Links: Amazon, Goodreads, Price: £18.99
Art and Authenticity is a collection of essays exploring the ideas of authenticity, originality and replication in art. Across a wide range of periods and contexts it looks at both the empirical process of establishing if a work is “authentic” in the sense that it is correctly attributed, but also how a piece of work can be authentic in terms of creative originality, or if a copy can be authentic or not, as well as how this impacts the art markets and the wider art world.
This is rather brilliant. It takes two central concepts and explores them in two series of six essays. The first is material authenticity, and the detective work via connoisseurship, documentation and scientific process to determine if an artwork is what it is claimed to be. The authors then extend this to explore whether the gatekeeping process of defining something as “authentic” is denying audiences the pleasure of high-quality work, and just how muggy the world of authenticity really is.
The second half explores cultural authenticity: the importance or otherwise of originality, whether and how a display of artwork can be culturally inauthentic whilst materially authentic, and the role and place of copies (as opposed to fakes). The last essay is particularly powerful, highlighting the role of art as cultural diplomacy and the process of “flipping” art after it has gained value through exhibition, finishing with the rather beautiful observation that this creates a “hegemony of inauthenticity.”
This book will change the way you think about how and why you are shown the art that is exhibited to you, what it means for art to be authentic, and sew a seed of doubt that we leave you questioning every piece you see. Which, as far as I’m concerned, is a very good thing indeed! An excellent, educational read.
