Sins of commission
surreal_ravi
By Marjorie Husain
Forgery is not a problem restricted to the Pakistani art market
alone. It's a global phenomenon and has been there all along. The best
guard against buying a fake is to buy works of the living artists, and
there are quite a few in Pakistan whose works are just waiting to be
copied.
On a rare trip to Berwick Market in London - rare because it begins at
5:00am and by 6:00am the collectors of diverse objects are in full
swing - I spotted a replica of a painting by Marie Laurencin worked
with oils on canvas. I looked at the stall holder who sheepishly held
my gaze, told me the price of the canvas (moderate) and added that
since the canvas was unsigned he couldn't guarantee the identity of
the painter.
That encounter coloured my morning. I moved on leaving the painting to
someone who might enjoy the copy anyway rather in the spirit of
Clinton Adams. Co-founder of the Tamarind Institute, Adams, in an
interview with Lee Cattarell quoted in 1972 remarked: "If you like the
damn thing and you know what it is and you want to buy it and you want
to spend two thousand dollars for it, I may think you're
(unmentionable), but I'll also defend your freedom to do it."
As a matter of interest, forgery or fake art has been an active
criminal activity, and the subject of contention, since the beginning
of art history. In 1511, Albrecht Durer wrote on the title page of his
series of woodblock prints, Life of the Virgin, "Woe to you! You
thieves and imitators of other people's labour and talents. Beware of
laying your audacious hand on this artwork"
The Italian painter Giorgio Vasari (1511-74) was famed for his history
of Italian art, 'The Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Architects,
Painters and Sculptors'. According to his account, the young
Michelangelo carved a marble Cupid and then artificially aged it to
give it the patina of an antique. Michelangelo's motive was not about
gain, it was a challenge on his part to match the sculptors of
antiquity.
The finger prints of many artists are documented and in the works of
the old masters fingerprints were often used as conclusive proof of
authenticity. Artists sometimes used their fingers to spread paint on
the canvas and handling oil paintings that were not completely dry,
left impressions of their fingerprints behind.
Professional forgers are known to have lifted copies of hand and
finger prints from paintings and by making moulds, produced
impressions on wet paint, which when dried 'authenticated' the
identity of the work.
Art deco collectors know that even major dealers can be fooled by
copies. Classic Austrian Goldscheider ceramics of dancers in the
costumes of the 1930s will fetch around $2,000 in the market, while
figurines in less elaborate costumes cost about a third of that sum.
The problem arises for new collectors who may come across Goldscheider
copies made of chalk plaster. Genuine items will usually carry the
artist's mark as well as the pottery logo on the base.
Artists themselves have made efforts to control imitations of their
work by keeping studio books in which they record minute details of
their work, and a record of their patrons. Museums and galleries, in
an effort to protect their integrity, attempt to distinguish the
originals from the copies in a number of technical ways or by calling
on the services of an art connoisseur, but at times even the experts
are baffled. Many famous museums and great collections have discovered
that it is safer to buy drawings by the old masters than paintings
that might have been rendered 'By the school of...'
Coming to the present time and our own particular market, copies are
often quite crude and in instances, have been reproduced or 'touched
up'/finished, with the consent of the artist concerned. The solution
is simple; buy the works of living artists. There are a number of fine
artists in Pakistan. They are producing work that will, one day, if
things continue as they are, end up on the forgery list.
Momart Gallery related that on three occasions they had been asked to
authenticate copies of the work of Jamil Naqsh, so it has begun. As
Saeed Akhtar pointed out, Chughtai and Sadequain, have been extremely
busy since they passed on to be joined by BM and Parvez, amongst
others.
In England during the 1930s, an artist named Patricia Preese worked
under false pretences for many years signing the work of her less
attractive, introverted but much more gifted friend. Charming Patricia
fooled artists, bureaucrats and galleries until her death when her
friend, the rightful artist, made her identity known and continued to
work and to acknowledge the work as her own.
With the necessary funds available and a measure of interest and
enthusiasm from the 'right quarters', the National Museum of Art,
currently under process in Islamabad, could be ready in another couple
of years. That is where the original work of Pakistan's masters
belongs, accessible to all.
There are many enormously gifted, living artists amongst us, so give
the galleries a break. With a few, very glaring exceptions, they are
serious in attempting to authenticate the work that comes their way.
They have done and continue to do their part in contributing to the
promotion of art and artists from regions throughout the country.
Beautiful paintings in various price ranges are available from the top
range of the acknowledged living masters of their genre, to the up and
coming younger artists, who will in time be masters in their own
right. So go ahead and collect the splendid work that is freely
available. Buy something you like and enjoy living with it,
undoubtedly the value will appreciate.