Chinese Art AND Forgery
Chinese Expert's Advice to Chinese Art Collectors:
High quality Chinese paintings, undertaken by elite artists using authentic, original materials, were always considered a valid form of artistic expression in traditional times. This veneration of past models and the excellence of Chinese traditional painting technique help explain why so many of the best museum collections now are devoted to the collection of fine earlier works, usually marked explicitly as "copy of" or "after" the original. Some of the most famous artists of the past century were particularly well known for their excellence in mastering paintings in the style of old masters. Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), for example, perfected many techniques of traditional Chinese painting and was especially known for his masterpieces in the style of Bada Shanren (active 1659-1705). Therefore, do not be intimidated by the word of "reproduction" but pay attention to the quality of the painting. If the new classical Chinese painting is signed by a contemporary hand, it is not a forgery but a painting in the style of old masters. If you love the new art, then grab it before it is gone.
Related Topics:
Reproduction is A Method of Conservation
A Little History
Over the history of Chinese art, reproduction of famous classical Chinese paintings was never associated with forgery. Beginning as early as the Tang dynasty (618-907), emperors commissioned the best artists to copy old masterpieces in order to preserve national treasures and protect the cultural patrimony from natural decay. Court artists were appointed to make faithful duplicates of original works held in the imperial collections. For example, Li Gonglin (ca. 1041-1106) of the Song Dynasty was commissioned by the emperor to reproduce Wei Yan Shepherding, a painting from the Tang dynasty (617-907). Like other artist copyists of renown, Li Gonglin describes the emperor's request and his motivation for copying the painting in his inscription, which draws attention to the pride he took in completing a reproduction of the original.
Forgery, on the other hand, is an attempt to hide the copyist's role and proclaim that the later copy is the same as the original. Recently high quality forgeries have made their appearance in auction houses and museums, sowing confusion and consternation among collectors and curators. Some regions were historically known for cheap forgeries. Suzhou, for example, had many skilled craftsmen working on the paintings of Zhao Mengfu (1254-1322) and Wu Zhen (1280-1354), and falsely attributed versions of Shen Zhou's (1427-1509) works were easily purchased in Suzhou. This kind of commercialization and attempt to deceive the viewer stand at the opposite end of the spectrum from reproduction.
China is the world capital of art forgery. Forgery is hardly new in the art world, but bogus pieces, including furniture, sculpture and painting, constitute as much as 80% of the value of goods for sale in Hong Kong, according to a recent report.
Even the best museums have recent forgeries in their collections. For example, The provenance of some Chinese paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has recently been challenged. The most disturbing case concerns the authenticity of Riverbank, originally thought to be a 1,000 year-old scroll. Many scholars credit it instead to Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), one of the greatest artists of the 20th century in China. The authenticity of the painting remains unsettled.
Famous Chinese Artist Wu Guanzhong Accused a Beijing Auction House of Selling Forgeries of His Paintings (Xinhua News, Sept. 8, 2006). An auction, which was scheduled to open on Sept. 17, 2006 in Beijing, was cancelled because artist Wu Guanzhong testified that none of the paintings for sale is of his own hand.
