Although he was ridiculed in life for his kitsch paintings imitating impressionistic painters, I suspect one of these centuries Thomas Kinkade will be seen for the genius he truly was.
It takes a lot of smarts to run a multi-million-dollar empire peddling artwork despite the critics, despite the slings and arrows.
Kinkade was only 54 years old.
Kinkade, whose Media Arts Group was raking in upwards of $32 million a quarter a decade ago, preferred to describe himself as a “warrior for light.” In a 2002 interview he said that he used his talents to “bring light to penetrate the darkness many people feel.”
Though Kinkade was a wealthy family man and devout Christian there have long been hints of darkness behind the light. In 2009 the F.B.I. was investigating allegations that Kinkade had committed fraud and in 2010, he was picked up for D.U.I. Previously former employees and associates had testified that Kinkade was given to bizarre personal behavior, including heckling Siegfried & Roy, groping fans and allegedly urinating on a Winnie the Pooh statue at the Disneyland Hotel.
Yes, he was a truly great man. Centuries from now he will be considered on par with Da Vinci. I am glad I won't be around to hear about it.
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Ferdinand Porsche, designer of the Porsche 911 and grandson of the automobile company founder, 76.
But in December 1959, F. A. Porsche completed a full design model for the replacement prototype, and in 1963 the new model, originally designated the 901, was introduced at an auto show. (The designation was changed to 911 after the company learned that in France, Peugeot had a claim on three-numeral designations of passenger cars with a zero between two digits.)_____
Slightly longer and narrower than the 356, more powerful, with a six-cylinder, rather than a four-cylinder, engine, the original 911 also had more legroom, more rear seat room and bigger doors for easier entrances and exits.
Mr. Porsche also modified the body of the 356, rendering the signature sloping back end and extended hood into a sleeker silhouette. It was a remarkably simple design that helped create Mr. Porsche’s reputation as a designer who prized function above all.
Amplifier maker Jim Marshall, 88, of cancer:
With his sixth prototype, Mr. Marshall and his helpers came up with a harmless-looking black box with a speaker inside and controls on top. It would become the basis for the formidable wall of amplifiers used by Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and almost every other major rock guitarist in the ’60s and ’70s and by the next generation of guitarists as well, including Kurt Cobain, Eddie Van Halen and Slash._____
This acoustic artillery came to be called the “wall of Marshalls” or “Marshall stacks.” Mr. Marshall became known as “the father of loud.”
Miguel de la Madrid, 77, former president of Mexico.
A Harvard-educated technocrat, Mr. de la Madrid was elected in 1982 and presided over one of the most difficult six-year terms of any Mexican leader. He inherited an economy in crisis. After Mexico borrowed against oil revenues, it defaulted on its foreign debt. As inflation roared past 100 percent and unemployment reached 25 percent, the country struggled to apply free-market principles to what had been a closed economy.
To deal with the foreign debt emergency, Mr. de la Madrid imposed austerity measures that were widely unpopular. But he is credited with setting Mexico on a path toward a free-market economy, which culminated in the country’s entering into the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Canada in 1994.
In other words, another neoliberal bit the dust. Too bad there are a thousand others filling the void for every one who dies.
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