I couldn't resist revisiting the Decode exhibition at the V&A again yesterday, I really am making the most of my entitlement to free entry. Whilst I was there I popped down to the Fakes and Forgeries exhibition, which showcases some of the fakes that the Metropolitan Police have collected.
It did get me thinking about Art especially in terms of how I was taught Art at a young age. I remember through school students were encouraged to copy great works of art, and by the end of secondary school I had already ripped off Matisse, Mondrianne and Picasso. I recall in my fourth or fifth year at secondary school agonising over a making a replica of a Toulouse Lautrec painting. The results were pretty dismal, hands and feet were never my forte. At the time I blamed it on the poor choice of the schools available materials, acrylic paint rather than opting for the more authentic and more expensive choice of oil paints. Even before secondary school I was copying images, it was mainly images of Garfield and Snoopy, and most of the time they looked like they'd been mowed over by a steamroller or put through an industrial mincer. Had my attempts at Lautrec's dancing girl been more successful my career choice could well have been very different, and I'm sure the forgery trade must be far more lucrative than textile design (which I would like to add I am directing myself away from).
I guess the only difference is between a forgery and what I and many other school children do/have done is that we are not making very convincing pieces of work and trying to call them originals.
It takes great skill to replicate perfectly a great piece of work, a steady and adaptable hand which can replicate a great masters brush stroke and a sharp eye for detail and colour. John Myatt's name/forgeries pops up in the exhibition frequently, which does leave me questioning is he actually a good forgerer if he's been caught?
Top Right - Cello Player in the style of Albert Gleizes (1881-1953), created by convicted criminal John Myatt in the 1990's
Top Middle - Untitled in the style of Mark Gertler (1891-1939), created by convicted criminal John Myatt in the 1990's
Top Right - Balloon Girl in the style of Banksy (active from the late 1980's)
Bottom left - Coins in the style of Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon coins, recovered in the criminal investigation of David Hutchings in 2007.
Bottom Right - King David in the style of Marc Chagall (1887-1985), created by convicted criminal John Myatt in the 1990's.
