ART FOR EVERYBODY
Join us after the screening on Oct. 20 for a Q&A with producer Tim Rummel.
Delving beneath his reputation as the “Painter of Light” to explore his complicated, often troubled life, this poignant documentary tracks the rise and fall of Thomas Kinkade. Though he’s considered one of the most successful artists of all time, Kinkade has left a contested legacy, with critics usually dismissing his work as kitschy and crassly commercial even as supporters continue to prize his idyllic, sentimental pictures of cottages and pastoral landscapes. Director Miranda Yousef deftly examines Kinkade from various angles, giving voice both to Kinkade’s critics and his ardent admirers, while in-depth interviews with his family members provide a more nuanced portrait of him as a human being. In his lifetime, Kinkade revolutionized the profession of art-making, turbo-charging the mass-production of his work and casting himself as a businessman as much as a creative. After his death in 2012, Kinkade’s daughters found numerous, atypically dark works, which are only now being publicly viewed. These works complicate Kinkade’s polished image, revealing not just the complexity of his psyche but the unexplored avenues his art might have taken. With this remarkable documentary, Yousef has created not just a fascinating portrait of an undeniably influential artist, but a moving meditation on the stories we craft about ourselves.
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