i came across eric doeringer’s bootlegs again today and much to my own despair find i can’t help but mention it here. i’m somewhat conflicted because i see little point generally in drawing attention to something i don’t like, or for that matter, saying something at all when i’ve got nothing nice to say. but here i am, posting about it anyway. i’ll rationalize it by saying that indirectly “bootlegs” lead me to some things i’d wanted to post for a while anyway. the fact remains though i feel compelled to reason out the impetus, however unpleasant doing so might be for all of us.

seeing this bootlegs project again left me feeling the same as it did when i came upon it the first time, vaguely annoyed. for those of you unfamiliar artist eric doeringer creates small copies of artworks from established contemporary artists which he then sells, stolen book / knocked off handbag style, at a table on the street. though the magazines which have through the years picked up the story will lead you to believe it is about “questioning the relevance of originality and authorship in contemporary art” or some such intellectual commentary on the state of whatever, i can’t help but disagree. i don’t see any coherent statement in the bootlegs at all. they urk the hell out of me to be honest.

now i’m not out to critique or flame eric, not at all, i simply have a hard time understanding what his motives for doing this project are. what the personal rewards might be. that’s what urks me. possibilities which spring to mind are money or recognition as an artist.

people undoubtedly buy the bootlegs, that’s plain enough. they are cheap. unlike knocked off handbags which if not really fooling logo hungry customers as to their authenticity still have their relatively convincing mimicry as a central selling point, the bootlegs are clearly not originals, don’t claim to be, are stacked in multiples, which places them squarely in the “reproductions” category. so why not walk into a museum store and buy a poster which is even cheaper? because of the inherent novelty and nudge-nudge-wink-wink of course. does he earn enough on these bootlegs to assume money is the central motivation for creating the work? i doubt it. after all he needs to buy those pre-stretched canvases, ink for his printer, paint, and gel medium. all the works are not reproductions of paintings either so add to that the price of video tapes, and packaging… it all adds up. obviously eric is not “in it for the money” the way hardcore bootleggers are. though i’m sure he’s pleasantly surprised at the sales. if any conclusion can be drawn from said sales i’d have to say it would be a disheartening one. if i were eric every sale would be a source of annoyance for me. what does it say about the consumers view of art? or the art intelligentsia’s? but then again, maybe eric and his buyers just have a better sense of humor about it than i do.

as for the “recognition as an artist” motive, this does not seem a real possibility. “attention” certainly, but recognition?  i say this because eric has other work, all of a conceptual bent, much of it aimed at consumer culture, but original work none the less (smoke filtration systems, toys, etc, some of which is interesting.) so how do poor quality reproductions shilled outside of art shrines help to shine a light on him as an artist in his own right? i have no idea. is it a case of any publicity is good publicity? does this visibility open doors? perhaps. but i just don’t buy it as any form whatsoever of heady “message art”. as a stunt? a joke? a jab? sure. but then who has energy to devote years to that kind of thing? and in the end who wants to be identified as a joker other than a comedian? warhol? duchamp? koons? yeah, i guess, but they hoodwinked the world, and if art-folk see bootlegs as a “statement” then, well, i guess the tradition of hoodwinking is a long and rich one. so keep on keepin’ on.

anyhow, as stated, i was conflicted about posting eric’s stuff at all. on the one hand it bugs me, on the other i tend to be pretty humorless when it comes to the state of contemporary art, and certainly don’t see any reason to take stabs at other young working artists. after all, eric is doing a lot of work. he’s doing his thing. i may think it’s silly, but what the hell do i know? maybe the fact i was compelled to reason it out at all is proof that he’s onto something? i guess i just don’t get it. i kept thinking, “hey, there’s a way to re-create another artists work that proves your chops by showing serious skill, proves your cleverness by the necessity of cunning, and simultaneously can bring in big money.” which leads me, as hinted at, to what i’ve always meant to post on: art forgery. now that’s a statement! a great big law-breaking, intelligentsia-hoodwinking, fuck you.

art forgery is fascinating to me, not least of all because i can’t imagine there is a greater thorn in the art experts’, historians’, and critics’ collective sides. Abraham Bredius’ (one of the world’s most “preëminent art experts” of the early 20th century) now infamous quote upon first seeing a newly discovered vermeer i think says it all: “What we have here is a- I am inclined to say

the

masterpiece of Johannes Vermeer.” except of course it was not a vermeer at all but a forgery. hahahaha, oh i love it.

on the general “fuck you” side of forgery there is a great story about a guy named Paul Jordan Smith who, annoyed at the state of modern art in 1924, painted an image of “a South Seas islander holding a banana over her head.” he created the persona of russian artist pavel jerdanowitch, founder of the phoney “Disumbrationist School of Art” took a silly, brooding, photograph of himself as pavel, and submitted the whole concoction into an art exhibition as a joke. the museum of hoaxes has images and tells the whole story. “He titled his painting ‘Exaltation’ and made up something about how it represented the shattering of the bonds of womanhood. He said the woman had just taken a bite of a banana and was waving the banana skin over her head in triumphant freedom.” needless to say the painting, made totally out of spite, was praised. he went on to create more annoyance fueled works as pavel jerdanowitch, all of which were praised, until he got sick of it all and outed himself in the los angeles times, simultaneously delivering “a lecture about the declining standards of taste in the artistic community.” fucking beautiful.

on the profiteering side of forgery there is a long history which i won’t even attempt to write about. there are some great sites out there though that delve into the whole messy business in great detail.

the best resource by far is mystudios.com’s history of art forgry. includes general information as well as specifics on particularly prolific forgers. many images. very interesting stuff. the site also includes a section devoted to forger han van meegeren who created the vermeer mentioned previously. it’s a fascinating story. he avoided prosecution as a nazi sympathizer by admitting he was a forger at which point he proceeded to paint, in front of six court witnesses and a police guard a huge forgery “young christ” in the style of vermeer. a shorter piece on forgery and the x-ray can also be found here.

an alternate telling of the van meegeren vermeer tale with information on his technique and his detection.

some info from a historical perspective beginning with the renaissance and moving into the “internet age”

a nice piece online from the Encyclopedia of Hoaxes title art hoaxes by dennis dutton.

the museum security network has a huge list of names (part 1, part 2) which might warrant further inquiry if your interested in th esubject. they offer many links but most are out of date.

the story of ely sakhai an art dealer who “had allegedly been running one of the most audacious forgery scams ever.” some of the works in question can be seen at the f.b.i. art crimes site here

long interesting piece- authentication: science & art at odds?

wired story from a while back about software meant to detect forgeries.

and finally for the book lovers-

art theft and forgery investigation the complete field manual and Bible!

joslin hall, rare book dealers’ whole bookcase of forgery related books for perusal. shelves one, two, and three.

enjoy all that and… well, and nothing.