Intent to Deceive – Fakes and Forgeries in the Art World

Art fraud is one of the most serious challenges facing museums today in their stewardship of our cultural heritage. It is, therefore, critical to go “behind the scenes” and examine how these daring forgers used artful methodology to fool—at least initially—the experts, art dealers, and institutions who validated and collected their work. Han van Meegeren, Elmyr de Hory, Eric Hebborn, John Myatt and Mark Landis were all unable to make a career based on acceptance of their own artistic style. They found fakery, the exact duplication of an original work of art, and forgery, the creation and selling of a work of art which is falsely credited to another, to be their most accessible avenue to recognition and commercial success.

IA&A Design Studio created an interactive, online catalogue for the exhibition. Given the ongoing nature of forgery, an evolving online catalogue best illustrates the continuing deceit and beguilement entangled within the art world

Project Details


Client

IA&A Traveling Exhibition Service

2015

Designers
Simon Fong

Exhibition Photos

The forgers in this exhibition imitated the works of many notable American and European artists such as Charles Courtney Curran, Honoré Daumier, Philip de László, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Paul Signac and Maurice de Vlaminck, among others, whose original works of art are featured in the exhibition as comparisons.

Print Collateral

We also designed an educational packet, exhibition graphics and promotional material to supplement the exhibition.

More Work

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