The brand vs. the man. In the 90s, looking at a Thomas Kinkade painting felt like peering into a storybook. But Miranda Yousef‘s SXSW 2023 doc ART FOR EVERYBODY shows audiences that the self-appointed “Painter of Light” was, in truth, filled with darkness the public never saw. Could a dream lead to the discovery of his entire body of work? Prepare for your shining vision of the world’s most marketable artist to change color. His family, friends, fans, and critics speak about the man they knew.

You could not escape Kinkade work in the 90s. There were calendars, postcards, commemorative plates, and entirely dedicated galleries in the mall of idyllic cottages. As an English lit nerd, I remember being enamored by his paintings. So much so that I almost dropped $600 on a piece in my early 20s. I did not have that kind of money to spend on art back then.

Critics hated him. Kinkade didn’t align with the idea of what real art is, so he took it as a business opportunity to lean into a facade of marketable Christianity. The ego is the most cringeworthy part of the story. Outtakes from the numerous video archives are increasingly abrasive and eye-roll-inducing. Then the spiraling behavior. The film reveals a more nuanced side to the man. Original audio from Thom at age 16 echoes behind photographs from his youth should have tipped us off from the beginning. Once his daughters open his vault, the real Kinkade spills into reality. His family drops the forced filter they used to keep up in front of the cameras. Thomas Kinkade becomes a shattered image.

It’s a conversation about how art affects your soul, the nuance of the industry, and how creativity can be an outlet for trauma. ART FOR EVERYBODY is a complex portrait of how we bought a fake.