The Price of Coveting Art

In “The Old Master? It’s Down at the Pawnshop”, the basis of the art creditors is the art market formed by the works of art masters. These works are well-known, coveted, and scarce in supply, which is the foundation for the high monetary stakes. Since the owners can borrow against the art, it has significant value as an asset and brings to reality the material nature of art. Kinkade print owners would likely find it very difficult to borrow against their art collections. While Kinkade prints can have decent price tags and accumulate to significant cost, they are consumer items. Even Kinkade admits the American consumerism approach to his work. He paints images that have the widest appeal to the general public and then mass produces prints of his paintings. Certainly, the works of masters are reproduced for consumers in the form of postcards, calendars, prints, and other consumer items, but Kinkade stands out in that the ultimate goal of his work is to be reproduced and sold as much as possible.

Kinkade presents an awkward art limbo between dime-a-dozen decorative art and nearly priceless works of art masters. It is important to note that his works are not just the originals he paints himself. He has a deliberate hand in the market for his prints. He arguably has skill as an artist with his perspective, lighting, and manipulation of color. However, he seems to differ from an art master in that he aims to give the viewer what he thinks they desire, his work does not show significant development over time, and he specifically aims to create a consumer product. He turns the art world and its critics upside down by shrewdly creating a market for his prints rather than his originals. Perhaps from the view of displeased art critics, Kinkade is insulting the uniqueness and depth of the works of art masters by creating faux art masterpieces to be placed in every living room in America. While highly valued works of art can be viewed in terms of objects of certain monetary worth, they hold a gravity of meaning to the art world that is lost in the mass production and easy pleasing nature of Kinkade works.