Color Three Gallery Owners Angry
BIRMINGHAM — Media Arts Inc., the brainchild of self-styled “Painter of Light” Thomas Kinkade, is accused of saturating the market with his artworks — at the expense of dealers who banked on its scarcity.
A trio of lawsuits filed by current and former gallery owners say the overload left their stores full of overpriced paintings, angry customers and plenty of debt.
Their lawsuits, filed in Wayne County Circuit Court within the past year, contend that Kinkade and the Morgan Hill, Calif.-based company have turned the artist’s beloved works into mass-market mush.
Media Arts disagrees and says it strives to maintain good relations with its Thomas Kinkade Signature Galleries.
Kinkade art is ubiquitous in stores, direct mail and cable television. His idealized images of rosy gazebos, golden cottages and red-tipped lighthouses hang in a multitude of American households.
The battle with galleries in Michigan is anything but rosy — and it grew more fierce last week. Media Arts is trying to terminate its contract with Birmingham gallery owner Jim Cote, a plaintiff and chairman of the Media Arts Signature Dealers Council.
Media Arts claims he broke the dealer agreement and owes the company money. Cote’s attorney says it is because Cote filed suit against the company.
That means Cote must close his galleries in Birmingham, Rochester and Novi within 10 days of the notification or face possible legal action. He plans to contest the move. Cote is the only current owner filing suit — the other two gallery owners have sold their stores.
David and Nancy White of Bloomfield Hills filed the first Michigan suit last April. A second couple, Brian and Andrea Wittman of Kalamazoo, followed in October.
The gallery owners contend the problems began when Media Arts flooded the retail landscape with cheap versions of Kinkade’s paintings. While a limited-edition canvas lithograph sold for thousands at their galleries, a look-alike painting on paper would go for $200 or less on cable shopping channel QVC.
Brian Wittman once sold Thomas Kinkade lithographs and gift items at his Kalamazoo store.
Then, last spring, he went to Sam’s Club and saw the same books, throws and pillows he sold in his store at a much lower price. Media Arts’ dealer contracts did not allow the galleries to discount their merchandise.
“That’s when we knew it was over,” Wittman said. “My gift business was pretty much dying in front of me.”
The plaintiffs say that over five years Media Arts approved too many gallery openings in a limited geographic area.
“It’s not bread and milk. You can’t have a gallery on every corner,” said Cote, who filed suit against the company on March 17.
Media Arts representatives say these allegations misrepresent the otherwise cordial relationship between the company and its gallery owners.
Media Arts says the Michigan suits, and a few others in California and Texas, involve less than a dozen out of nearly 300 gallery owners. Officials say this small minority got in financial trouble on their own and are looking at Media Arts’ coffers as a way to bail themselves out.
“We want our partners to be successful,” said Media Arts’ Chief Operating Officer Steve Paszkiewicz. “We are very carefully managing our growth in that channel. We don’t want to have over-saturation in any part of the country.”
Like Martha Stewart, Kinkade has built an empire around his creative talents. The warehouse where “master highlighters” add brush strokes to mass-produced lithographs has been described by critics as an art factory.
Kinkade’s defenders, which include gallery owners and art buyers, say his works are popular because it reflects his Christian beliefs and offers warm reminders of a time gone by. They also cherish Kinkade’s quirks, like the tiny “N” he hides in every painting as a tribute to his wife, Nanette.
“Tom has made fine art accessible to many people who in the past either couldn’t identify with the artist or afford original art,” said Julie McBride, who co-owns a Signature Gallery in Wyandotte with her husband, Mark.
Kinkade’s dream has made him rich — he pocketed $5.7 million in commissions from Media Arts last year, according to company disclosures. He founded Media Arts in 1990 and took the company public in 1994. Four years later, the stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange for as much as $23 per share.
Since then, Media Arts has gone through four CEOs in as many years. Kinkade tried buying all outstanding shares to make the company private again. The company refused his offer of $6.25 per share as “inadequate.” The stock closed at $2.70 on Friday.
In fiscal 2002, Media Arts lost $1.1 million on revenue of $103 million.
According to gallery owner McBride, the average Thomas Kinkade collector owns five to seven pieces of his art. Even Norman Yatooma, the attorney suing on behalf of the three gallery owners, has two Kinkades hanging in his Birmingham offices.
Yatooma wants the court to certify the Michigan claims and others nationwide as a class-action lawsuit. Norman Yatooma & Associates PC has participated in other high-profile franchise lawsuits.
Media Arts’ Paszkiewicz acknowledged the company has about 3,000 “points of presence” or distribution partners, including the remaining 267 independently owned Signature Galleries.
Most of these retailers sell licensed merchandise — products that have Thomas Kinkade designs on mugs, rugs, plates, calendars and the like.
Kinkade also has a partnership with Visa for a signature credit card that allows members to enjoy “inspirational benefits” like no annual fee.
The plaintiffs, meanwhile, are trying to move on. The Whites estimate they have lost $2.4 million over the four years they owned galleries. They have sold their Kinkade art.
“Now I don’t want them around,” David White said.
The Wittmans also sold their business. The couple plans to sell their house soon to help repay the $100,000 debt they accumulated the past two years.
“My wife and I worked seven days a week from the day we opened to the day we closed,” Brian Wittman said. “I will never attempt to do anything like this again.”
