Authenticity in art
Authenticity in art is manifest in the different ways that a
For the spectator, the listener, and the viewer, the authenticity of experience is an emotion impossible to recapture beyond the first encounter with the work of art in its original setting. In the cases of sculpture and of painting, the contemporary visitor to a museum encounters the work of art displayed in a simulacrum of the original setting for which the artist created the art. To that end, the museum visitor will see a curated presentation of the work of art as an objet d’art, and might not perceive the aesthetic experience inherent to observing the work of art in its original setting — the intent of the artist.[3]
Artistic authenticity is a requirement for the inscription of an artwork to the
Nominal authenticity
Provenance
The authenticity of provenance of an objet d’art is the positive identification of the artist and the place and time of the artwork's origin;[7] thus, art experts determine authenticity of provenance with four tests: (i) verification of the artist's signature on the work of art; (ii) a review of the historical documentation attesting to the history of the artefact; (iii) scientific evidence (x-rays of the canvas, infrared spectroscopy of the paint, dendrochronological analysis of the wood); and (iv) the expert judgement of a connoisseur with a trained eye.[8]
In
Art forgery
Consequent to a critically truncated career, the painter
In the event, to survive the Second World War (1939–1945), van Meegeren dealt forgeries to the
To guard against unwittingly buying a forged work of art, sellers and buyers use a
Forgery as art
Critical interest in a forgery as a work of art is rare;[17] yet, in the essay “The Perfect Fake” (1961), the critic of architecture and art Aline B. Saarinen asked what “If a fake is so expert, that even after the most thorough and trustworthy examination, its authenticity is still open to doubt, is it or is it not as satisfactory a work of art as if it were unequivocally genuine?”[18] In The Act of Creation (1964), Arthur Koestler concurred with Saarinen's proposition of “forgery as an art”, and said that if a forgery fits into the body of work of an artist, and if the forgery produces the same aesthetic pleasure as the authentic artworks, then the forged art should be included to exhibitions of the works of the plagiarised artist.[19]
In the art business, the artistic value of a well-executed forgery is irrelevant to a curator concerned with the authenticity of provenance of the original work of art[20] — especially because formally establishing the provenance of a work of art is a question of possibility and probability, rarely of certainty, unless the artist vouches for the authenticity of the art.[21] Nevertheless, to the arts community, a forgery remains a forgery, regardless of the excellent artistic execution of the forgery, itself; regardless of the artistic talent of the forger; and regardless of critical praise when critics and public believed the forgery was authentic art.[17]
Mechanical reproduction
Relief printing is a form of mechanical reproduction of art; thus (i) an artist created a drawing; (ii) a craftsman used the drawing to create a woodcut block for relief-printing, usually destroying the original artwork when cutting the drawing into the block of wood; and (iii) the woodblock, itself, was discarded when worn-out for relief printing copies of the drawing. From that three-step process for the production of art, the printed copies of the original drawing are the final product of artistic creation, yet there exists no authentic work of art; the artistic copies have no authenticity of provenance.[23]
In the essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1935), Walter Benjamin discussed the then-new visual media of photography and cinematography as machines capable of producing art that can be reproduced many times — yet no one version of the image is the original, artistically authentic image. As visual media that reproduce — but do not create — original images, photography and the cinema shift the concept of artistic authenticity from “art as ritual” to “art as politics” and so make works of art accessible to the mass population, rather than just the aficionado.[24]
A contemporary extension of Benjamin's observations is the perpetual authenticity of the sculpture Sunbather (1971), by the artist Duane Hanson (1925–1996), who gave permission to the conservators of the life-sized sculpture (a woman sunbathing whilst reclining in a chaise longue) to replace parts of the sculpture (cap, swimming suit, towel, etc.) that became faded and worn.[25] Likewise, in light of the artistic production and mechanical reproduction capabilities of computers and the internet, the media artist Julian H. Scaff said that the authenticity of provenance of a digital image (painting, still photograph, cinema frame) cannot be determined, because a digital work of art usually exists in more than one version, and each version is not created, but authored by a different digital artist with a different perspective of what is art.[26]
Authenticity of experience
Authenticity of experience is available only to the spectator who experiences a work of art in the original setting for which the artist created the artefact. In another setting, the authenticity of experience (purpose, time, place) is impossible; thus, in the Western world, the museum display is an approximation (literal, metaphoric) of the original setting for the which the artist created the work of art. Isolated exhibition in a museum diminishes the aesthetic experience of a work of art, although the spectator will see the work of art. Lacking the original context (place, time, purpose ) limits aesthetic appreciation than experience of the work of art in the original setting — where the art and the setting are the aesthetic intent of the artist.
Recognizing that authenticity of experience is unique and cannot be recaptured, the
Cultural authenticity
The authenticity of provenance establishes the material existence of the work of art; the identity of the artist; and when and where the artist created the work of art. Cultural authenticity — genre and artistic style — concerns whether or not a work of art is a genuine expression of artistic tradition. Concern with the cultural authenticity of a work of art usually originates from romanticism about the greater artistic value of artefacts created in “the pure tradition” of the genre; such an idealistic perspective usually derives from nationalism and racism and tribalism, and misunderstandings of aesthetics.[27]
A work of art is authentic when executed in the style, with the materials, and by the production process that are essential attributes of the genre. Cultural authenticity derives from the artistic traditions created by the artists of the ethnic group. A genre artwork is authentic only if created by an artist from the ethnic group; therefore, only the Inuit can create authentic Inuit art. The philosophic and sociologic perspective of the authenticity of expression is what protects artists from the art thefts inherent and consequent to cultural appropriation; nonetheless, in the essay “Race, Ethnicity, Expressive Authenticity: Can White People Sing the Blues?” Joel Rudinow disagreed and defended cultural appropriation, and said that such protectiveness of cultural authenticity is a form of racism.[28]
The art business
In the West, the market for “
The 19th-century business model of artistic production remains the contemporary practise in selling authentic objets d’art to Western collectors and aficionados. Usually, the artefacts are designed and modified to give the impression of possessing popular attributes and authentic provenance, such as religious-ritual use, antiquity, and association with aristocracy and royalty.[30] In the 20th century, during the 1940s, Haitian artists created commercial reproductions of “voodoo images” provided to them by foreign businessmen, to sell as “authentic voodoo art.” To the Haitian artists, the foreign representations of Haitian artistic culture, which they were paid to make, demonstrated the art-theft inherent to cultural appropriation and how White foreigners truly saw Haitian Vodou art as a commercial commodity, and not as religious art.[31]
Deities and souvenirs
To distinguish a work of art from a crude artefact made for tourists, art collectors consider an artwork to be artistically authentic when it meets recognised standards of artistic production (design, materials, manufacture) for an original purpose. In the Philippine Islands, throughout their history, the Igorot people have used carved-wood bulul figurines to guard the rice crop; the bulul is a highly stylized representation of an ancestor that gains power from the presence of an ancestral spirit.[32]
Although still used in traditional ceremonies, the Igorot people now produce souvenir bulul figurines for tourists; a secondary purpose that does not devalue the bulul as art. Within the culture, an Igorot family might use a souvenir bulul as suitable and acceptable for traditional ceremonies — thereby granting the souvenir bulul an artistic and cultural authenticity otherwise absent.[2] From that perspective, “tribal masks and sculptures” actually used in religious ceremonies have greater commodity value, especially if authenticity of provenance determines that a native artist created the artefact by using traditional designs, materials, and production techniques. Such Western over-valuation of native art is predicated by the artefact being an authentic example of a tradition or style of art practised by a primitive people.[33]
Invented traditions
The artistic evolution of the
Expressive authenticity
Authenticity of expression derives from the work of art possessing the original and inherent authority of the artist's intent, that the work is an original product of aesthetic expression. In musical performance, authenticity of expression can conflict with authenticity of performance when the performance of the musician or the singer is true to his or her artistry, and is not an imitation of another artist.[2] The greater popularity of the performer, rather than of the composer of the song and the music, is an historically recent development that reflects the public's greater interest in the expressive authenticity of charismatic musicians who possess a distinctive artistic style.[35]
In the fields of art and of aesthetics, the term expressive authenticity derives from the psychological term
Expressive authenticity derives from the artist's authenticity of style and tradition, thus an outsider's appropriation of voice is disallowed because the cultural group already have native artists producing authentic art.
Authenticity of performance
In the theatre and in music, the performers (actors, actresses, musicians) are responsible for realising a performance of the respective work of art, a
Authenticity in Crypto art
The genre of crypto art became feasible with blockchain networks of computers (e.g. Bitcoin), cybernetic technology that allows crypto artists to create digital art for sale and for collection.[41] Artists, such as Mike Winkelmann (aka Beeple), use blockchain technology to authenticate a work of art and establish provenance with a digital file permanently linked to the crypto artist who produced the artefact;[42] however, the blockchain technology also allows crypto artists to work anonymously.[43][44] The cybernetic authentication of Non-fungible tokens (NFT) allows collecting works of art that resist forgery, because the provenance of a work of art usually is private information unavailable for public examination.[45][46]
See also
- Fine art authentication
- Appropriation (art)
- Authentication
- Authenticity (philosophy)
- Auteur theory
- False document
- Folklore
- Forgery
- Plagiarism
- Selling out
- Stuckism
- Tradition
References
- ^ Davies, Higgins & Hopkins 2009, p. 156.
- ^ a b c d e f Dutton 2003, pp. 258ff.
- ^ a b Phillips 1997, pp. 1–4.
- ^ UNESCO 2011, pp. 21f.
- ^ Larsen 1995.
- ^ Larsen 1994.
- ^ Potter 2010, p. 78.
- ^ Potter 2010, p. 86.
- ^ Potter 2010, p. 9.
- ^ Abbing 2002, p. 110.
- ^ Potter 2010, p. 85.
- ^ Potter 2010, p. 87.
- ^ "Authentication in Art".
- ^ Fleming 1975, p. 567.
- ^ Charney, Noah (15 November 2017). "Christie's da Vinci Auction Reveals Why Forgers Love to Fake Masters". Observer. Retrieved 2017-11-16.
- ^ McAndrew 2010, p. 56.
- ^ a b Schefold 2002.
- ^ Goodman 1976, p. 99.
- ^ Koestler 1964, pp. 400ff.
- ^ Goodman 1976, p. 119.
- ^ McGowan 2000, p. 230.
- ^ Macey 2010.
- ^ Hind 1935, pp. 88ff.
- ^ Benjamin 1936.
- ^ Spencer 2004, p. 129.
- ^ Scaff.
- ^ Bendix 1997, pp. 6ff.
- ^ Coleman 2005, pp. 31ff.
- ^ Scharfstein 2009, pp. 99–100.
- ^ Carrier 2005, p. 281.
- ^ Richman 2008, p. 203.
- ^ Dyrness, Kärkkäinen & Martinez 2008, p. 64.
- ^ van der Grijp 2009, p. 317.
- ^ Price 2007.
- ^ Abbing 2002, p. 173.
- ^ Wood et al.
- ^ Crowell 2010.
- ^ Potter 2010, pp. 79ff.
- ^ Rose 1994, pp. 39–40.
- ^ McLeod 1999.
- ^ "How Blockchain Technology Reached Christie's and Changed the Art World Along the Way". NBC News. Retrieved 2021-05-25.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-05-25.
- ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-05-25.
- ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-05-25.
- ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-05-25.
- ^ Contributors, Publisher Guest. "How Non-Fungible Tokens are Revolutionizing the Art World". www.nasdaq.com. Retrieved 2021-05-25.
{{cite web}}
:|last=
has generic name (help)
Sources
- Abbing, Hans (2002). Why are artists poor?: the exceptional economy of the arts. Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 90-5356-565-5.
- Baaz, Maria Eriksson; Palmberg, Mai (2001). "Questioning 'Authenticity': The Case of Contemporary Zimbabwean Stone Sculpture". Same and other: negotiating African identity in cultural production. Nordic Africa Institute. ISBN 91-7106-477-X.
- ISBN 0-299-15540-4.
- Benjamin, Walter (1936). "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction".
- Carrier, James G. (2005). A handbook of economic anthropology. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 1-84376-175-0.
- Coleman, Elizabeth Burns (2005). Aboriginal art, identity and appropriation. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 0-7546-4403-0.
- Crowell, Steven (2010). "Existentialism". In Edward N. Zalta (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2010 Edition).
- Davies, Stephen; Higgins, Kathleen Marie; Hopkins, Robert (2009). "authenticity and art". A Companion to Aesthetics. John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 978-1-4051-6922-6.
- Dyrness, William A.; Kärkkäinen, Veli-Matti; Martinez, Juan Francisco (2008). Global Dictionary of Theology: A Resource for the Worldwide Church. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-0-8308-2454-0.
- ISBN 978-0-19-927945-6.
- Fleming, Stuart (4 December 1975). "Science detects the forgeries". New Scientist. Retrieved 2011-04-02.
- ISBN 978-0-915144-34-1.
- Hind, Arthur Mayger (1935). An introduction to a history of woodcut: with a detailed survey of work done in the fifteenth century, Volume 1. Constable and Company, ltd.
- ISBN 0-14-019191-7.
- Larsen, Knut Einar, ed. (1995). Nara Conference on Authenticity, Japan 1994: Proceedings. ISBN 82-519-1416-7.
- Larsen, Knut Einar; Marstein, Nils, eds. (1994). Conference on Authenticity in Relation to the World Heritage Convention, Preparatory Workshop, Bergen, Norway, 31 January - 2 February 1994. ISBN 82-519-1445-0.
- Macey, Patrick, Jeremy Noble, Jeffrey Dean, and Gustave Reese (2010). Dean Roote (ed.). Josquin des Prez. Grove Music Online. Retrieved 2010-10-29.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - McAndrew, Clare (2010). Fine Art and High Finance: Expert Advice on the Economics of Ownership. Bloomberg Press. ISBN 978-1-57660-333-8.
- McGowan, Kate (2000). The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory Volume 7: 1997. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-21930-7.
- doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.1999.tb02821.x. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2009-03-18.
- Phillips, David (1997). Exhibiting authenticity. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-4797-8.
- ISBN 978-0-7710-7105-8.
- doi:10.1525/ae.2007.34.4.603. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2011-10-05. Retrieved 2011-04-02.
- Richman, Karen E. (Spring 2008). "Innocent Imitations? Authenticity and Mimesis in Haitian Vodou Art, Tourism, and Anthropology". Ethnohistory. 55 (2): 203–227. .
- Rose, Tricia (1994). Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Middletown, CT: ISBN 0-8195-6275-0.
- Scaff, Julian H. "Art and Authenticity in the age of Digital Reproduction". Digital Arts Institute. Archived from the original on 2011-07-24. Retrieved 2011-03-31.
- Scharfstein, Ben-Ami (2009). Art without borders: a philosophical exploration of art and humanity. University of Chicago Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-226-73609-9.
- .
- Spencer, Ronald D. (2004). The expert versus the object: judging fakes and false attributions in the visual arts. Oxford University Press US. ISBN 0-19-514735-9.
- Sorce Keller, Marcello (2012). What Makes Music European - Looking Beyond Sound. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., Lanham, Maryland, US. ISBN 978-0-8108-7671-2.
- UNESCO (2011). "Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention" (PDF). UNESCO. Retrieved 2012-02-14.
- van der Grijp, Paul (2009). Art and exoticism: an anthropology of the yearning for authenticity. LIT Verlag Münster. ISBN 978-3-8258-1667-4.
- Wood, A. M.; Linley, P. A.; Maltby, J.; Baliousis, M.; Joseph, S. (2008). "The authentic personality: A theoretical and empirical conceptualization, and the development of the Authenticity Scale" (PDF). Journal of Counseling Psychology. 55 (3): 385–399. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.55.3.385. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2011-03-31.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-674-80861-4.
- ISBN 0-88738-226-6.
- ISBN 978-0-226-24950-6.