Table of Contents

Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction / Alexis L. Boylan 1
Thomas Kinkade and the History of Protestant Visual Culture in America / David Morgan 29
Painter of the Right: Thomas Kinkade's Political Art / Micki McElya 54
God in the Retails: Thomas Kinkade and Market Piety / Seth Feman 81
Brand-Name Living from the Painter of Light / Karal Ann Marling 107
Purchasing Paradise: Nostalgic Longing and the Painter of Light / Andrea Wolk Rager 124
Repetition, Exclusion, and the Urbanism of Nostalgia: The Architecture of Thomas Kinkade / Christopher E. M. Pearson 143
"A Temple Next Door": The Thomas Kinkade Museum and Cultural Center / Julia Alderson 165
Thomas Kinkade's Heaven on Earth / Jeffrey Vallance 191
Manufacturing "Masterpieces" for the Market: Thomas Kinkade and the Rhetoric of High Art / Monica Kjellman-Chapin 206
Art Ethics: Thomas Kinkade and Contemporary Art / Anna Brzyski 238
Bibliography 259
Contributors 275
Index 277

Promotional Information

A collection of essays exploring Thomas Kinkade's career, his artistic production, and its impact on contemporary art as part of the broader history of American visual culture

About the Author

Alexis L. Boylan is Assistant Professor in Residence in the Art and Art History Department and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Connecticut.

Reviews

"At last, a thoughtful book on Thomas Kinkade. This is much more than a case of visual studies replacing art history with social and economic analyses: the contributors wrestle with value, quality, irony, self-reflexivity, aesthetics, taste, complexity, class, religion, nostalgia, and kitsch. Despite what several authors argue or hope, this excellent book implies Kinkade is very much a part of contemporary fine art: he troubles the discourses of art history, art theory, and visual studies in just the way an exemplary artist should." James Elkins, author of On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art "This excellent anthology is a significant contribution to scholarship at the interstices of art practice, art theory, and popular culture. It is an erudite volume that brings together diverse approaches to Thomas Kinkade's work and 'culture,' yet maintains a surprisingly even quality of thought and writing." Maria Elena Buszek, author of Pin-Up Grrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture