"I view art as an inspirational tool. People who put my paintings on their walls are putting their values on their walls." The words aren't those of Gerhard Richter or Joseph Beuys. They're not by Picasso, Mondrian, Malevich or any other messianic modernist. They come from Thomas Kinkade, the epitome of sentimental, illustrational, conservative art, the self-described "painter of light," who died on Friday, Apr. 6, 2012, at 54.
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