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

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

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, …