For Anna’s birthday, I am working on a copy of Van Gogh’s “Almond Blossoms” - a painting we saw for real at the @natgallerycan some years back. My only note at that time, in my sketchbook, was the title, because we had 2 13 year olds running around the gallery, lol!
I have so enjoyed seeing Spring unfold around us, I am actually embarking on a new experiments in that direction. There will be beauty and hope — I need these so much right now.
If an artist provides a service such as painting on a thing for a certain fee, but what this person paints are almost all copies of other artists’ works (including and almost exclusively famous artists who are no longer living but who have foundations or estates that manage the copyrights/ licenses for the artists’ oeuvre)—
I mean, this is art forgery/ piracy, right? And the fact that this artist continuously profits from these custom paint jobs, and somehow no one in that community he’s in seems to be calling this out (they keep ordering from him, even).. and i mean it’s not *exactly* a carbon copy of the works, but the colors and subject matter are the same, only cropped or not as detailed, and the pieces are named after the original pieces too and he is marketing them under the original artist+artwork’s name
It just doesn’t sit right with me and I don’t think I can just let it slide. What do I even do next? Report this person? Are there any legal grounds for this? Do I contact the artists’ estates?
Input, advice, reactions, ideas etc appreciated
Also, if the works have become public domain, what’s the rule on that? Does it apply here?
Art forgery is the best crime tbh. It requires absolutely incredible artistic talent, technical skill, and attention to detail to make convincing fakes. Does anyone get hurt from it? No! The only people who suffer for it are the extremely wealthy who want the prestige of having original paintings in their own homes. It’s full of international intrigue and mystery. Perfect.
Also… art forgers like van Meegeren sometimes become a kind of folk hero. A swindler, sure, but a gentleman’s swindler.
I liked this guy’s story, Mark Landis, who conned several dozen museums into displaying his forgeries, but when the FBI came after him they couldn’t do anything because he had always given them away as donations. They said if they could have found that he’d ever taken anything in exchange they would have prosecuted him, but all he wanted was get to out of the house and meet people.
“The first painting Landis “donated” was a copy of a work by Maynard Dixon, an artist well-known for his paintings of cowboys and Indians. It started as impulse, Landis says, but then “everybody was just so nice and treated me with respect and deference and friendship, things I was very unused to — I mean, actually not used to at all. And I got addicted to it.”” And it looks like all his forgeries are done with cheap materials, like markers and Hobby Lobby frames.
Ok, but Wolfgang Beltracchi is probably one of the best Fraud Artists in the world.
His career brought him millions upon millions of dollars and lasted almost 40 years. He finally admitted to painting fraudulent art after the white paint he used came under scrutiny.
In The interview with Beltracchi, he said that none of his forgeries are copies, they’re all original works that the famous artists could have painted.
His wife was also in on the scam, she would dress up in old clothing and take pictures holding the paintings with old cameras to fake proof of the paintings’ ages.
At the end of the interview with Wolfgang Beltracchi he was asked if he felt he had done anything wrong, his answer was “ Yeah, I used the wrong kind of paint”
Just … the levels of con there, the fake photos and … wow. That’s incredible.
Heroes
Also fun fact we learned in class today: Michelangelo carved a sculpture of a Roman god, broke off the arm, and then buried it. The sculpture was dug up and was considered to be an authentic Roman artefact, until Michelangelo came along with the missing arm and called shenanigans on himself, just to prove he was as skilled a sculptor as the ancient Romans.
honestly mike? chill.
YEHS U GO ARTISTS
when you think about this its basically reverse-plagiarism
this made me think “Hephaestus would also love us” and then I saw Hephaestus going on a forbidden journey to sunder Prometheus’s chains because without the gift of fire humans would never have learned the art of the forge. and he was already cast out of Olympus for being born with a disability, without fire in human hands he would have been so lonely, god of nothing and no one.
now they watch humans do these things together just beaming like two proud dads and occasionally calling Asclepius when shit goes sideways (“we love you, children! always wear your PPE!”)
I hate when customers hand out those stupid and ugly religious pamphlets that are made to look like money because at first glance I am so excited to have money for food or medicine, but the back just has a quote and then followed by “this is more valuable than money”. It is disgusting and insulting to give these “tips” to people, especially the poor, and expect a thank you as if you have saved their life.
i implore anyone reading this to reblog this actually <3
If you haven’t met one of those fake panflets here is how they look, more or less:
