‘Art for Everybody’ Review: An Illuminating Look at an American Painter Far Darker Than His ‘Art’ Let On

variety.com:

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic He makes art critics cringe, but Thomas Kinkade — whose idyllic paintings of storybook cottages and pastoral landscapes glow as if lit from within (some of them literally are, with tiny LEDs embedded in the canvas) — has arguably given more pleasure to the masses than any artist since Norman Rockwell.

In theory, one could argue that Walt Disney, Charles Schulz or Margaret “Big Eyes” Keane is more deserving of such an extravagant claim, and yet, of those iconic individuals, only Kinkade’s work was recently estimated to be hanging in as many as one in 20 American homes.

In the end, I suppose it all comes down to what you consider “art.” Do black velvet Elvis paintings count? How about dogs playing poker, or silkscreen renderings of Campbell soup cans?

That’s where the critics enter the picture once again, as few take Kinkade’s kitsch creations — which have been mass produced as coffee mugs, collectable plates and dust catchers of all kinds — seriously enough to qualify as art.