Art-ificial

Lately it seems the truth has been broken into a million little pieces. But all this talk of truth vs. lies and fiction vs. fact has brought to mind these same debates in the art world. If the Picasso that you adore hanging on your library wall turns out to be a forgery (and even Picasso is claimed to have said he would sign a very good forgery), does that negate the pleasure looking at it has given you over the years? Ultimately isn't the experience the real truth no matter the 'facts' of the object?

Sometimes even in the face of the truth, some can't overcome their beliefs. In 1984, for the centennial of Amadeo Modigliani (1884-1920) his hometown of Livorno, Italy, drained the canal outside his house, as legend had it he often threw rejected works out the window of his studio. To their amazement they found three stone heads that were proclaimed by art critics to be authentic and a special exhibition was mounted that drew worldwide attention. However three college students soon came forward and claimed to have carved the head as a joke. No one believed them until they produced a video of themselves creating the sculpture. A local dockworker had carved the other two. Needless to say the critics were loath to admit their mistake.

British artist Jamie Shovlin (1978- ) created an exhibit that purported to be the work of a teenage girl Naomi V. Jelish (an anagram of Jamie Shovlin). Her drawings are combined with newspaper clippings and diary entries telling the story of her entire family’s disappearance after a year of personal tragedies. The artist claims he created the exhibit to “test the boundaries of ambiguity.”

Ultimately it all comes down to semantics. As Patsy Stone once quipped, “What’s the difference between a child’s painting and a painting done by a child?” Is it the intent? The innate talent? The value placed on it by a proud parent? Or an art critic’s judgement? Even elephants and chimpanzees have created works of art that, unidentified, could be mistaken for abstract expressionism.

So perhaps art (whether visual or literary) is best judged by the emotions it evokes in you, the viewer, for there is nothing more authentic than that. I know, I know…James Frey is still a liar. But he had you going, didn’t he?