We all know that art forgeries are just cheap rip-offs of real art. What Jonathan Keats’ new book presupposes is, maybe they’re not?
Forgers are the foremost artists of our age.
I'm not talking about the objects they make. Their real art is to con us into accepting the works as authentic. They do so, inevitably, by finding our blind spots, and by exploiting our common-sense assumptions. When they're caught (if they're caught), the scandal that ensues is their accidental masterpiece. Learning that we've been defrauded makes us anxious -- much more so than any painting ever could -- provoking us to examine our poor judgment. This effect is inescapable, since we certainly didn't ask to be duped. A forgery is more direct, more powerful, and more universal than any legitimate artwork.
Note, too, his answer to the question, “But isn’t forgery like plagiarism?”
Technically speaking, it’s the opposite. (Plagiarists take credit for other people’s work, whereas forgers attribute their own work to others.)
Which is almost exactly what Andrew Potter says in The Authenticity Hoax:
Plagiarism is the flip side of forgery: forgers pass off their own work as that of someone else, while plagiarists pass off the work of others as their own.
Filed under: forgery
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