Book Review: Thomas Kinkade, Collapse of America's Christian Artist

THE ROANOKE TIMES 
Reviewed by Jason Barr

PUBLISHING---Although G. Eric Kuskey’s “Billion Dollar Painter” is about Thomas Kinkade, the book — written by a former Kinkade partner and confidante — reads more like an insider’s business expose. Part of the collapse is directly attributable to Kinkade’s decision, through the company Media Arts Group, to put his paintings on almost every piece of merchandise he and his associates could conceive of: mugs, prints, T-shirts, commemorative plates and so on. Additionally, Media Arts Group’s contracts with gallery owners were so limiting that many gallery owners — who felt duped by Kinkade’s marketing as a “Christian” artist — were left with stock that they could not sell. Thus began the lawsuits, and thus began the collapse of Media Arts Group. [link]