MEETING - Wednesday 15 October 2008 : David Phillips: Fine Art Forgery - Craftmanship or conjuring trick?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but every forger knows it can be put there as much by hope and expectation as by the object before us. Playing on the psychology of the viewer, like a conjurer, is much easier than replicating the physical characteristics of old works of art. No wonder careful connoisseurs consider stylistic, technical and archival evidence before making an attribution. In this lecture we review the successes of these approaches, but then we note how often all these varieties of evidence have also been anticipated and manipulated by the forger. The pace and intrigue of art dealing do not always leave scope for considered study. They favour the forger, in a battle of wits that can make the gallery a hall of mirrors like John le Carre's world of espionage.
David Phillips, after reading history at Oxford, became a keeper of art and exhibitions at Nottingham Castle Museum from 1968 to 1982, with a special interest in hands-on activities relating to visual art. He then moved to Manchester University's History of Art Department, teaching museum studies and art history, in particular to postgraduates who wished to qualify for gallery work.
As the University course was very practical,this did not mean he stopped working on projects in museums . He stayed at Manchester University until 1998, wrote a book on authenticity and museums, and since then has been following up a growing interest in aesthetics and the science of perception. He has been thinking about how forgeries succeed and why illusions and puzzles are so widespread in art, and has published some scientific research into optical illusions.
His NADFAS lectures cover a wide range of related topics such as Conservation treatments of paintings; Have you good taste; Painted songs and woven gardens; Perspective, and an intriguing lecture entitled Art, money and status in the age of Turner and Blake. He runs study days on three subjects: Connoisseurs' conundrums; Pictures, Patterns and Puzzles ; and Cash and Creativity.