Directed by Miranda Yousef (USA, 2023, 99 min.).

Whether you find his art cozy, cloying, or just plain terrible, it’s hard to deny that Thomas Kinkade made a sizeable cultural impact. By the 1990s he had built a “cottage empire” selling mass-produced prints of saccharine scenes, rocketing to popularity by marketing himself to American evangelicals and pitting himself against the art establishment. But who was the “Painter of Light,” really? As this engrossing film reveals, beneath Kinkade’s pristine public persona existed demons that drove him to alcoholism, scandal, and death from an overdose in 2012. After his passing, Kinkade’s daughters uncovered a vault of unexpectedly dark paintings, a discovery that launched an investigation into their father’s true personality.

Through the voices of skeptical critics, adoring fans, and the artist’s closest friends and family, Art for Everybody digs deep into Kinkade’s life and work to elucidate the real man behind the persona and offer a surprising look at the machinations of the commercial art world. Accomplished editor Miranda Yousef’s directorial debut is an insightful documentary that peels back the layers of Kinkade’s facade, delivering a portrait of a complex man divided by the same forces that continue to pull us apart as a nation.